Every applicant who applies to your grant programme is also an observer of your organisation's culture. How you communicate — whether you acknowledge applications promptly, whether decline notifications include useful feedback, whether active grantees receive timely communication about their milestones — is part of the funder-grantee relationship. For government funders, it is also a public accountability matter.
This guide covers the communications that matter at each stage of the grant lifecycle, and what good practice looks like.
An acknowledgement is the first communication an applicant receives after submitting. It should:
Confirm receipt. Confirm that the application was received and is in the system. This sounds basic, but applicants who are uncertain whether their submission was received will email or call to check — creating unnecessary enquiries and anxiety.
Give a timeline. State when the applicant will hear about the outcome. Even an approximate timeline ("decisions will be notified by [date]") reduces follow-up enquiries and manages expectations.
Confirm what happens next. Briefly explain the assessment process — "applications will be assessed by an independent panel" or "our programme team will contact you if we need additional information." This reduces speculation.
Be automated but personal. Acknowledgement emails should be automatically triggered on submission (not sent manually) but should not read like a generic form receipt. Using the applicant's name and the application title makes it feel deliberate.
Example timing: Automated on submission.
If assessors need clarification or additional information from applicants:
Route through the platform. Information requests should come from the programme office (not individual assessors), through the platform, and with a clear deadline for response. Direct assessor-to-applicant contact can create COI problems and inconsistent handling.
Ask only what is necessary. Requests for additional information should be focused on gaps in the application, not fishing expeditions. Broad requests for extensive additional materials disadvantage smaller organisations with less staff capacity.
Document the exchange. The question and the response should be recorded in the grant file, not just in email chains. This is both an audit trail requirement and a practical necessity if the person handling the application changes.
The notification to successful applicants is one of the most important communications in the grant cycle. It should:
Be warm and specific. Successful applicants have invested significant time. The notification should feel like a genuine offer — not just a form letter.
Clearly state the grant amount. If the approved amount differs from the amount requested, explain this clearly.
Set out the next steps. What does the applicant need to do to formally accept the grant? Sign an agreement? Provide bank details? Reply by a certain date?
State the key conditions. The notification should summarise the key conditions of the grant — not just "see the grant agreement" — so applicants understand what they are accepting before they sign.
Include contact information. Who should the grantee contact with questions? A named person or a programme email address that will actually be monitored?
Set expectations for the agreement process. How long will it take to receive the grant agreement? What happens if the grantee doesn't sign within a certain period?
Example timing: Within 5 working days of the funding decision.
Decline notifications are an accountability and applicant-experience consideration:
Acknowledge the investment. Applicants who invested significant time preparing an application deserve an acknowledgement of that effort.
State the reason clearly. "Your application was unsuccessful" without explanation is unhelpful and is not considered good practice for government funders or larger foundations. The reason for decline should be stated — even if brief: "the programme received more strong applications than available funding" or "your application did not score as highly as funded applications on the [criterion] criteria."
Be careful with specifics. Decline notifications should not include detailed assessor comments (which may contain opinions that could be challenged) or specific score details (which create comparison benchmarks that can be misleading out of context). A general statement of the basis for the decision is the appropriate level of detail.
Include appeals information if relevant. If your programme has an appeals process, the decline notification is where to explain it — including the grounds for appeal and the deadline.
Consider a feedback call. For high-value grants or regular applicants, offering a brief feedback conversation (not a challenge to the decision) is good practice. It helps applicants improve future applications and maintains relationships.
Example timing: Within 5 working days of notifications to successful applicants.
Grant agreement. The formal offer is typically a grant agreement — a contract setting out the grant purpose, conditions, payment schedule, and reporting requirements. This should be issued promptly after the notification and the acceptance/counter-signature process should be tracked.
Relationship communications. For larger grants or multi-year relationships, scheduled check-ins between formal reporting milestones maintain the relationship and surface issues early.
Milestone reminders. Automated reminders ahead of reporting milestones — "your progress report is due in 14 days" — reduce late reporting without requiring manual follow-up for each grant.
Reporting acknowledgements. When grantees submit reports, acknowledging receipt (automatically or manually) and confirming the next milestone closes the communication loop.
Payment notifications. When payments are processed, notifying grantees — "your first instalment of $X has been transferred to [bank account]" — reduces enquiries about payment status and provides a record.
Variations and extensions. When a variation is requested, approved, or declined, formal written communication (through the platform, not email) creates the record and manages expectations.
Automated triggers. The most important communications — acknowledgements, milestone reminders — should be automatically triggered by system events, not manually drafted and sent each time.
Template management. Communication templates should be stored in the platform, versioned, and accessible to authorised staff. This ensures consistency and prevents ad-hoc variations that create inconsistency.
Communication log. All substantive communication with applicants and grantees should be logged in the grant file — whether sent through the platform or recorded manually. The grant file should be the complete record.
Batch communications. For programme-level communications (notifying all successful and declined applicants at once), the platform should support sending to cohorts rather than individually.
Tahua manages grant communications through the full lifecycle — automated acknowledgements, milestone reminders, notification templates, and communication logging in the grant file.