The ultimate cheat sheet for grant proposal documents: Part 2

Part 1 listed the information you’ll want to collect during the prospect research stage. In Part 2, we’ll continue down our checklist with documents you’ll need when submitting your letters of inquiry or grant proposals.

Submitting a grant proposal

Letter of intent. Grantmakers are increasingly asking for a letter of intent (LOI), a 1-3-page condensed version of your proposal. An LOI should present the need or problem you have identified, the proposed solution, and your organization’s qualifications for implementing that solution. Here are some tips on how to write LOIs and samples.

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Full proposal sent to this specific funder. This includes the cover letter, full proposal—which usually includes an executive summary, need statement, project description, project goals and objectives, organizational information, and project budget—and any attachments. Attach any records/receipts that show when it was mailed or received. Many online formats will let you review your submission then print a copy or save it as a PDF for your own records. To be safe, consider composing your responses in a separate document, then copy-pasting them into the online form.

Data and worksheets used to prepare grant proposals. You’ll want these readily available if the funder (or anyone else) has questions about your proposal. Also, this historical data will make preparing renewal requests and future proposals much easier. Common examples of data/worksheets include:

• Calculations, formulas, and/or worksheets to calculate budget figures
• Data (and source) used to determine salaries
• Written estimates, price sheets, other data used to determine non-personnel costs
• Reports, statistics, etc. that support your needs statement

Other supporting documents. This is content you would like funders to know about but might not be able to include in your proposal package. Examples include: Your nonprofit’s most recent annual report, grant report, letters of support, media coverage, city or county resolutions that applaud your work. Statistics on your organization’s board, leadership, and staff demographics can also be helpful to the funder. (Note: file this with your fundraising project, rather than make copies for each funder’s folder.)

You may be tempted to include some or all of these items with your proposal to show how great your org is. Don’t, unless the grantmaker has asked for it. Follow the instructions and provide only what is requested. It may just be one more item to you, but multiply that by 10 or 100, and that amounts to a lot of extra content that the funder has to deal with.

Funder’s response. Whatever the format, keep a copy of it in the folder for your project and funder. If the response came by phone, take notes on the call as described in Part 1.

After submitting a grant proposal

Notice of receipt. If the funder doesn’t send a confirmation, you could call after a week or two to follow up (unless the funder says “no phone calls”). Confirm that they received your proposal, see if they would like any additional information, and ask when you will be notified of their decision.

Funder’s request(s) for additional information. Keep a copy of the request and the content you sent in response.

Site visit notes. This includes any correspondence or requests for further information made before, during, and after the visit, and your responses. This also includes the agenda, talking points, and other materials you prepared for the visit.

Notes on follow-up calls/emails. It’s OK to occasionally check on the status of your proposal, especially if you have relevant updates, for example:

• Your executive director or project manager has changed
• You got a grant or other major contribution for the same project
• There have been significant, unforeseen changes to the project’s plan or budget
• Your organization received awards or other notable recognition

Third-party follow-ups. If board members or major donors connect with people they know at the foundation on your organization’s behalf, ask them to share what they learned from those conversations, and keep notes on each interaction (note: these can also happen before you submit an LOI/proposal, too).

This article is an update on Document Checklist for Grant Proposals: Part 2, published in December 2014. We thank the authors of that original article, Richard Hallman and Sandy Pon.

See Part 1 of this series.