PND Talk: Multiple Grant Proposal Submissions
February 28, 2014
In the third installment of our PND Talk series (the first two are here and here), we re-visit a question that Enid asked in 2005 about a situation that, while not common, illustrates the critical importance of transparency and two-way communication in the grantee-funder relationship.
Enid asked: Let's say you are seeking funding for a program whose cost is budgeted at $100,000 and you submit three grant proposals to three different foundations for the same program and get funding from all three. Do you accept funding from all three for the same program? Just one? How is this handled?
As always, she got excellent advice from the PND Talk community, starting with Tony Poderis, who wrote:
Enid -- I simply would absolutely not submit multiple proposals to more than one foundation for funding of the same project in the first place.
I would not do it because I believe -- in general -- that such special project solicitations should be sequential. Only rarely, if ever, would I offer a specific project funding opportunity to two or more prospects at the same time. The danger is that more than one will accept. Yes, I said danger -- even when getting the money.
I would not make simultaneous solicitations seeking grants from each of the multiple foundations for one project's full funding. I would go to the best possible prospect first and wait for that decision. I would not submit the proposal to the other potential funding source or sources until the first said no, yes to to the full request, or yes to partial funding. Then on, or not, to the other.
Having more than one foundation accept the same proposal at the same time and having them make their respective awards is a possibility I would not treat lightly.... Having to go back to a program officer who is the process of pushing it through his or her foundation's channels for you and having to say you gave the project to someone else has the potential for damaging that relationship -- maybe permanently....
Julie chimed in with this:
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