Why You Should Read (and Re-Read) Grant Guidelines
Even experienced grant writers miss things
A few weeks ago, I reread the grant application guidelines for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Grants for Arts Projects application. Like all good grant pros, I’d already read the guidelines multiple times, and I was simply reading them one more time before the portal opened. This time, though, I realized I’d misremembered some of the instructions: that audio files needed to be under four minutes long, not five. Thankfully, my client had read them correctly and had provided audio files that met the guidelines.
What if either of us hadn’t noticed that requirement?
It certainly wouldn’t have been the end of the world at that time, considering that we still had a week before the deadline and plenty of time to revise the support material. And even if the application had gone through with recordings longer than the guideline, NEA panelists would have been instructed to listen to only the first four minutes of each recording and move on to the next.
Here’s my point: even I, a full-time grant professional and self-professed Detail Queen, can miss details on the first, second, or tenth read. If you or your staff are working on grants along with a thousand other tasks each day, there’s a good chance you also might miss (or misread) grant instructions. Or perhaps you’ve applied for the grant so many times that you assume the guidelines haven’t changed.
There can be many reasons we make errors in the application process. But, as the grant ecosystem gets more competitive, the difference between an application that wins a grant and one that doesn’t could be this minor. If you don’t treat grant guidelines as part of the evaluation process, you risk losing points or being disqualified before anyone even reads your narrative.
The Three-Read Rule for Grant Guidelines
If you’ve ever wondered how carefully you really need to follow grant guidelines, the answer is: more carefully than you think. I have a three-read rule that I follow for every application. I follow it especially for grants with lengthy guidelines, like federal grants.
First, read before you draft. Second, read while you write. Third, read again before you submit.
1. Read before you draft
Before writing a single sentence, I read the full guidelines from start to finish. At this stage, I’m looking to confirm:
Is my client eligible? If there are registration requirements, have we satisfied those requirements?
Do we have all the required support materials, or can we produce them in enough time?
What are the match requirements?
What discipline-specific instructions should we know?
Can we meet the deadline?
Do we need to ask the funder any clarifying questions about the guidelines or the application?
This first read answers one essential question: should we even apply? You’d be surprised how many organizations invest hours into drafting an application before confirming whether they’re eligible.
2. Read while you write
The next step is to create a skeleton outline of the entire application, followed by the first draft. Now, I’m cross-referencing sections of the guidelines while focusing on:
Scoring criteria, if available
Character limits
Formatting rules, particularly for support materials
It’s important to refer back to the guidelines (and the funder’s portal, if possible) to be sure you’re not missing anything. This is where it can get easy to get tripped up: you think you remember what the guidelines said or that the prompts were straightforward. As I’m writing, I’m always comparing my narrative responses to the scoring criteria. I’m double- and triple-checking that my response fits within the allowed character limit, and that my support material fits any formatting rules. I’m likely to review only one section of the guidelines at a time in this step.
It can be especially hard to confirm with the guidelines when you’re working with colleagues. For instance, if your CFO is the person responsible for producing the program budget, confirm they followed all the requirements. You might even want to provide them with a working (internal) version of the funder’s program budget template that includes excerpts from the budget guidelines.
3. Read before you submit
This last full read-through right before submission is the most critical and often the most overlooked. I’m no longer evaluating the strength of the narrative or whether we’re eligible. Now, I’m verifying we’ve adhered to the instructions:
Are all the required attachments uploaded? Does each attachment comply with the guidelines, including any file naming conventions?
Are all required fields in the portal complete? What about non-required fields?
Do all URLs open correctly from the application or attachments?
By the time you get to this point in an application, you’re probably sick of reading it. But I guarantee you that your eye will catch something at this stage that you didn’t in steps one or two. This is when I caught my incorrect assumption in the NEA application!
Why careful review of grant guidelines matters
While many funders will overlook grantsmanship in favor of a program that meets their priorities, just as many will reject an application because it is ineligible, incomplete, or missing attachments. Guidelines are the first screening tool funders use to narrow down a broad pool of applicants. Think like a funder and use the guidelines to strengthen your application.
Grant writing is strategic: you’re positioning your nonprofit’s work to best match the funder’s priorities. It is relational: your application builds on a bond you’ve formed over time with a funder. But it is also detailed, procedural work, and procedures live in the guidelines.
Before you start your next application, try my three-read rule. Did you catch an error? Were there elements you might not have addressed if you hadn’t read the guidelines again? What’s one instruction you almost missed? I’d love to hear it.
P.S. If your team is juggling grants alongside a dozen other responsibilities, building a repeatable system for reviewing grant guidelines can make the difference between “almost” and funded. That’s exactly what I help nonprofits do through my Increase Your Mileage service.
Cover photo from Jopwell.