Letter of Inquiry Template for Nonprofits

Write one complete letter before you write any funder's version. UNC Chapel Hill's Writing Center notes that most proposal writers approach several funders. It suggests they start from a general proposal, then tailor a version to each one's guidelines and priorities¹.

Give the master a section for every question a funder might ask. Fordham University's proposal-writing resources frame a letter of inquiry as seven questions²:

• Need: why are you requesting a grant?
• Background: who are you, and what is your mission?
• Goals: what will you do?
• Methods: how will you do it?
• Outcomes: how will you know you've done it?
• Qualifications: why are you qualified to do it?
• Support: what does it cost, and who else supports this work?

Add the amount you're requesting and a named contact. Let the master run long, with each section able to stand alone, since some online forms ask for each part in its own box.

Before you edit anything, read each funder's guidelines in full. Candid, the nonprofit formed from Foundation Center and GuideStar, recommends strict adherence to a funder's application guidelines and procedures³. It also warns that one standard proposal used for several grants raises your risk of missing key requirements⁴. Record these for every funder, in one place:

• The limit and its unit: pages, words, characters or boxes
• Format rules attached to it, such as font, type size and margins
• Every required part, in the funder's own words, and any set order or headings
• Attachments it accepts at this stage, if any
• Whether it allows contact about a pending inquiry, and when
• The deadline and its stated reply time

Copy each rule word for word. Where the guidelines are silent, such as a page limit with no font named, record the silence rather than borrowing another funder's rule. Add anything a program officer has told you directly, since it can override the published guidelines.

Candid says letters of inquiry are short, no more than three pages⁵, but funders set their own limits, and not always in pages. Fordham's examples of online inquiry forms show the range. A New York City foundation wants a 700-word project description². A national foundation splits its form into eight boxes, with limits from 350 to 1,500 characters.

Measure your master letter once, then convert each limit against it. For a page limit, set the letter in that funder's font, type size and margins, then scale its word count to the pages allowed. For a character limit, divide the limit by your letter's characters per word.

Read the last column, not the second. The biggest stated number, 3,000 characters, holds the least text. Two funders that each allow 2 pages are 618 words apart because of their type size and margins.

Character limits need one more check: whether spaces count. Google Docs, for one, reports characters and characters without spaces⁶. In the template's sample letter, spaces are 16% of all characters, so a 3,000-character box holds 494 of its words if spaces count and 591 if not. If the form doesn't say, plan for the stricter count, then paste your text in and read the form's own counter.

List every part any funder requires down the side of a grid, with the funders across the top. Mark who requires each part and whether your master covers it. Parts every funder wants deserve your best editing. Parts only one funder wants are the ones that get missed.

Funders' own lists catch what a generic outline misses. The New York City foundation in Fordham's examples asks for the number of people or organizations that will directly benefit². It also asks how your results align with the results it seeks.

Tailoring changes emphasis, not the project. UNC's Writing Center calls reframing a project to fit a grant's requirements legitimate and necessary, unless it fundamentally changes the project's goals or outcomes¹. Work on a fresh copy of the master for each funder, in this order:

1. 1

   Delete what it didn't ask for

   Sections another funder required can come out first, because this funder won't look for them.

2. 2

   Add what it requires

   Write any missing part before compressing anything. New sections serve every funder that asks for them.

3. 3

   Compress the rest

   Trim to the converted limit. If that means cutting more than about a third of what's left, narrow the letter's focus instead of shaving every sentence.

4. 4

   Measure again in its unit

   Recount in pages, words or characters, the way this funder counts, after every round of edits.

The order matters most when a limit looks impossible. In the template's example, one funder's box holds 494 words against a 982-word master, which looks like cutting half the letter. But 213 of the master's words cover parts that funder never asked for. Delete them first and the real cut is 275 words, not 488.

Send each version the way its funder asks, and log the date, channel and any confirmation number. Follow up only where the guidelines allow contact, and only after the reply window they give. Keep the note short, with one new fact such as a signed partner agreement, not a reminder that you're waiting.

Record each answer in the funder's own terms: invited, declined, no reply, or sent back for breaking a rule. For anything short of an invitation, write down when to try again, such as the next cycle or a new program officer.

To draft for a single funder, try the letter of inquiry writer. Once invited, move on to the grant proposal template and grant budget template. This page's template includes the rules register, coverage grid and response tracker. Edit with AI opens it in River, which measures your letter, converts each limit and flags missing parts for you.