No, Not the Time to Post an RFP or Hold a Competition

  • Rejection has too high a cost for the institutions that do not receive grants. For some fragile fields, losing a highly visible competition can mean that the applicant loses standing in a field, in its community, or in its host institution.
  • The size of the grants or the odds of winning are too small to justify the effort and cost of submitting a strong proposal.
  • The funder’s administrative burden or cost would be too great, relative to the amount of resources available for grants.
  • The criteria for comparison and selection are not well known or aren’t easily articulated in advance — in other words, the grantmaker doesn’t know enough about what is out there to identify how the winners would be picked.

Takeaways are critical, bite-sized resources either excerpted from our guides or written by Candid Learning for Funders using the guide's research data or themes post-publication. Attribution is given if the takeaway is a quotation.

This takeaway was derived from Using Competitions & RFPs.

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