Stage one: Seven of Pentacles (perseverance and dedicated effort)
You’ve sown your seeds and pulled together all your internal resources (and some external ones too) to put together a fundraising proposal for a new programme. It’s peppered with all the right buzzwords and a healthy amount of ‘donorese’, and you’ve got three different Google Docs versions of it, one for each of three potential funders calling for proposals. So something will come through. Right?
Stage two: Ace of Pentacles (new beginnings and opportunities)
While you’re waiting to hear back about your proposals, you get invited to participate in a roundtable conversation—in which, believe it or not—the funder you have been trying to reach for months is present. You lay down your elevator pitch and allow yourself to feel cautiously optimistic.
Stage three: Knight of swords (being dynamic and quick-witted)
The funder you met at the roundtable introduces you to their head of grants. Between this and the chat you had with them, you’re feeling way more than cautiously optimistic—you’re positive this is going to work out. Sure, this is a thirteen step process that involves getting new audits done and setting up a completely new finance and reporting system, but it has to work out.
Stage four: The Tower (chaos and destruction)
Except that it doesn’t. Global governments, and priorities, shift, and two months later you get an email saying they had a ‘delightful time learning more about the mission and vision and are in awe of the brilliant work that you are doing and would love to stay in the loop’. But it’s a no.
Stage five: Ten of Swords (being overwhelmed)
So now you are burnt out and feeling quite fizzled out, but what can you do? Time to pursue one of your other leads.
