Many funders have taken only the first baby step into the electronic age, requiring you to submit your traditional application by e-mail. This gives you the advantage of formatting and reviewing your application just as if you were submitting it on paper. E-mail submission makes it easy for the program officer to cut and paste from your proposal when preparing for a panel or trustee’s meeting.

When submitting a proposal by e-mail, you might want to save the different parts (cover letter, proposal, budget, etc.) as separate files. Make your nonprofit’s name part of the name of each file (such as “LiteraryWorks-budget.xls”) to help the funder find them later. Use the message of the e-mail to reinforce something in the cover letter and thank them for reviewing your proposal, but keep it very short. Put the name of your nonprofit and what you’re sending (proposal, letter of inquiry, etc.) in the e-mail subject line.

If you are e-mailing a spreadsheet, don’t unintentionally give the funder access to details about your budget process you might prefer they not know. Before submitting a budget by e-mail, I always copy the entire spreadsheet to a new one using “Edit/ Paste Special/Values Only” series of commands. That way, your formulas and cell comments don’t get e-mailed along with the numbers. Even better, paste your spreadsheet into the document with your other grant materials using “Edit/Paste Special/ Picture” series of commands.