you can expect to hear whether you are awarded a grant if
this information is not already specified on their website
or in their guidelines. If you do this, keep your email
or call very short. Don’t try to give a pitch at this time
or have a long conversation. The program officer will
appreciate it if your message is brief and to the point.
in an application – if your submission is incomplete,
some foundations might reject it without review or
reject it in favor of another applicant who followed the
instructions exactly.
Program officers recommend their top applicants
for review by their board of directors; sometimes the
program officer loves your organization, but the board
turns the grant down. There are lots of reasons why
organizations are denied grants, many of them have very
little to do with the quality of its work.
It is best to apply early if you’d like to get a timely
response to this request. The foundation may get
hundreds of applications right at the deadline, making it
next to impossible for them to get back to you right away.
In fact, some foundations state in their guidelines that
they will not confirm receipt and that you will only hear
from them if they decide to award you a grant.
When you receive a rejection letter or email, it may or
may not say why you were rejected. Read the message
carefully to see. If the letter states that your organization
does not match the funder’s guidelines, then you should
remove the foundation from your prospect list. Don’t
waste time applying again to a foundation whose interests
do not align with your work.
Make a note on your calendar when you expect to hear
back from the foundation. Then, sit back and wait.
Don’t call or write the program officer or the foundation
during the review period unless s/he contacts you to ask
questions or get additional information. In that case, be
sure to provide complete answers as promptly as possible.
Too much contact can backfire: if the program officer
feels that you are harassing him/her or wasting a lot of
his/her time, it can affect your chances of being funded.
If you hear “no” very shortly after you apply, this usually
means that your application was incomplete or that
your organization does not qualify for a grant because it
doesn’t meet the funder’s guidelines.
If the letter doesn’t include a reason why you were
rejected, or the message indicates that the foundation
likes your work and invites you to apply again in future,
get in touch with the program officer. Write a short
email or letter to thank him/her for considering your
application and ask whether he/she is willing to give you
some feedback on why you were rejected and how to
improve your proposal for the next time. Some program
officers are willing to give you advice, while others are
not. It’s worth a try. But make sure your message is short,
polite, and respectful. If you don’t hear back, try again,
but don’t badger the program officer – some foundations
receive so many applications that their staff aren’t able to
handle these requests.
If you do not receive a decision by the notification/grant
awarded deadline, then email the program officer a short
message asking about the status of your proposal. Be
sure to include the name of your organization, title of
the application (and application number if there is one),
and the amount of the