6 Steps for Submission Success
Before you submit a grant application, there are six steps I recommend you take to ensure you’re not making easily avoidable mistakes. Using the final output from the funder’s portal, check to be sure you’re meeting all the guidelines, not making any grammatical or mathematical errors, and providing all the correct attachments. And because you’ve made a detailed timeline during your preparation, you’ll also be submitting the application in plenty of time.
(P.S. Although I refer to grant applications throughout this post, all these steps also apply to any required grant reports.)
#1: Export the entire application (with attachments) and read it from start to finish
You’ve already finalized your application narrative and attachments and input them into the funder’s portal. Now, export the entire application, with attachments, from the portal. Not all funder portals allow you to do this easily (Note to funders: This is something we grant pros want every time!), so do your best considering the portal you’re using.
With the application in hand, read it from start to finish with your red pen in hand. I like to import the application package in PDF to Goodnotes on my iPad, but if you’re old school, you can also print the package and mark it up.
No matter how many times you’ve read an application, there might be small consistency issues you miss when looking at distinct sections. Reviewing the entire application at once helps you to notice these small things (do some bulleted lists end in periods and others don’t?) and the big ones (did that last-minute change in your project budget get reflected in your narrative? did the portal automatically cut off the last three words of your narrative?).
#2: Re-read the funder’s guidelines
In this step, you’ll compare your entire application against the funder’s guidelines. Ask yourself: Have all questions been answered completely and accurately? Have we provided all the required and requested attachments?
I know, I know. You’ve read the guidelines until you’re blue in the face. Or maybe you’ve applied with this funder for the past five years, and their guidelines never change. But a detail you might not have noticed in the first five reads might stand out to you now. Through my years of working on grants, I have found many minor and major errors in applications at this step. Maybe your CFO included administrative overhead in the project budget, and the funder doesn’t allow that. Or you find that you didn’t answer a narrative prompt completely. Or (true story) the funder added a new section to the application without notifying you, and you have to write a new narrative response.
This is one area where I’ve been using AI in grant applications recently. I’ll share the guidelines and the application with AI and prompt it to give me feedback on how well the application meets the guidelines.
#3: Be sure your budget adds up
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in a grant application is to have errors in your budget(s). If funders see that you can’t present an accurate budget, how do they know you’ll be good fiscal stewards of their grant award?
My favorite trick here is to whip out my calculator and check my math outside of a spreadsheet. As with step 2, I’ve found multiple errors this way. One common mistake is that your spreadsheet formula doesn’t include all the cells it needs to (maybe you added a row of expenses but didn’t update your formula with the new row). Another problem I’ve seen is when funders request budgets in Word documents or text boxes (this really grinds my gears, I’ll tell ya), and numbers get transposed or left out altogether.
This is also a good time to be sure the grant request amount is the same in your project/program budget as it is in the application. Another easy mistake to make but also easy to catch!
#4: Double-check for grammatical and spelling errors, and read for clarity
As you’re reading through the entire application, you might spot some errors that your spell check didn’t notice and that your brain glossed over as you were reviewing the narrative previously.
This step is a great reason to have an external reviewer take a look at your application before you submit it. While I’ve said before that grant management can feel like a solo sport, it’s so important to have another set of eyes on an application, particularly a long one. Your external reviewer could be another staff member who’s not on the development or program team, a trusted board member, or even a colleague from a partner nonprofit.
I also go back to the funder’s portal at this point and check each text box with my Grammarly browser extension. Even though I use Grammarly in my working Google documents, there are times that I haven’t seen a spelling or grammatical error in my doc, but it alerts in the portal.
#5: Finalize the application in the portal
Now that you have all your edits, it’s time to make those updates within the portal and/or your attachments. Don’t rush through making these updates! You’re at risk of making errors at this stage if you’re not paying attention.
For your attachments in particular, make sure your organization’s name (or even better, logo) is on every page. Use the funder’s suggested (or required) naming convention to name your files before you upload them. If there’s no specified naming convention, I recommend including your organization’s name or acronym, followed by the grant program name, and ending with the name of the attachment.
If you have the opportunity to preview the attachment in the system (Foundant’s grant portal is especially great at this), make sure that your attachments are appearing as you intended. Most often, panelists will review information this way, and it can be hard for them to read materials if, for instance, spreadsheet data spans multiple pages from left to right. Sometimes, this might mean that you might need to revise your Excel spreadsheet with different page splits and reupload it. All documents should be right-side up and easy to read. My preference is usually to upload all files as PDFs (since they maintain formatting), but that might not be an option with your funder’s guidelines. This is also a good time to verify that you uploaded the correct file to the correct container field.
#6: Submit at least two business days before the deadline
Because you’re working your timeline, I know you’re going to be ready to submit your application well before the deadline. But I’ll repeat again that you never want to submit an application on the day of the deadline, and aiming for the day before the deadline can get dicey. So go ahead and plan on submitting at least two business days before the deadline, and you’ll be able to get the application in without any drama.
Conclusion
Funders know the difference between an application that has been slapped together and one that is well-prepared. Taking time to walk through each of the steps I’ve described here will give your organization a leg up in a very competitive industry. You’ll inevitably find at least one thing that is incorrect (I can almost guarantee it). Good luck!
Ever get declined for a grant award because you made one of the errors I mentioned? We’re looking for nonprofit pilot clients for our new service, Increase Your Mileage, which creates custom grant program SOPs so nonprofits can streamline their processes. Email us at erin @ nonprofitnomad.com to find out more.
Cover photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash