Half of a Check

You are sorting the day’s mail when you come across an envelope from the XYZ foundation that you sent a proposal to three months ago. You had already wondered twice this week when you would hear back from them. You eagerly rip open the envelope, and unfold the creased three-page letter. Great news-your organization has been awarded the grant! In the amount of… Hey, wait a minute. This is only for half the amount that we asked for. What is going on? What are we supposed to do with half the money-give half of a meal or half of a winter coat to our clients?

Why would they do this you might ask? The fact is that many times foundations and other funding agencies do not award all of the grant funds that you need for a project. The hard truth is that you need to submit grant applications to more than one funder for the same project.

Funders are not out to shake your world up. Typically, they have several focus areas (such as education or youth development) that they are trying to promote change in as well as funding multiple organizations. I read recently that many foundations can only fund approximately 5-10% of the grant requests that they receive. One way of helping more people is giving yours and other organizations a lesser amount than requested. Funders expect you to work collaboratively with other organizations including other funders. The more community support that an organization has, the more stable they will appear. The old saying “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” applies to both funders and the organizations they support. You want more than one donor for your project.

Even though it might not feel like it at the time, getting less funding than you asked for is really a great opportunity to create a relationship with a new funder or build on an existing relationship with a current funder.