I want to talk today about a somewhat overlooked part of the grant process: your first phone call with a funder. This call typically will be scheduled after a preliminary connection has been made or during office hours for an open call. I’ve had hundreds of these calls over my years at Knight Foundation, so I’ve seen how much this moment matters. Especially for independent working artists, this call will be your first opportunity to establish a relationship with a funder, and therefore is your best opportunity to set the tone for that relationship. This call is more critical than is commonly acknowledged, as so much of the subsequent grantmaking process is (or isn’t) set in motion during this initial contact.
In this post, I’ll walk through the three stages of that first call: getting prepared, what to do during the call, and what to do after. I’ll use the words “grantmaker” and “program officer” interchangeably to refer to the specific person you’re talking to in the call, and use “funder” or “foundation” as catch-all terms for organizations that give out grants. And, of course, “phone call” stands in for Zoom calls, Google Meets, or (shudder) Microsoft Teams.
Goals for the call
If there’s one thing I can impart to grant-seekers who are talking with a grantmaker for the first time, it is this: your main goal for the first call is not to pitch your project, but to establish a relationship with the funder. The specific work you’re pitching is really a means to establish that relationship. What you want out of an initial contact with me as a grantmaker is not for me to say “I’ll definitely fund your project,” but rather “I’ll definitely take your call the next time you reach out.”
You are starting a relationship with both the grantmaker and the funder during that first call, and you want to ensure that relationship starts off on the right foot. Right from the jump, a grantmaker will be assessing not just the project you’re looking to fund, but also what kind of grantee you might be. This is in part because while we might not be able to fund the project you’re bringing to us now, we might still be interested in funding something else down the line.
Getting Prepared
In advance of the call, you’ll want to make sure you understand who you’re talking to, so you can make the most effective use of the limited time you’ll have. This means both understanding the funder you’re pitching to, and the specific program officer with whom you’ll be speaking.
Research the funder and the program officer
The first thing to do is research the funder to whom you’ll be talking. At this stage, you want to understand what they fund, and why. Most funders have a “what we fund” section of their website, and while it’s often vague, you can still get a sense of what kinds of things they might be looking for.
For instance:
- Does this funder fund need, or are they more focused on specific impacts? Many private funders, for instance, are looking to manifest particular outcomes (affordable housing, sustainable arts ecosystems, etc.), so pitches focused on need or charitable causes might not be a good fit in those cases.
- Does the funder have specific domain constraints? You might be talking with an “arts funder,” but that funder may focus on specific domains or disciplines (arts & technology, dance, jazz, etc.) and does not fund outside of that focus.
- Does the funder have a particular geographic focus? Many funders only fund in certain cities (or in some cases, specific neighborhoods). If you’re outside those cities, you should be prepared to address that issue head-on: “We’re not in one of your cities, but we believe that our work aligns tightly with your mission for the following reasons.”
The reason to do this background research is so we don’t have to go over it in the call itself. I will assume you know this information already when we meet. If you start with very basic questions like “Oh, do you only fund arts and technology?”, that’s time that I’ll spend reading our website out loud that could have been more effectively used by discussing your work.
If you know the name of the program officer that you’ll be talking to, it is a good idea to read their online bio. This will help you understand what parts of your pitch you can quickly summarize and which parts you may need to take more time with. In my case, I worked in museums for 20 years, so if you have a call with me, you won’t need to explain how museum collections work. Conversely, if your pitch deals with dance pedagogy, you might need to take more time explaining that to me than you might if you’re talking to a program officer who has a dance background.
Know how you want to structure the time, but don’t overdo it
Know in advance what you want to accomplish with the call, and have talking points and questions you’d like to ask me, but don’t over-structure the time. It’s hard if we only have 30 minutes to have 28 minutes of prepared presentation with no opportunity for discussion, followed by 2 minutes of “Well, Koven, what do you think?”
I don’t discourage prepared presentations necessarily, but with the limited time we’re likely to have, I don’t always find them to be the best way to start. Think of this as the beginning of a conversation, rather than an attempt to close the deal. I probably don’t need to know all the details about your proposal, just enough of the big picture to determine whether we should continue talking.
During the Call
Show up on time. There are always more people wanting to have time with program officers than there are available hours. If you’ve scheduled time and don’t show up, or show up 15 minutes late for a 30-minute call, that’s time that could have gone to another potential grantee. If you can’t make it, please let me know ahead of time.
How and what, before the why
OK! You’re now on the call, and it’s happening! Know that throughout the call, as a program officer, I’ll be asking myself exactly two questions:
- “Is this something we could fund?”
- If I can answer yes to that, then, “Is this something we should fund?”
What that means is that I will almost always need to address HOW and WHAT questions first, before getting into the WHY. I find that for potential grantees this can feel backwards, because the WHY is the reason you’re doing the project. But if you hook me with the WHY, and then it turns out the HOW is something that the funder I work for is unlikely to fund, then we’re just all going to be disappointed.
So I’ll usually zero in on questions of quite literally where the money goes right upfront. This is not to say that I’m not eager to hear why you’re doing it, but I will need to know if you’re asking me to fund the purchase of equipment, the hiring of people, honorariums for artists, or what. If I don’t know that by the end of our call, the next call will be harder because I won’t really understand the scope. When I understand where the money goes, this also helps me start to think about which components of your proposal might be fund-able if we are unable to fund the entire thing.
Be prepared, but sincere
It’s okay if you’re nervous. This call is an unnatural situation. It’s okay if you need to use notes to remember what you wanted to say. Not all program officers are like this, but I prefer honesty to perfection. I’m not only trying to decide if this is a project worth funding, but also what the ongoing relationship will be like. Does this seem like someone I can trust? Do I get clear and sincere answers to questions I’m asking?
Keep in mind that this is an opportunity for you to evaluate me as a program officer as much as it is for me to get to know you. I am likely to be the person who manages your grant if it goes forward, so you want to get a sense of what that relationship would be like. Am I the kind of program officer you’d want to work with over a long stretch of time? Am I a good listener? Do I get what you’re trying to do? You don’t want to get further down the grant development pipeline only to find that every conversation with your program officer feels toxic, so start that investigation with this first call.
After the Call
Once the call wraps up, there are really three possible outcomes: one, we’re going to talk again, two, we’re not going to do what you proposed, but we should stay in touch, or three, we’re unlikely to talk again.
- We’re unlikely to talk again: I’ll start with the hardest one first. This outcome will really only happen if your work is just clearly out of scope for the funder or if there are other disqualifying factors. In my experience, this is actually a fairly unusual outcome, but if I can tell from our first call that my foundation is not going to fund you at any point, I will try to be clear about that so there’s no confusion. If this is where the call ends up, I will usually, if I can, try to offer up other paths you might pursue or people you might talk to.
- We probably won’t fund the work we discussed today, but let’s keep talking: Most of my calls end here. This usually means that as a potential grantee, what you do is in scope for and of interest to the funder, but what you proposed today is unlikely to be funded. While this outcome is certainly disappointing, it also keeps the door open for future funding. I will typically tell you to “keep in touch about future work you’re doing” in this case, or offer up specific changes that might put this work back in the frame (if you start working with partners in San José instead of San Francisco, let’s definitely talk again).
- Let’s talk again soon: This means that we are likely to consider the specific proposal you’ve brought to me for funding. In this case, make note of any specific action items that came up during the call. If I asked for additional documentation or other materials, make sure I have those. If I asked to be introduced to other partners involved with your proposal, make sure I have those contacts, and so on. Be prepared for a long lead time. Even if we have a fabulous first call, it might be six months before we can find time to talk again. Lack of communication from a foundation does not always mean a lack of action.
Here’s the thing! I want these calls to go well. I’m not sitting there hoping you’ll mess up or looking for reasons to say no, and I think most grantmakers feel that way, too. I’m looking for proposals I can get excited about and people I can build relationships with. So treat that first call like what it is—the start of a conversation, not an audition. Be prepared, be yourself, and focus on building a relationship rather than closing the deal.
Remember, this first call is setting the foundation for everything that comes after. Whether we end up supporting this specific proposal or not, you’re establishing yourself as someone we could fund. The artists and organizations I’ve been most excited to fund over the years aren’t necessarily the ones who had the most polished pitch on our first call. They’re the ones who showed up ready to have a real conversation, who were honest about what they were trying to do, and who seemed genuinely interested in a partnership. That’s what makes a successful first call with a funder.