Applicant communication is the face of your grants programme. How promptly you respond, how clearly you explain decisions, and how consistently you follow up shapes how applicants — and the broader sector — perceive your organisation.
It's also one of the most time-consuming parts of running a grants programme, particularly when you're managing multiple rounds simultaneously. Without a systematic approach, communications fall through the gaps, duplicated effort accumulates, and the same questions get answered from scratch every time.
Here's how to manage applicant communications at scale.
In a single-round programme, communication spikes happen at predictable points: when the round opens, around the deadline, after assessment, and at acquittal. In a multi-round programme, these spikes overlap across different rounds, creating a sustained high-communication workload.
A programme manager running three concurrent rounds might simultaneously be handling:
- Pre-deadline queries for Round A (opens this month)
- Assessment outcome notifications for Round B (just completed)
- Acquittal follow-ups for Round C (closed six months ago)
Without a system, this is reactive and error-prone. With a system, it's manageable.
The single highest-leverage investment in communications management is building a library of standard templates for every predictable communication type.
At minimum, create templates for:
Round opening: Programme overview, key dates, eligibility summary, where to find information, how to contact the team with questions
Acknowledgement of application received: Automatic if your system supports it; otherwise a brief confirmation within two business days
Request for additional information: Clear description of what's needed, deadline for response, consequence if not received
EOI outcome (shortlisted): Congratulations, what happens next, full application timeline and requirements
EOI outcome (not shortlisted): Brief explanation, encouragement to contact with questions, guidance on future rounds if appropriate
Full application outcome (funded): Offer details, grant conditions, what the grantee needs to do next, contact for questions
Full application outcome (declined): Clear, brief explanation of why the application wasn't funded, whether feedback is available, guidance on future rounds
Reporting reminders: What's due, when, how to submit, who to contact with questions
Acquittal confirmation: Confirmation of receipt, timeline for processing, what happens next
Templates don't mean generic. They mean consistent structure with spaces for personalisation — including the applicant's name, project name, specific reason for decisions, and tailored guidance where relevant.
Applicants who don't know when to expect a response send follow-up emails. Applicants who know you're processing submissions and will respond within a defined window generally don't.
Publish expected response times on your programme website and in your acknowledgement emails:
- General enquiries: within 3 business days
- Application outcome notifications: within X weeks of the decision date
- Reporting acknowledgements: within 5 business days of submission
Then meet those timelines consistently. Unreliable response times — even when the delays aren't long — erode confidence in your programme more than a slow but predictable response time would.
In a multi-round programme, the same questions come up repeatedly. Building a query log — a simple document tracking the questions you receive and the answers you give — serves two purposes:
First, it identifies frequently asked questions that should be addressed in your programme guidelines or FAQ. If you're answering the same question about eligibility criteria every round, that question should be in the guidelines.
Second, it ensures consistency. When two different programme staff answer the same question differently, applicants compare notes. A query log means answers are consistent regardless of who responds.
There's a meaningful difference between helping applicants understand the programme (appropriate) and helping them write stronger applications (potentially unfair).
Define and document what your team will and won't do in response to pre-application queries:
In scope: Explaining eligibility criteria, clarifying programme guidelines, confirming whether a project type is within scope, providing information about the assessment process
Out of scope: Reviewing draft applications before submission, advising applicants on how to strengthen specific sections, sharing information about other applicants' proposals
Apply this consistently across all applicants. If you spend an hour on the phone with one applicant helping them develop their proposal and five minutes with another, you've introduced a fairness problem into your process.
If applicant communications live in individual email inboxes, they're invisible to the rest of your team. When the person who handled an application leaves, their email history goes with them.
Grants management software that logs communications against the application record means any team member can see the full history. Handovers become smoother. Follow-ups don't fall through the gaps. The programme has an institutional memory independent of any individual.
If you're not yet using a grants system for communication tracking, even a shared inbox (a programme email address rather than individual addresses) and a shared folder structure for filing correspondence significantly reduces the risk of lost communications.
The highest-volume communication period is typically the week after funding decisions are announced. Unsuccessful applicants have questions, successful applicants need to understand conditions and next steps, and some applicants will dispute decisions.
Prepare for this surge:
- Have your decision rationale documented and ready to reference
- Have a clear process for applicants who want to escalate or query decisions
- Ensure your whole team knows the decision outcomes before they're communicated externally, so they can handle inbound queries consistently
- Consider a brief FAQ for common post-decision questions that you can share proactively
The post-decision surge is time-limited. Planning for it prevents it from becoming a crisis.
This article is part of the complete guide: How to Run a Multi-Round Grants Programme Without Losing Track.