Reader, is there anything more painful than driving over a jagged pothole? The crunch of your spine, the desperate prayers for your car’s suspension and steering, and of course, a profound shame for not avoiding the pothole in the first place. Now imagine driving down a beat up backroad, no streetlights, with nothing to guide you and your poor steed to safety except your murky intuition. This is how a lot of us go into the grant application process — vaguely uneasy, completely lost, and proceeding valiantly into a mysterious void (i.e. the review panel). But what if you had a cheat sheet, a map, with every pitfall illuminated by bright, flashing warning signs?
You might think that feeling this self-assured and purposeful when going for a grant is impossible. Maybe you dislike writing for an unknown audience, or you’ve received countless rejections, or you are sick and tired of paying application fees. All fair points. But you could also be falling for some extremely common grant application pitfalls without realizing, leaving your application stalled out in the road when your work and ideas are actually legit as hell! Think of us as your roadside assistance, taking that application out of the gutter and back on the road to funding.
Who are we to give advice? Very fair question! As an intermediary between artists and funders, Fractured Atlas reviews hundreds of grant applications every year and has a front row seat to artists’ joyous wins and bitter losses. While there’s no secret key to getting funded, there are plenty of straightforward, concrete things you can do to set your grant application up for success.
Without further ado, here are some common application pitfalls we’ve seen folks fall for:
- 👀 Not reading the grant guidelines closely, or at all. Yeah, it's slow, tedious work, but guidelines are the primary way a funder communicates what they're looking for. They often include tips, reminders, and even scoring rubrics — straight from the horse's mouth. Use them!
- 📝 Forgetting to take the perspective of the reader. This could be something as simple as using a 6.5 pt font (beautifully tiny but unreadable) or talking about your work abstractly, as if they've already experienced it. A strong grant narrative covers the concrete basics — who, what, why, when, how — and articulates how all the puzzle pieces of your work fit together.
- 🗣️ Skipping the program officer connection. Not reaching out to program officers or skipping their webinars is like leaving money on the table. They're literally experts on this opportunity and can answer existential questions like "am I a good fit for this?" You may even leave with concrete advice on strengthening your app — and a new pal!
- 📅 Mismatching project timeline to funding timeline. You're excited about this project that needs to happen in March, but the grant won't announce awards until April. Funders want to fund things, not reimburse you for stuff you already did. Always work backwards from their notification date.
- 🧮 Treating the budget like an afterthought. Your budget can and should tell the same story as your narrative — if you're talking about intensive community workshops, for example, don't lowball your materials and outreach costs! You want to show that you’ve thought everything through, and know what it takes to bring creative work to life, financially speaking.
- 🍇 Relying on a single funding source. It’s actually quite rare for a single grant to fund your entire creative project! Some grants are specifically for the development of new work, while others are for presenting the work, or even for preliminary research leading up to a new piece. Think of your funding strategy more like a smorgasbord, and even consider crowdfunding to demonstrate community buy-in.
- ☂️ Ignoring the funder's giving history. Actions speak louder than words! Digging through past awardees can often give you a more nuanced and concrete sense of what kind of work fits under the umbrella of their funding priorities — and how you might fit in! This can help you articulate why you’re a good fit in the application itself.
- 🎩 Writing like you're defending a thesis. Grant reviewers are often your fellow artists and leaders, not academics. Skip the dense theory and art-speak! If you can't explain your project to your next door neighbor, you probably can't explain it to a grant panel either.
- 👛 Overestimating your administrative capacity. Especially for collectives - funders want to know you can handle their money responsibly. If you're a loose group of friends, be honest about your structure and maybe get a fiscal sponsor.
- 🎞️ Forgetting about the follow-through. Don't just think about making the work - think about how you'll document it, share it, collect feedback, and measure its impact. Funders increasingly want to see their investment ripple outward and appreciate applicants who think through the whole picture.
With that, ten potentially painful pitfalls are on your radar and impossible to fall for again! Over time, the process of reaching out to program officers, researching past awardees, and crafting a budget that tells a story can become second nature. It may be hard to believe, but when the fog of confusion and trepidation lifts, going for grants can actually bring some much-needed clarity and energy to your creative projects. Putting yourself out there is just another brave and creative side quest on your lifelong, artistic journey.
Have any pitfalls you’ve fallen for and learned from? Share your wisdom below ✨