There’s nothing quite like including a quote from a satisfied client to strengthen and personalize your proposal. Your charity probably receives letters like this from time to time. Be sure executive and program staffs know to give you copies of any that come in.

It’s great if you can quote exactly what someone said, but frequently he will use incorrect grammar or include something personal in the middle of his praise for you. Don’t use awkward devices common in academic writing such as “[sic]” for misspelled words or bad grammar, ellipses to show that you omitted some words, or “[T]oday” to show that a word did not originally begin the sentence.

Improve the grammar and make the quote shorter. No one, including the person who gave you the quote, will ever notice the difference. But never make any changes in the meaning of the quote. Retain as much of the original language as you can to maintain the tone of the original.

Several times in my career, I’ve wished I had a quote from a famous person whom my charity helped in her early days. Chances are, your famous former client would be happy to give you a quote but just doesn’t have the time to put one together. On several occasions, I’ve included in a letter or e-mail a prewritten quote to be edited or ignored. One famous author changed all the adjectives but otherwise stuck with my quote.