Protect Your Odds of Winning By Sharing the Potential Pain of Rejection with the Funder

One of the subtle themes I use to make my grant writing more compelling is that I remind the grant funder that their rejection of the grant will have measurable consequences for the charity. In other words, I like to suggest that the charity's rainy day might also be the funder's rainy day.

After Heavy Rain in California 3 - Remix!

I am not above leaning on their guilt to help motivate a positive decision. By the time I am done with a grant proposal, the charity may be as compelling as a target of generosity as the homeless family begging for change in front of your neighborhood Costco store.

I am not above sending a message to the funder that their rejection of the grant will hurt our feelings.

To be sure, the funder knows that its rejection will hurt your feelings. The trick, however, is to make this natural pain so real that they could never see themselves as saying no to your grant. This trick only works if you know for sure that you have met the funders eligibility requirements. Otherwise, it is too easy for the funder to hid behind its own regulations and insist that your request failed to overcome their necessary bureaucratic boundary conditions. By making your application perfectly compliant, you are building their sense of guilt if they reject your application.

Following my logic, there are a number of interesting ways to make your grant more painful for them to reject. One is to play up and highlight previous gifts you have gotten from the funder. Another trick is to raise their costs of rejection by reminding them of any personal contacts your charity has with their board members or staff. Consistent with these ideas, I have also found it pays to tell a story about an individual client who will be helped by the charity. I like to write this story in such a manner that it will be clear that this client will be among the very first to hear, yes or no, about whether or not the funder approved of the grant proposal. In other words, I want to make it clear that the vulnerable client will never forgive the funder for failing to support the grant request. 

Likewise, I try to remind the funder that their rejection of the grant proposal will not only disappoint the clients, but also the charity's staff, board members, and community partners - including other funders. The idea is to bring the funder face-to-face with the enormous consequences of their decision so that they do not take a rejection lightly and so that they have every opportunity to be the hero that makes the project possible.