Letter Proposals
Smaller foundations often ask you to submit your proposal in the form of a letter, frequently specifying the maximum number of pages you can use. I gave you two examples of letter proposals in Chapter 6 in the discussion on proposals to individuals.
When foundation trustees have little or no professional staff to assist them, a letter proposal is a practical means to reduce the amount of materials they must evaluate in their grantmaking. Keeping that in mind, you should scrupulously respect any length restrictions. Don’t depend on adding attachments that haven’t been requested to get around the length restrictions, because they won’t be read.
WORDS TO THE WISE
When a funder asks that you restrict your proposal to a set number of pages, don’t employ formatting tricks, such as smaller margins and fonts, to squeeze in more words. You won’t help your proposal, and in fact, you might have your proposal rejected out of hand because it’s too hard to read.
That’s not to say letter proposals shouldn’t have any enclosures. Funders requiring a letter proposal usually ask for a program budget and proof of nonprofit status to be attached at minimum. Enclosing an organizational brochure along with the proposal provides the funder with additional background without adding much in the way of bulk to the proposal. But remember that everything you need the funder to understand must appear within the letter itself.
A letter proposal must …
• Function as a cover letter by making a connection with the reader on a personal level and tying the proposal to the funder’s interests.
• Act as an executive summary by presenting the critical points of the proposal in condensed form.
• Include all the parts of a full proposal such as the statement of need, process, goals and objectives, key personnel, and evaluation procedure.
• Provide a context for and references to the budget.
If you look back at the sample letters in Chapter 6, you’ll see that those very short letter proposals do all these things:
• Establish the personal connection by reference to the donor’s friend and include his past support to show why the proposal is being sent to him. If this had been a foundation proposal, an extra sentence or two would have been used to tie the proposal to the foundation’s interests.
• Demonstrate the need for the new animal shelter in a series of bullet points in executive summary fashion, with the objectives for the new shelter in a parallel series of bullet points.
• Mention only the fundraising goal for the program. But had the letters been longer, details on the costs of the building could have been added.
The letter proposal enables you to make a more personal appeal because the format encourages a “me and you” tone. I prefer this type of application to all others because of the personal touch, even though it requires greater discipline to keep the length down while making all the important points.
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