Learning from rejection: How to salvage a declined grant proposal
Hearing “no” from a prospective funder after spending hours on your application can sting.
It might make you wonder if you’ve just wasted time and money.
It might make you question your entire strategy.
It might make you want to cut your losses and just give up.
But here’s the thing: Rejection is a guaranteed part of the grants game.
Anyone who’s written more than a few grants knows this.
Successfully winning grants doesn't happen overnight. Especially if you’re new to grant seeking, there's some groundwork to lay.
You need to learn what works with your funders. You need to test your assumptions. You need to get past your fear of rejection. All of this will make you a better writer (or a better leader who works with writers).
So, if you can learn to look at rejection the right way, it can actually be a crucial component of your strategy itself.
Here's why rejection isn't the end of the world:
A rejection may actually move you closer to an award in the future. Applying to the same funder several times over the years may increase your chances of receiving an award. That means your first or second “no” might be moving you closer to that eventual “yes.”
You can repurpose your written content. Writing a grant proposal helps you put your ideas into clear, persuasive language, develop a plan, and better understand your organization’s own needs and goals. Assuming the proposal was well-written, it can be repurposed (and improved upon) for future proposals, your website copy, brochures, or other organizational materials.
A rejection can help you narrow in on and refine your strategy. A rejection might indicate that the funder simply isn’t a good fit for your organization or specific funding need. If you notice you’re getting a lot of rejections from a certain type of funder, for example, you can use this data to refine your strategy to optimize your resources moving forward. Rejections give you valuable data to improve your strategy over time.
It can be a conversation starter. Turn your setback into an opportunity to learn what you could have done better. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback and continue to build a relationship with that funder. It could blossom into a funding partnership in the future. Or, that funder could refer you to other funders that are a better fit. If you follow up after a rejection, you can learn valuable insight on how to improve your request – you might also just learn that the funder was overwhelmed with quality proposals this year and that you don’t need to take a rejection so personally.
