Stop Writing and Start Delegating: The Grant Application Priority You're Probably Getting Wrong

Picture this: you've just opened a grant application that looks like a good fit. Your fingers are itching to either dive deep into those guidelines or jump straight into writing responses because, let's be honest, you've already got some solid ideas brewing.

Hold that thought!

The Trap We All Fall Into

We tend to do one of two things when a grant opportunity lands on our desk. Either we spend days dissecting the guidelines until we could recite them in our sleep, or we leap straight into drafting criteria responses while the inspiration is hot. Both feel productive. Both give us that warm fuzzy feeling of progress.

The problem? Neither approach tackles the real deadline killer.

What Actually Derails Grant Applications

Here's what nobody tells you about grant applications: the bits you can control yourself are rarely the problem. You can write and rewrite criteria responses at 2am if you need to. You can polish that project description over a weekend. These tasks bend to your schedule because they depend entirely on you.

What doesn't bend to your schedule? Other people.

Think about what actually needs to happen before you can submit that application:

• Letters of support from community organisations or partner agencies
• Budget figures that need sign off from your finance team
• Primary research requiring community consultation
• Service data that sits in your CRM system (and needs someone from IT or operations to extract it)
• Staff information from HR for your project team costings
• Board approval or CEO sign off on forms

Each of these involves someone else's calendar, someone else's priorities, and someone else's definition of "urgent."

The Solution Nobody Wants to Hear

Before you touch a single criteria response, open that application form and scan for everything you cannot possibly do yourself. Make a list. These are your priority tasks, not because they're more important, but because they're the furthest from your control.

That letter of support from the local council? Send that request today. The budget template for finance? Get it to them now, not next week. The data extract from your CRM? Lodge that request immediately.

As the brilliant Raphaël Dubois once said, "Control what you can control, but delegate what you cannot before it controls you." (We made him up, but he's still right.)

Your New Grant Application Workflow

Review the full application requirements first. Identify everything that requires someone else's input, expertise, or approval. Start those conversations and send those requests immediately. Then, and only then, settle in to tackle the work you can actually control.

You can write criteria responses overnight if you push yourself. You cannot make the finance department work faster by sheer willpower.

The work you control can always be done closer to the deadline. The work that depends on others? That's where deadlines get missed and applications stay unsubmitted.

Start delegating before you start drafting. Your future self will thank you.