Many calls for applications for proposals have deadlines, and many applicants ask themselves, if they should apply right at the deadline or earlier. There are a couple of reasons that speak strongly for submitting a proposal ahead of the deadline. In this article we will take a detailed look at why this is the case.
Today, most proposals have to be submitted electronically. This means, either you have to send an email with the necessary documents attached, or you use a portal provided by the donor. Here, you have to upload all your documents. Now imagine a very competitive call where many people try to upload huge files at the same time because the deadline is looming. The server might not make it and collapse – leading to many people missing the deadline.
The same goes for your own end. Particularly in developing countries, the internet connection is not always reliable. Imagine the internet crashes right before you wanted to submit, and you only have one hour left before the deadline.
All these issues are easily avoided by sending the application a couple of days earlier. If anything goes wrong, you still have plenty of time to fix it.
Another reason why you should not leave your proposal until the very last minute are the additional documents. Many times, you have to send some documents with your proposal. These can be your own registration documents, references, or registration numbers with the donor. Imagine you want to submit your proposal, but cannot find your registration document. Or you realize that it has been outdated. If you submit right on deadline, you might not be able to fix it. But if you have more time, you can still get a copy or renew your documents.
The same goes for registration numbers with the donors. It might take up to a week to get some of these, so you should budget enough time for this process to go through. This is particulatly the case with government donors, who often require a lot of paperwork from the applicants.
We have talked about some common-sense reasons for submitting a proposal before the deadline now. But do donors actually prefer it as well and give you extra points for it? While we do not know how exactly donors evaluate proposals and it varies from agency to agency, it is doubtful that you get an advantage from submitting early. Nevertheless, the reasons we have talked about should be enough to convince you not to do everything at the last minute.
In our section Proposal FAILs, we actually share a story where submitting right on deadline caused problems and ultimately lead to the proposal to fail. Do you have similar stories? Please share them with us, so we can all learn from each other.
Also, do not miss this article: 5 Things that you should never forget before submitting a proposal.
Eva is based in Germany and has worked for nearly a decade with NGOs on the grassroots level in Nepal in the field of capacity development and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. Before that, she worked in South America and Europe with different organizations. She holds a Ph.D. in geography and her field of research was sustainability and inclusion in development projects.
