What To Do After A Major Funding Decision (good or bad) + fund info

TLDR: if it was a no, reuse the copy and budget to submit new bids for specific elements. If it was a yes or partial yes, use it as secured match funding to improve the success rate of other bids for that work.

For any Scot in the arts last Thursday was epic - the decisions on Creative Scotland Multi-Year Funding grants (core funding for three years). I was in bits checking my messages and emails every 30 seconds.

When you've poured your heart and soul into a massive funding bid the result can be heart-exploding or heart-breaking. Here's what I do when they come in.

It's a full success = cry, message my support network, do a celebratory dance.
Stage 1 is to allow the emotions to exist. Fundraising is Hard Work and these moments are a lot. I hyperventilate, lie on the floor, disassociate, offer thanks to the deities of my choice. Treasure, cherish and thank my past self for plugging on to get to this moment.

Stage 2 is adjust. Then I go reread my budget and what I said I would do. I plan in time to go over it and look for what has changed since the submission, because something always has. Often a large funder will ask you to provide your outcomes and projected spend as part of the contracting process because they know things change. It's OK to adjust delivery and spend at this stage so long as it provides the same outcomes for the same type of beneficiaries.

Stage 3 is getting strategic. I look at how much money is secured for 6 months down the line. This is because this is the amount I can list as *secured match funding* for other activities. Core funds can be listed as match for anything. Big project grants can be leveraged to cover the rest of the costs for that project, assigning the secured money to the least appealing budget lines (salaries, overheads) and asking someone else for the rest.

It's a part award = all the same Stages actually, with a bigger focus on leveraging it for additional match funding.

It's a no = cry, then rest of Stage 1 with an extra bit of feeling disappointed, dejected and angry at the injustice of it. Allowing the frustration to exist helps me move past it.

Stage 2 is about reusing the work I did to make the massive bid by taking elements of it and submitting them as stand-alone smaller project bids. Already having a budget, timeline and copy for an activity is 80% of the work. By taking a portion of it to write a bunch of new drafts makes good use of that resource and gets me focused on the future again.

Stage 3 is about Finding Funders who want to support this type of work, or finding the next best fit for your project bid from your database. I have a whole module in The Grant Writing Toolkit on Finding Funders which you can dive into today from £10. I used the first module "Easiest Way To Find Funders" this morning and it showed up the employability in this post! I love it when a plan works.