Digisign Grant Proposal Template Made Easy

Digi sign financial funding proposal template

good afternoon my name is Jeremy covery Marketing Coordinator for charity net in church net USA today we are speaking about grant writing and grant development for nonprofits our facilitator or key speaker today is our director of nonprofit services melanie swift Melanie Swift is experienced in all aspects of nonprofit administration and mission focused management including grant writing resource development volunteer recruitment and retention strategic planning and IRS tax law compliance for both public and private nonprofit organizations melody received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology with a minor in criminal justice as well as a Master of Arts and nonprofit management both from the University of Central Florida participants please remember that we will ask four questions at the end of the webinar but you are more than welcome to post them throughout and the webinar link will be set to participants afterwards thank you and here is Melanie Swift good afternoon everyone and thank you for taking time out of your day today to spend a little time with me talking about grant development for your nonprofit organization so as Jared had already said feel free to enter questions into your question box and in time you think of them throughout the presentation and at the end I'll go over as many as I can if you think of questions later I will be sharing my contact info with you at the end of the presentation today so if you can feel free to reach out and shoot me an email with questions that may come to you after the fact all right on our agenda for this afternoon we are going to talk just about grant funding in general kind of an overview of what grant funding is will discuss how to appropriately identify projects that are good candidates to be funded with grant funding how to further develop your ideas and then obviously we'll talk about the important part the meat and potatoes the proposal basic outline of a Foundation grant proposal the contents that are commonly included and how to identify funders to which you can submit grant proposals and applications so in the public and nonprofit sectors foundation and government grant funding is a very large source of operational revenue for many organizations but knowing the steps involved is really essential for those working within your organization's development department eloquent writing skills including exceptional spelling and grammar and the ability to follow directions are essential now grant writing tends to be something that many of our clients kind of jump to because the money in grants can be big while there are small funders out there that may give away smaller grants each year typically when those in the nonprofit sector think about grant funding they're thinking about you know a major line item on the income side of their budget but it's important to realize that you have to be prepared to undertake a grant writing campaign not only do you have to understand how the process of grant writing works how to appropriately identify which funders you're going to submit request to what you should should not include in your proposal or application that's all important but it's also important to know when you're ready and that's something that I spend a lot of time with my clients on is the you know preparation for undertaking a grant campaign there's kind of you know steps involved in the lifecycle of a non-profit and so if you're newly formed and you just got your 501c3 in place you're probably not ready yet to go out and see grant funding there are some other things other stepping stones if you will that you need to take care of in between but we'll talk a little more about that later in general for those who ready and proceeding with the process of undertaking a grant campaign the processes and general going to include identifying the projects that your organization feels that it can successfully undertake matching that project with the giving guidelines or funding priorities of organizations that do distribute grant funding communicating with this organization what your plans are what funding is needed how you're going to report to them and as you know building and establishing the framework of that relationship and then finally implementing the project and once the project is implemented then you will going to have to communicate and report back to your funders to show them how you achieved the outcomes that you had promised them that you would do with their funding if you will so when you begin to identify projects in order to seek grant funding your organization should always kind of on an ongoing basis throughout the lifecycle of your charity is you know think about what are the unmet needs in our community that we're positioned to meet you want to have some statistical evidence to show that that need really exists not something that you just have a hunch about or that you feel like needs to be addressed but something that you've put enough thought and research into that you can clearly demonstrate how you know that it's a need and you know to what extent the need actually exists so you want to have some solid data from reputable sources that are available so that you can document this need and then you always want to think about is the project within the mission of your organization and this is an area that I commonly find organizations kind of going after the money instead of after the mission and what I mean by that is you know oftentimes there are different types of causes that become you know hot point issues or that become the popular cause at any given period of time whether it be breast cancer or childhood obesity you know different things that kind of come into the limelight and a lot of funding opportunities will open up for those types of causes in addition government funding agencies typically will make funding available based on needs that they have identified in specific communities and they'll publish notices to the public that funding is available to support programs that address that need and a mistake that I see nonprofits commonly making is that they hear about this funding availability um and it may not be a program that they really are already doing that they have the resources to do or bet even falls within what their mission and approved exempt purposes but they want to develop a completely new program initiative or change their mission in order to go after the money that's available and that's kind of like the opposite of the way that grant campaigns should be undertaken your organization should have a very solid mission in place have a strategic plan for how it is going to address its mission alleviate whatever condition exists in the community that the organization was established and approved to address and then seek out funding that meets their mission not try and change your mission to follow the funding you also want to always think about what is a reasonable scope for the project so that is where you really kind of have to look internally and decide how much of the need that exists are we able to handle you know there may be a very very large community need that you've identified and it falls within your mission and your approved purposes are to alleviate this specific condition or you know address the specific cause but every organization has to know their own limitations and know you know what outcome they are able to successfully create because if you try and over achieve and go outside of the scope of what is realistic for your organization to accomplish then you're not going to achieve the outcomes that you anticipate and likely that's not going to make the funders that gave you money for that very happy and it could eliminate your ability to receive funding from those funders again and it's always good to try and keep the funders that you already have because you don't have to develop new relationships with new potential funders so when you're developing your projects it's very important that you develop them with a you know a size and scope and budget that's reasonable for your organization you have to think a little further about the details once you decide kind of in general what project is that you would like to seek funding to undertake you know and how that really relates to the needs in your community in the mission of your organization then you have to really put some brainstorming into the specifics unlike when you apply for your 501c3 and you're providing the IRS with kind of a general narrative that describes projected plans of what your activities will include when it comes down to developing a grant proposal you're kind of married to what you put in that proposal it's a commitment you're making to the funders that you present it to that's how you're going to implement your project and those are the outcomes that you're planning to achieve and this is exactly how you're planning to spend the money they give so you really want to get together with your board and your key employees and you know any other members of your constituency that are helping on the grant campaign and really start to talk and think about you know who can actually supervise or conduct each activity where the activity is going to take place who's going to benefit from the implementation of the project you know specifically what would those specific benefits be you want to make sure that you can determine you know measurable benefits measurable outcomes so there's definitely some time involved in developing the heart of the project that you're going to be pitching to potential funders developing your proposal idea is going to require knowledge of your organization you know the individuals involved what you've done in the past what you're doing now what your resources are but it's also really important to know as much as you can about the funder to which you're going to apply funding is kind of like sales in that you're selling your organization to them as the best candidate for their dollars and a lot of sales is focused on relationships and so the more you know about the funder that you're presenting to the better and deeper relationship you're going to be able to establish without funding agency so you want to try and make sure that you know both your agency and the funders mission board affiliations that can always be important because if you know that somebody on your board has some common connection with a board member of the funder you know maybe their kids play soccer together or they serve on another board commonly or you know if there's any type of connection that can really kind of give you a foot in the door so you want to understand who's serving on both boards you want to understand the organizational and administrative structures of each entity not only do you want to know you know or do you need to know your organization's past and present services and projects in detail you want to know as much of the projects and the programs that the funder is currently funding and typically with most of your larger grant funding agencies they will publish information publicly either in funder databases or through their website in regards to their current projects that they're funding or projects they have approved in the previous fiscal year so you can really do your homework and find out you know who have they funded in the past and what type of activities have they funded in the past because that shows you where they really do tend to open up their pocketbooks and give and then you want to know anticipated results not only what are you able to achieve but what would the funder expect you to achieve you want to make sure that whatever you're presenting to them as your proposed outcomes are going to be you know large enough that they will satisfy the funder but also realistic for you because you definitely want them to be achievable so at the end of the funding period you can go back to the funder and say hey you know here's what we promise to do and here's the proof that we did it just as nonprofits all have their own specific mission or cause so do funders so when it comes to foundations in corporate giving programs they typically will publish their funding missions and you can find that through a variety of information Google is one of the more difficult I would say places to find because there's just so much information there and it's really hard to break it down to exactly what you're looking for but you can look through other funding reports philanthropy and giving reports as well as paid databases there's multiple paid databases out there or for a membership fee you have assets to search functionalities that will allow you to search funders in specific areas with specific missions okay so having talked about planning your campaign and having an idea of what projects would be best to prevent to a funder and what funders might be best for you to present to let's talk more specifically about the grant proposal itself this is really how you're going to be selling your organization and your programs to this funder in hopes that they will invest in the good work that you're doing so every grant funder will have kind of their own requirements and I'm going to talk first about foundation grant makers because that's really kind of the heart and soul that's most commonly where nonprofits are going to be seeking out funding yes there are you know local and state and federal government grant programs available there are a lot fewer and far between although well-funded but predominantly when you're thinking about going out after grants you're going to start with foundations and so that's where I'm going to start with my discussion as well now every foundation will have different requirements and that really is up to the administrators of the foundation some have their own unique application forms some require you to apply online using an online application others will tell you yet their initial approach is to submit a letter of intent and then in response to that if they're interested they'll either send you an application package or they may just send you a letter telling you to go ahead and submit a proposal others may just say submit a proposal and so if they don't provide you with their own specific forms or guidelines and you are just preparing a proposal and this is kind of the general outline that I include for a Foundation grant proposal and even though organizations that do have their own applications and forms typically will contain this information although it just may be arranged in a different order in a different format within their application system so the proposal is typically going to have an executive summary which is kind of a overview of the contents of the whole proposal an introduction where you would explain the background of your organization a need statement or problem statement where you're providing statistical evidence of the need that your programs are being established to address objectives methodology or all of the details of how you're going to accomplish things on evaluation techniques describing how you will evaluate your program and its outcomes sustainability description of how you plan to continue to be able to fund the initiatives once the funds from this particular funder have been exhausted and then finally the budget that takes everything that you've set a narrative and puts it in dollars and cents for the funder so we'll talk a little bit about each section just to kind of give you an idea of the type of information that would be included in each section the executive summary is always the last section of the proposal that I write although it appears first in the outline it provides a basic overview of the proposal but I really can't summarize everything that the proposal says until I've written the entire proposal and so that's why I write it last it's going to state the overall impact that the funder will have on the community through the project you really want to make the funder see how their investment in your organization is going to create the type of change that they exist or create you want to make sure that within your executive summary you are reflecting the funders mission interests and values this is where you're going to hook them you know if you know a lot about this organ nation what's important to them what they care about what catchphrases they'd like to hear and this is going to be the first section of your proposal that they read this is how you're going to be able to hook them right in the beginning so that they continue to read on and take in all the details and then it's also going to reiterate the qualifications of your agency to carry out the proposal not only do you want to show them what you're trying to do and show them how what you're trying to do so closely aligns with what they exist to do but you want to convince them that you're the right man for the job the introduction which I commonly entitle organizational background is really used to introduce your organization to the funder you may require less information here as the funder organization has been funding you for many years and they're familiar with your history but if you're a new applicant you've never been funded by this funder in the past and you want to give them as much information as is necessary to really show them your background in this area you're going to have the opportunity to discuss what the organization's major accomplishments have been in the past previous outcomes how you have funded the agency previously if you have received major grant awards in the past from other foundations this may be a great place to mention them because you want to be able to really let the fund or get to know you not only explain to them what your mission and vision and values are but also how well you've operated in the past how many people you've served for how many years and at what level funders really are interested not only in you know what you're doing but the degree about the degree of change that is resulting as an outcome of your programs and they want to be comfortable that you have solid financial management skills so if you have had grant funding Awards in the past that's why it's good to mention them here because that shows them that you have successfully managed grants from other foundations previously and been able to allocate the money appropriately and be successful the needs statement defines the community needs to be addressed this is a probably the most critical section of proposal because this is where you're demonstrating to a funder why your project even needs to happen it is going to establish clear statistical evidence that the need exists in your community this is where you're going to be utilizing reputable sources of information whether it be you know government or university research studies you want to be able to cite the sources of your info and tell the funder specifically you know what the the current need is if you're addressing homelessness in Orlando Florida you should be able to describe to a funder you know what percentage of the population is housing and secure the number of homeless individuals there are on any given night in Orlando the number of beds that are available for sheltering homeless individuals on any given night in Orlando how many of those homeless individuals are children although statistical information that you can come up with you want to be able to provide to the funder in your needs statement or problem statement and you want to make sure that you have references that cite the source of the information the most common mistake that I see when it comes to the need statement is information about the organization's needs often times I read proposals that were written by others and I find that in the need statement they're like well we need a new building because currently we can only do this and with a new building we do be able to do that the need statement should never be about you it should always be about the existing need in the community the that you're applying for the funding and you're going to show them how you will address that need and to what degree with your programs makes it obvious that your organization has a financial need but you definitely always want to make sure that the focus and the need statement stays outside of your organization now the objective section is really going to tell the funder what you plan to achieve through implementation of your programs and in this section you should describe both your goals and your objectives and goals and objectives are different goals are kind of broad-based general statements of your ultimate goal we want to reduce homelessness an objective on the other hand is a very measurable time specific expected result to the project so we're a goal might be we want to reduce homelessness an objective might be you know to reduce the number of homeless individuals on any given night in Orange County Florida by 3 percent within 24 months you know you want to have very specific time and degree measurable objectives because that's how a funder is going to determine whether you're successful anybody could say we're going to reduce homelessness and if I get one guy a house I've reduced homelessness but did I really make a change in the community No so you want to make sure that the objectives are realistic that they're achievable and they are enough that the funder is going to want to invest in that change okay now the methodology is kind of typically for me the longest section of the proposal because it's going to be the most detailed this is where I'm going to be explaining to a funder the who what when where and how of the program I can tell them here's what the need is here is the degree of change that we feel that our programs can make in that need and then the methodology is exactly how you're going to do it this is we're going to tell them all the details so that they can envision in their minds eye as if you are operating this program for them today the funder should be able to tell after reading the methodology how you'll be spending all the money you're asking for it paints a detailed picture of the project and it's going to ultimately tied very closely to your budget so I should almost be able to lay my methodology section and my budget right next to each other and they would just tie together because as I'm describing things in the methodology I should be able to you know as the reader understand oh here's where the money's going here here's where the money's going there all we're paying this we're leasing that and so the two sections tie very closely together one however near narrative and the other numerically it's always very important to include an evaluation section in your proposal and this really is is not only to show the funder have you're planning to evaluate the results of your programs but it's so important internally to your organization because it really keeps you on your toes and it really gives you the opportunity to be proactive and to adjust your efforts on an ongoing basis as needed so in your evaluation section you would want to be describing to a funder how you plan to undertake evaluation whether it's hiring a public program evaluator whether it's internally the executive staff evaluating the subordinate staff whether it's utilizing exit interviews and survey instruments with your clients but you know that's all going to vary just depending on what your program is but you want to be able to describe to the funder specifically how the evaluation will be done and at what points and if you're conducting evaluation throughout the period of time that you're operating the programs then it's always good to in clewd within your evaluation statement how you will adjust if it's determined that's necessary so maybe you have a year-long project I'm four months in you undertake an evaluation and you find out what you've been doing is not working you have to have a logistical plan in place for how you will then come together and modify your methodology so that you can get it back on track and get it right through the following eight months of that project sustainability is your future funding section funders are very interested in knowing how you will continue to build upon the program that they funded and continue it and grow and improve and create more and better outcomes throughout your life cycle because no funder wants to fund you forever but you know they don't want to fund you for one year and then find that their money was wasted because the program fell apart after that year you know don't come back and ask me for money again year after year I want you out there and involved in diversifying your fundraising plan and finding funding from other sources but I also don't want to find you for this year and then find that you didn't do anything to develop future sustainability and you have to close your doors because then as a funder I feel like my money could have been better invested somewhere else where it would have just been you know one-off for a program that would have been around a long time the sustainability section should provide a specific plan for the future of funding for the project and your organization as a whole and basically you're explaining how everything will continue to serve your target audience once the fund that you're requesting in this one specific grant proposal or application have been exhausted the budget is really important you know unlike the budget that you might have prepared when you were submitting your application for exemption under 501c3 the budget in a grant proposal is something that has to be much more precise this isn't a good faith estimate this is what you really really think everything is going to be spent on down to the penny because if I'm telling a funder I'm going to spend you know $100 on this and $1000 on that that's what they expect I'm going to spend it on and I'm going to have to provide receipts and reporting to the funder to show them that it was utilized in the way that I had promised also you want to make sure that you've spent a lot of time and preparing your budget so that you have checked and double-checked everything that you have actual you know quotes on costs for things and you know um realistically what it's really going to cost once you have the money in your hands and that you have remembered to include any potential expense that you might incur there's nothing worse than having a budget and getting it funded and getting partway through the project you realize oh no we forgot to budget for this or for that now where will we get the money where do we pull it from word you know what will we have to sacrifice so it's very important that once you have fully developed your program and methodology that you take your time to develop a budget that you are committed to that you know is as close as possible to what you are actually spend if you had your money in your hand to spend right now okay so let's talk about some different types of funding that's out there there's basically four major types of grant funding sources that exist today foundations which I said typically are the most popular the most numerous that exist corporations many corporations have their own corporate Giving Program through which they give in-kind or cash contributions individual grant makers there are oftentimes individuals who have been very economically fortunate who are able to give large contributions to organizations and will do so in response to some written requests and then obviously there's government grant funding which tends to be very large and award size but very hard to come by all foundations are set up with their own mission and their own bylaws just like any other nonprofit in fact most foundations are 501c3 nonprofit organizations so they have a duty to be publicly accountable and they want to ensure that the money that they are distributing goes to qualified organizations and that the money that they're distributing is dedicated to whatever their approved purposes are there's more than 63 thousand private community foundations in the u.s. today and more than thirty million dollars a year is given away from foundation sources so this is really just kind of the largest in the industry if you will when it comes to grant making there are so many foundations of all different sizes serving all different causes and you just really want to tap into as many as you can find that's a match for your mission foundations typically have giving guidelines that are both cause related and geographically related so you really want to do your research and find foundations that are giving to organizations that address the cause that your organization addresses and within you know the area that you work there are three different types of foundations that typically provide funding your private foundation which is most common those are going to be those that have been started typically by wealthy individuals or large companies and get their funding from those founders and then obviously invest it to make more money corporate and company sponsored if you think of your Ford Foundation your Microsoft foundation that kind of stuff and then Community Foundation's Community Foundation's are unique in that they typically are established not to address one specific cause but to address one specific community and a Community Foundation will typically manage a number of funds within that community so usually what happens is a bunch of fortunate individuals that are interested in serving that specific community but all have a different idea of how they want to serve and all don't want to start their own nonprofit and have to deal with all the paperwork an administration that goes with that they go to the Community Foundation and they say ok I've got a million bucks I want to start a fund and I want that fund to provide scholarships to graduating high school students that are going to go into journalism you know and dam the Community Foundation will manage that fund and some of your smaller Community Foundation's may just have a handful of funds some of your big ones may have dozens and dozens of different funds that they manage so if you're going to seek out funding from a Community Foundation you want to look for the Community Foundation that serves your local area and then find out how to apply to the specific fund that you want you'll have to you know find out the different funds they offer the different types of programs that they offer funding to and typically the application process will be different depending on the specific fund that you're seeking funding from corporate foundations as I said usually are affiliated with a large company they have the approval of its corporate board or shareholders and what's unique about them is with the exception of some of the really really large ones that serve on a national and international basis oftentimes company foundations are established to serve areas where they have employees and/or locations because they really like to be able to get their employees involved in the organizations that they fund and because they like to do good things in areas where their customers buy stuff and so if they limit their giving to areas in where they have stores or facilities then they feel that kind of the words going to get out within that community that they are giving back to all these charitable causes and in general people buy from companies that they feel are the good guys that do good things so when companies are corporate foundations limit their giving to areas where they have locations and businesses and operating stores that's because they're thinking about their bottom line now there's also possible to get funding directly from corporations as opposed to actual company foundations so sometimes your larger companies will actually establish a 501 C 3 charitable organization that is a foundation registered with the IRS whose specific purpose is to fund whatever their mission is other times companies have not established a separate entity but just in general they will give certain amounts of money or in-kind non-cash gifts of their products or services to nonprofits and usually that's in return for some type of marketing or promotion recognition so if you're not a hundred percent ready to pursue grant funding a great stepping stone is to undertake a corporate sponsorship campaign where you can go to corporations directly and request that they fund you either with cash or with in-kind gifts and tell them you know how you're going to benefit them in return for their contribution so that maybe you know publishing their information on your website and your newsletter social media banners and events things like that because for them it is you know additional marketing not only they giving to an organization or they can alleviate their corporate tax burden because their contribution to your organization would be deductible from their bottom line but also it gives them the ability to feel like they are being marketed well within the community government grants can come from your city or county or state federal agencies it really just all depends on the type of programs and and government budgets where funding will become available and for what purpose is there generally are three different types of government grants block grants programmatic grants and discretionary grants programmatic grants are typically most common there are grants that you know the government agency makes a certain amount of funding available to fund programs in a specific area programs that provide you know adult literacy or that provide green initiatives to reduce you know carbon emissions things this and that block grants typically you don't see given directly to nonprofits but maybe to be distributed amongst nonprofits through kind of a middleman so for example a federal agency may make a block grant to some states and those states then allocate it within their region to nonprofits their government grants I would say are definitely kind of a later in your life cycle type of funding just because you know in order to be eligible or and to be successful in receiving a government grant you really have to have some success under your belt a solid period of time in successfully operating a program in the arena that the government is looking to fund some substantial financial resources that you have successfully managed in the past and oftentimes government grants have a match I see it a lot in federal grants what they call a non-federal match and basically that you know for every dollar they give you you have to prove you have already raised X amount and common that's 25 percent so you know if you're going to ask for a million dollars from the federal government they want you to show you already have two hundred fifty thousand sitting in the bank waiting to match it so you know government grants come later in the life cycle every single application is going to be different most commonly just the instructions for the program and for applying tender aid 50 to sometimes 80 pages or more in length so you really have to be ready to even think about the government grant arena so in summary always remember the most common things obviously spelling grammar and formatting your essential when you are applying with grant funders you want to follow directions closely when it comes to printing binding number of copies it's real easy to eliminate applicants for not following directions you know if I'm a foundation and I only have two grants to give away and I have 200 applicants and I need to sort that out I'm going to start by weeding out the ones that couldn't follow my directions and how many copies I wanted or how I wanted you to staple or paperclip or bind your application it's important that you prepare for rejection because grants is the numbers game you're going to apply to a lot more than you receive awards from but the whole idea is that you have the materials available and that you're continuously identifying additional sources and applying all throughout the year because you're going to get a lot more nose than you do yeses okay I am going to see if I have any questions in my question box to answer this time but before I do I just want to touch on you know if you need any assistance with preparing your grant campaign getting your 501 C 3 developing a corporate sponsorship campaign getting your strategic plan written up your website developed your logo design any pretty much of the administrative stuff that you may not have a full-time staff to be able to handle we can offer all those services for you at a low cost and our whole idea here at Terri net is basically to kind of be a back office that can handle all the administrative aspects of your nonprofit organization so that you can remain focused on fulfilling your mission Oh touching my one upcoming webinar our last webinar of the quarter we're kind of ran over into second quarter but for the last webinar for this series is going to be on Wednesday April 22nd it is going to be a 3 p.m. eastern time instead of the normal two p.m. just sent them scheduling conflicts that day we had to go 3 p.m. versus 2 but that day we're going to talk about combining online fundraising and marketing to conquer the world wide web got a lot of great tips and tricks for you there if you want to take some time to join me that day and then I am going to go ahead and try and get my contact info up on the screen right there and give me just a moment I'll see what I have for questions you okay I have time for a couple of quick questions today and like I said before if you think of any questions after the fact or I didn't get to your intern question live then you can feel free to go ahead and shoot me an email at Melanie at biz central usa.com and I will go ahead and answer your questions via email first of all we always have the questions in regards to whether copies of the slideshow are going to be available later yes for sure in case you joined us late once we complete the presentation my marketing department will convert it to a video and it will be sent out to everyone that registered for the webinar today so you will be receiving a copy that has not only the slide presentation that all of the audio is a well and that usually comes out within about 48 hours from the completion of the webinar um I had a question in regards to what are a couple of the paid services to find grant funders there is there are several out there I guess a couple of the most common are going to be foundation directory and grantstation of the two foundation directory is my preferred database I've used several different one I find that the foundation directory is the one that I use most commonly the functionality to me is most efficient and user-friendly grantstation is not quite as costly as foundation directory but I also find it to be less user friendly and have less results in the actual database I have a question in regards to how many grants you should apply for for the same project and there isn't you know a hard-and-fast number for that but I would say that many many more than you actually need to fund you you know if you have a hundred thousand dollar budget and you're asking ten thousand dollars apiece from on each request you definitely want to spend submit more than ten if you need ten ten thousand dollar awards to police of on your project you probably want to submit 30 or 40 now just many many more than you need because really the positive award rate when it comes to foundation grant funding is somewhere around 17 to 20 percent so you're only going to get a positive award on about one of every four to five that you submit um okay last question I have time for today involves how to proceed after being rejected on a grants package on a grant funding and that really is going to be so different for every organization it depends on the reason for the rejection if they say they're sorry they love your project they just don't have funds available anymore this year you may want to follow up with them and just find out whether you can resubmit next year contact the individual that sent you the letter see if they have any suggestions for what you could have done differently in order to be more successful so that you can tweak your project and potentially reapply to them in a future year grants are a lot about relationships so I typically recommend that you you know reach out to and try and develop relationships with funders before you ever apply to them or shortly after you do apply and that even if they reject you you continue to build that relationship because there will be subsequent funding periods and there's nothing that would prevent you from applying to a funder in a subsequent year and you want to maintain and build that relationship as much as possible okay I am going to wrap up for today like I said if anybody has any additional questions whether it's about grants or about any of the other services and products that we offer feel free to go ahead and shoot me an email ads Melanie at business central usa.com and I will get back to you as soon as I can everyone have a wonderful day