When a funder says no
Follow Lanternfield Community Theatre as a funder turns down a request: recording the decline and the funder's feedback, setting up the next cycle and seeing why requests are declined.
- 5 min
- Every plan
Screens from October 2026
The answer
About three months ago, Dana Whitfield emailed Penhallow Family Foundation a $15,000 request for capacity funding. Penhallow funded the theatre once before, in 2023. This time a decline letter arrives: the panel liked the youth program, but this round it funded groups with matching commitments.
On Penhallow's page in Funders, Dana logs the email with Log an interaction. It joins the Timeline, where the whole team can see it. See A funder's profile.
Closing the record
On the funding record, Dana opens the stage menu and chooses Declined. Close this record opens with The funder declined selected.
- Under Reason, she chooses Too many strong applicants.
- She copies the panel's words into What the funder said. The feedback stays on the record and on Penhallow's page in Funders.
- She turns on Remind us to reapply next cycle. When the next cycle opens (estimate) starts about 11 months out, and she keeps it.
Then she selects Record decline. See Change stage and record decisions.
What the closed record keeps
The record moves to Declined. Its Overview says This request was declined and shows the reason, the date and the funder's feedback, with a Next cycle link. Its tasks, notes and materials stay as they were. Its dates leave the calendar and stop sending reminders.
A decline doesn't change Penhallow's relationship stage in Funders. It stays at Lapsed, the stage for a funder that gave before but not recently.
The next cycle
The reminder is a new renewal record for the same funder and program, at Prospect. It waits in Pipeline with Renewal window opens and the estimated date. Its Overview links back to the earlier request, and its Activity tab keeps the funder's feedback as a note for whoever writes the next request.
Its Renewal window opens date shows on the calendar marked Estimate, with reminders before it. When Penhallow announces its dates, Dana updates the date and marks how sure it is. See Add deadlines.
Why requests are declined
In Insights, the Funders card counts declines by reason. For the theatre's fiscal year, Why asks were declined shows one: Too many strong applicants, with $15,000 requested. The decline also counts in the win rate: 50%, from one award and one decline, marked Early read. See Insights.
