Overcoming Rejection Letters from Your Proposal

The tension was high and tempers were agitated. The clock was typically uncooperative as it warned us that the hands of time were waving good bye. Good bye to the opportunity to get $450,000 in grant funds to run our program. We knew that if we did not assemble our proposal package and send it off in the next few minutes that all of our efforts would have been wasted.

There had been three of us scrambling to complete our $450,000 document. Our newfound friend who convinced us to apply for the grant in the first place was working feverishly with my husband and me. I was determined that this grant proposal was going to arrive on time and in tact if I had to drive to the airport and personally book it on a FedX flight. I had not heard of doing that before, but I was desperate. My mind was swirling with frantic concoctions to ensure that our proposal was submitted on time.

My husband and I were busily making some order of the 45 page grant proposal document that required five copies with one original. We were not exactly sure what that meant so we simply made all of the copies alike. We decided that it would be safest for us to make each copy as complete as an original. That way the readers will not have to search for which one was the original.

We tried to make our proposal easy to read and preferable to receive an award. I had a table of contents with nice page numbers. I even included attractive tables and shaded headings to make each category stand out. Our friend, who used to work for the Department of Health and Human Services, helped us to develop our ideas for our first government grant proposal. She had given us many specifics to consider that I would not have included without her. I was so impressed with our proposal that I was already planning how to spend the money.

Finally after months of waiting, I had gotten the notice that we had been waiting to receive. But the contents did not read as I had expected. Everything else around me went fuzzy as I began reading, “Thank you for submitting your proposal. However”…blah blah blah and so forth.

I could hardly believe what I was reading. We had done all of that work for weeks only to get a “thanks, but no thanks” letter from the government. They must not have known how much work went into putting that entire document together. They could not possibly imagine how this whole ordeal sucked up weeks of our lives from our family and friends. Whoever signed the letter had to be totally oblivious to all of the research, office supplies, travel and postage that went into our efforts to submit a quality package.

Tears of disappointment formed in my eyes as I read and re-read the rejection letter. I even checked to see if the letter and envelope were really addressed to us. It could have been delivered to us by mistake. As I re-examined the entire document, I realized that there were comments from readers that actually explained why our proposal was rejected.

I later learned that the rejection letters would add to my foundation for learning how to develop a winning grant proposal. Many people are discouraged by the rejection letters. But once the injury to pride and disappointment melts, it is time to get down to business and scrutinize the comments and reasons given. Plan to turn that “No” into a “Yes” or at least a “Close, but Not Yet”

The Lesson here is to learn how to use rejection notices to make your proposals better. Remember that when you ask “why not”, to make sure that you understand the answers. You may be surprised to find that the donors actually want to give you the funds to help make the world a better place.