You've worked hard on your European funding application, but it's been rejected. That's not the end of the story. Lindsay Dalton-Hopwood explains how the British Red Cross resubmitted a failed application, and got funded- and how you can too.

So there I was, grim-faced and fed up, reading our scorecard. Our project had been rejected. We’d put so much work into it and had scored 76 per cent. And of course like any good fundraiser I’d requested the feedback – which doesn’t always come automatically but is nevertheless recorded. “Too much of this, not enough of that, missing some of the other.”

But it was a good project. No, it was a great project, and it deserved another go. So I found my smile, phoned the project manager, and explained that all we needed was to heed the scorecard comments, tweak some sections, and see it as encouragement to get it right next time.

All? Well it was hard work, all-consuming occasionally, but this is one of the things about European fundraising. It is big, it is challenging - downright difficult at times – but all the more exciting for it.

Our first mistake - we got cocky. It was a great project and we felt its genius would overcome its cost. We were wrong. European added value is important, and is itemised specifically within the application scorecard. And is getting more so. In the move towards the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2014-2020), added value will take even more prominence.

Our second mistake, which largely stemmed from our first - we jumped straight in, thinking we were ready. But a great project idea is really only the start of it.