This is particularly true for federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Persistence can pay off.
If your proposal is turned down by a funding agency, you are strongly encouraged to obtain reviewers' comments, revise the proposal with those comments in mind, and resubmit the proposal, either to the same agency or to a different one. If you resubmit the proposal to the same agency, it is helpful to respond specifically to reviewers' comments in the narrative of the revised proposal, pointing out changes made to strengthen the proposal in the areas judged to be weak and clarifying information that may have been misinterpreted in the initial review. You can help your cause by working closely with program officers, being willing to rethink aspects of the proposal based on the funding agency's feedback, and being as objective as possible in revising proposals. RSS staff can familiarize you with the agency review process and, if consulted sufficiently in advance of the grant deadline, can give you specific advice about proposal revision. They also can suggest ways to tailor a proposal to the needs and interests of an alternative sponsor.