In an ideal world, every project you launch is a raging success. You hit every goal easily, you deliver on time and on budget, and you win awards for changing the world.

If only that’s how it went!

Even the best project, with the most detailed risk management plan and every contingency under the sun, can still go wrong. Factors outside of your control have a way of popping up when you least expect them.

But it’s not the end of the world and it shouldn’t mean the end of grant funding for your organisation.

So how do you regroup and talk about it in your next grant application?
 

Find the good that came out of it

\Start with the positives. Even the projects with the worst luck have some redeeming features. You can think of it two ways: from an organisational perspective and from a client or participant perspective.

Good news stories for your organisation could be:

  • Capacity building for staff

  • Skill development for staff

  • Awareness raising of your organisation or cause

If none of those resonate, what about good news stories for your clients or participants?

  • How did you make their lives better?

  • What did you contribute to the community?

  • What does your target audience know now that they didn’t know before?

While you might have had big dreams of helping hundreds of people, making an impact on a smaller number of people is still a win.

It’s not a waste if something good came out of it, even if unintended.
 

Find the reason behind the failure

Once you’ve got your team together and shaken off the disappointment, it’s time to do a post-mortem. Here you should be focusing on two main questions:

  • What went wrong?

  • How and why do it go wrong?

This is not about apportioning blame. It’s about identifying the project or organisational weak links so they can be strengthened for next time.

Resourcing, time, money, skills, supplies…even the weather can disrupt an amazing project.

Don’t be scared to have these conversations; it’s making you and your team better for next time.
 

Outline the lessons you’ve learned

You’ve identified the not-so-great outcomes and why they happened. Now it’s time to decide how you’ll do things differently next time and what the broader lesson is.

  • What could we do differently to prevent the same outcome next time?

  • What’s the lesson here?

For example, you ran an after-school program teaching teenagers how to fix bikes giving them mechanical skills and a potential pathway to a trade. Your only advertising was on social media but your ad wasn’t seen by anyone and very few kids showed up. The lesson here might be that you need to diversify your advertising, or that you need a bigger marketing budget or a more targeted ad spend. Or all three!

Don’t limit the lessons you learn. They’re all valuable.
 

Show how things are or will be different

With the lessons you’ve learned established, how have they changed how you do things? Are your processes different? Is your planning approach different? Have you tweaked the project to incorporate this new knowledge?

In your next grant application, don’t shy away from the truth. Outline what your plan was, what went wrong and how you have addressed it. If the need for your project still exists, make sure you say that and reiterate that your project – with the lessons you’ve learned – is the best option to address that need.

Don’t forget to include some of the positives too. It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.

Grant assessors are looking to assure themselves that you can do what you say you are going to do. Acknowledging that things didn’t go perfectly but you’ve taken the opportunity to learn from it, is a big green flag to a funding body.

Pretending everything went perfectly is not a good strategy. The truth will come out!
 

Plan for contingencies

While on the subject of doing things differently, if you haven’t considered a small buffer for contingencies, it’s time to do so. Especially if there are people involved in your project.

What is your back-up plan for the people, the money and the spaces you need to run your project?

It only takes one unexpected resignation, an incorrect quote or a double-booked venue to derail a project with great potential.
 

Shake it off

In the case of a failed project, ignorance is not bliss and denial is not a management strategy!

Get your team together, talk about your project honestly and openly, make whatever changes you need to make and then do as Taylor Swift suggests and shake it off.

Good governance means being honest and transparent about everything your organisation does, not just when things go well. Funders will respect you for it.