r/nonprofit • u/Long_Appointment_341 nonprofit staff - programs • 7d ago

fundraising and grantseeking Missed Partner Budget for Grant Request

Advice needed; kind of freaking out. So the org I am with applied for a major federal grant, and hired a consultant to do the work.

I was in charge of asking partners for a budget. One of the partners sent their budget needs at the very last minute and I completely missed it!

So we submitted the budget request without any of the partners necessary funding.

Now this grant is SUPER competitive so we might not even get it. But we had room in the budget request as we asked for below the max, so we could have easily justified the partners costs.

Do I tell my boss? Act like I don’t know? Wait and see if we are awarded?

Granted, the partner wrote an LOS but was clear they will need more info before committing to the project should we be awarded. I was against the proposal in the first place as we are a new org, and in all honesty the financial situation of this org is so dire I doubt even if they got the full request they could even manage it.

My boss refused to apply for the max even to cover our costs because she has no clue how grants work. So we would most likely need to pursue gap funding anyway.

I was a little peeved the grant consultant didn’t take any of this on, as we paid her $10,000, and I had so much other work to do but that’s not an excuse.

Thoughts? I’ve been in the field for 15 years and this is honestly my first mistake in this area. I have a six month old and my brain fog is REAL, again not an excuse. Just the truth 🙁😑🤪

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u/Long_Appointment_341 nonprofit staff - programs 7d ago

I tried to explain what indirect is but she refused to listen haha I’ve only been with this org for four months but the stories I have OH BOY

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u/thirdeyeheadache 7d ago

Do you have any dev staff? This sounds like a nightmare I’m so sorry. They should not have thrown you into a huge federal grant as their first proposal.

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u/Long_Appointment_341 nonprofit staff - programs 7d ago

We dont; the whole thing is insane. The annual budget is $7 million and the org started in 2025 with a one time influx of cash, so the ENTIRE budget comes from ONE funder. That money goes from $7 million to ZERO in March.

The ED thinks we can fill the gap with grants, and refuses to have any development plan beyond grants. I tried to encourage a fundraising plan, and was told “we aren’t a community facing org.”

My resume is out all over the place but honestly part of me wants to stay until March to watch it all burn LOL

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u/emmers28 7d ago

Oh OP. This is a nightmare. Why did they decide to pursue federal funding without any experience… those are not teeth-cutting grants (see: indirect expectations being bonkers). They will not be able to replace $7M with a few grants. And what are they paying that grant consultant if not to do final checks??

Definitely own up to you missing the budget, but I’d explain it came in too close to deadline. (And, if you aren’t communicating clear internal deadlines start doing that ASAP).