An Executive Summary Is Not Another Cover Letter
You might think an excellent cover letter perfectly summarizes your program, and therefore is also an executive summary, but that’s not the case. These two related parts of a proposal have some key differences.
Whereas your goal was to make the cover letter personal by connecting with the individual and with the institution, in the executive summary, you should present your proposal in a more formal manner. This isn’t the place to mention that your kids are on the same soccer team.
In the cover letter you highlighted the key reasons they should fund your program. In the executive summary, you should include all the reasons for funding. If something doesn’t fit into the summary, you probably don’t need it in the proposal. Keep the summary to one page, and make it a terrific page. Often the executive summary and the budget are the only parts copied for everyone evaluating your proposal to see.
HOW TO SAY IT
Save the personality for the cover letter. Make the executive summary businesslike and straightforward. It should still, however, convey to the reader your passion for the program and its importance for your constituents.
Here’s a sample executive summary for the same grant as the cover letter from the African American Literary Council given earlier.
The African American Literary Council requests a $10,000 grant from the James and Mary Brush Foundation to support the publication of Black American Voices, a quarterly magazine of fiction and literary criticism focusing on African American writers in northern Florida.
Begun in 1990 as a 16-page unbound photocopied book and circulated largely as a free publication in regional bookstores, Black American Voices has since grown into a respected literary journal with 6,600 subscribers, including 220 university libraries throughout the United States. Issues now typically consist of 64 pages, which are saddle-stitched and printed in two colors.
Short stories originally published in Voices have won O. Henry and other respected awards. Major publishers, such as Penguin Putnam, have published writers we introduced. Essays in Voices have similarly been honored by the African American Journalists Association and others.
Black American Voices has now reached a turning point in its development. The subscription base, although steady, has not grown significantly in the last two years. The grant requested would, in part, make possible additional marketing through a 100,000-piece direct-mail campaign, which will result in 900 to 1,100 new subscribers. A larger subscription base increases earned income, which will help sustain publication in future years. We must expand the subscription base now, when the Butler County Community Foundation’s long-standing support is ending because of their limit on consecutive-year funding. The Community Foundation has agreed to make a $15,000 one-time grant specifically to support the subscription campaign. Your funding would complete the funding needed to enable us to take this important step forward.
Our editor, Tanya Mills, oversees the journal’s content and works closely with our marketing consultant to make the journal more visually appealing. A consultant, Mark Jacobs, has developed the marketing plan, including the proposed direct-mail campaign.
Your grant will allow us to achieve two important goals simultaneously:
1. It will allow us to bring the writers in Black American Voices to the wider audience they deserve.
2. It will increase earned income that will help support the publication for years to come.
Sheila Burns, O. Henry Award winner and one of the first short story writers we published, has written us that “Black American Voices believed in me when I wasn’t sure if I believed in myself. Seeing my first published story changed everything for me. All I have accomplished since can be traced back to the success of that one story.”
Help us introduce more writers like Sheila Burns to the literary community. Help Black American Voices grow.
Note that the executive summary concentrates on the program for which funding is sought. The other programs the charity offers are not mentioned. (You can cover them in an organizational history, which would be one of the attachments.) The executive summary gets more specific about the program, including how you will use the grant.
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