How to Write a Grant Proposal

Cheryl Carter New, James Aaron Quick

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781119267676
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Nonprofit Organizations & Charities
• Index: Business

Step-by-step guidance on how to write effective grants that get the funding you need. Complete with examples of fully-completed proposals, you'll also get an easy-to-use companion website containing guide sheets and templates that can be easily downloaded, customized, and printed. The authors provide examples of completed proposals and numerous case studies to demonstrate how the grant-seeking process typically works. Order your copy today!

Chapter 1
Cover Letter

The advantage of love at first sight is that it delays a second sight.

Natalie Clifford Barney ¹

At a Glance

What Else Is It Called?

• Transmittal letter or letter of transmission

When Is It Used?

A cover letter should be sent whenever it is not prohibited. With some requests for proposal, there is a strict page limitation with explicit directions to follow for every page. In this case, a cover letter is not usually appropriate. However, you can leverage a cover letter to make an excellent first impression so it should be included whenever possible. Normally with proposal to a foundation or a state program, a cover letter can be included. Often with a federal grant program, a cover letter is not included.

Why Is It Used?

A cover letter is an introduction. It is a lot like making introductions in person. It is a way of getting started on the right foot by introducing yourself instead of launching into the request right away.

Key Concepts

• Brief.
• Positive and confident.
• Concise and inviting.
• Thank you.

Formatting Issues

Make the letter one page only, keeping it as brief as possible. The letter should be printed on original letterhead. The type should be a 12-point text font, and the margins should be generous, which means at least one inch. We suggest you not fully justify your text (straight margins on both left and right). Use left justification and leave the right margin ragged (rag right). There should be a reference line between the inside address and salutation that clearly identifies the grant program for which the proposal is being submitted.

The salutation should be to a specific person. You may not use “To whom it may concern” or “Dear Colleague” salutations. They show that you have not done the basic research to determine the grant program contact person. The letter should come from (be signed by) the highest ranking person possible in your organization (the correspondent). The letter should be signed by a person, not a machine or a computer and preferably with blue ink. A letter signed with blue ink is indisputably an original. Don’t forget to include the “prepared by” line at the bottom of the letter. Show professionalism in all ways—including the smallest.

Detailed Discussion

A cover letter is an opportunity for you to make an inviting introduction to the grant maker about your organization and also about your project. This is a place for creativity but not elaborate language. You want to warmly invite the reader to read about your excellent project.

The cover letter is one place to push the most obvious “hot buttons.” What is a hot button? It is an issue that is critical to the funder. As we have explained in detail in our other books, you must meet the funder’s agenda to receive an award. By reading every bit of information you can find on the funder, you will see recurring topics and themes. Perhaps the funder is particularly interested in diversity, or projects that promote preventive health care, or projects that promote family unity. These are hot buttons—issues that are at the heart of the reason the funder has gone to the trouble of setting up funds to grant.

Funders do not just decide to offer grants willy nilly. There is a problem or several problems they want to solve. If they had enough funding to solve the problem themselves, they would certainly try to do just that. For example, assume one grant maker wants to stop drug and alcohol abuse in the United States. How much money would it take to do that? More than even our federal and state governments have. So with the funds the grant maker has, they “seed” projects that, in their opinion, have a good chance of making an impact. They fund projects that can be modeled by other groups to help in their communities. Do they fund projects to set up animal shelters? Or water conservation? No, they fund projects that obviously and rationally directly impact drug and alcohol use in this country. This is just one reason why it is a huge mistake to write one proposal and send it to dozens of funders—you are wasting your time if your project does not match the hot buttons of the funder.

How do you find out about a given funder’s hot buttons? You read their literature—all of it. You read about projects they have funded in the past. You read any articles you can find about the funder. Most funders have an Internet presence now and that makes it a lot easier, but some are glad to mail you information about their programs. Funders do not keep their key agendas secret and they are not playing a game with you—they want to invest in the very best projects they can.

Let’s look at a couple of examples from actual information published by grant makers.

The Ford Foundation² is a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide. Our goals are to:

• Strengthen democratic values,
• Reduce poverty and injustice,
• Promote international cooperation and
• Advance human achievement

This has been our purpose for more than half a century.

A fundamental challenge facing every society is to create political, economic and social systems that promote peace, human welfare and the sustainability of the environment on which life depends. We believe that the best way to meet this challenge is to encourage initiatives by those living and working closest to where problems are located; to promote collaboration among the nonprofit, government and business sectors, and to ensure participation by men and women from ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Cover Letter
• Chapter 2: Table of Contents
• Chapter 3: Executive Summary
• Chapter 4: Project Summary
• Chapter 5: Problem Statement
• Chapter 6: Mission, Goals, and Objectives
• Chapter 7: Project Description
• Chapter 8: Project Management Plan
• Chapter 9: Documentation Plan
• Chapter 10: Evaluation Plan
• Chapter 11: Dissemination Plan
• Chapter 12: Continuation Plan
• Chapter 13: Key Personnel Biographies
• Chapter 14: Timelines
• Chapter 15: Budget Summary
• Chapter 16: Budget Justification
• Chapter 17: Appendix
• Chapter 18: Bibliography
• Chapter 19: Introduction and Forms
• Index
• End User License Agreement