What belongs in an introductory letter?

What Belongs in an Introductory Letter?

Grantmaking foundations will often require grant seekers to submit an introductory letter before accepting their grant application. This is a great relationship-building opportunity for grantseekers and a low-impact way to initiate the grant writing process.  

First impressions matter.  Of course, you want the foundation to offer you the opportunity to submit a grant application, but beyond this you want to make your organization ring a bell when they read your application. This is an opportunity to establish familiarity with the foundation. 

A foundation requests introductory letters to get a brief sense of your organization, to get a sense of whether or not you have actually researched the foundation, and whether or not your organization’s mission is in alignment with that of the foundation.  You don’t have much space in an introductory letter, so here is a good recipe to start from:

1. Acknowledge that you understand the foundation’s funding priorities and mission.
2. Explain briefly how your organization and project are in alignment with the foundation’s CURRENT priorities.
3. Give a brief background about your organization including current priorities and projects.
4. Express your interest in pursuing a grant application and ask what about the next step in the process.
5. Acknowledge that this is a partnership proposal and add in verbatim inquiring as to ways your organization can partner with the foundation to forward mutual goals.

Through these basic components, you can initiate relationship-building with this foundation alongside the grant application process.