Sharing Negative Outcome News
In some cases it makes sense to set funds aside for smaller awards to runners-up, especially if the invitation pool is large and it is unclear how many will actually apply. A small planning grant may encourage applicants to continue working on their projects and to come back with improved proposals in later rounds. Only offer this if this is the grantmakers' intention and only to the potential grantees you actually believe this could help - otherwise, you just offer false hope. It is generally a good idea to send an explanatory letter or phone call to those who are not funded, before issuing any official announcement of the grantees. Applicants are usually interested in hearing why their applications were not funded, and grantmakers sometimes provide a synopsis of the advisers’ comments without attributing them to individual advisers.
Takeaways are critical, bite-sized resources either excerpted from our guides or written by Candid Learning for Funders using the guide's research data or themes post-publication. Attribution is given if the takeaway is a quotation.
This takeaway was derived from Using Competitions & RFPs.
