I’ve talked to some grant makers who believe that we should fully fund grant requests, or not fund them at all. However, I spoke with one grantseeker and he felt that he’d rather get something (partial funding), than a deferral to apply later. In part, this is because he said that he’s applying to multiple funders to fund the same project, so it’s not like he’d be relying on any one funder to support the entire proposed project. Also, there’s no guarantee if he were to apply again that he would receive funding, and by the time he reapplies, he’d probably have to develop and submit a completely revised proposal, because the project would be in a different phase of implementation.

Maybe one solution is to offer the partial funding to grant applicants and give them the option to decline the funding now and apply in a later grant cycle? We’ve partially funded several grant requests, and no one has ever turned away the money.

Any thoughts on partial funding? Please share your comments here!