Letter of Inquiry

Step 2—Developing Relationships with Funders 25

Sample Letter of Inquiry
Date
Ms. Wendy Wonder
President
Future Foundation
0000 Clinton Avenue, Suite 2330
Anytown, Any State 02009

Dear Ms. Wonder:
As follow-up to my recent conversation with Lisa Bryant, I am pleased to submit this Letter of Inquiry

for Alyson Eats for your consideration. We are respectfully requesting a general support grant of $50,000
for our comprehensive programs to address hunger and food insecurity in some of our community’s most
underserved areas.

Since 2004, Alyson Eats has sought to ease the suffering of some of the approximately 130,000 residents
of Alyson who are experiencing or at risk for hunger. Our objective over the coming year is to provide more
than 200,000 nutritious meals to hungry children and adults on Alyson’s south side.

Alyson Eats will engage our nine staff members (five are part-time), our 50 regular volunteers, and our
corporate and other institutional partners across the city to conduct three proven programs to address
hunger: our food pantry and distribution service, which will distribute approximately 9,000 boxes of food
this year; a summer-time program that will provide meals to about 1,000 children who normally get free
lunch at school; and an outreach program to recruit and engage donors of food and funds, as well as vol-
unteers, with a goal this year of recruiting 15 new volunteers and generating 4,500 additional hours of
volunteer engagement. We will also pilot a new program to equip teenagers with the skills to eat health-
fully and affordably for life, beginning with a class of 30 young people. The Fiscal Year 2020 budget of
Alyson Eats is $1,352,016. We have secured commitments for about 85 percent of our budget.

Thank you for inviting Alyson Eats to submit this Letter of Inquiry. Because of our shared commitment to
building a better future for families struggling with poverty in our state, we hope that the Future Founda-
tion will invite a full proposal for $50,000 in general operating support for the one-year period beginning
January 1. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at (111) 111–1111.

Sincerely,
Shawna Jones

Executive Director

Now that a sample LOI has been presented and reviewed, take the time
to answer the questions in Worksheet 2.1. This exercise will help in develop-
ing a strong letter of inquiry for funders. If you cannot clearly and succinctly
answer the questions, that probably means you need to gather more infor-
mation before you can effectively complete an LOI.

O’Neal-McElrath, Tori, et al. Winning Grants Step by Step : The Complete Workbook for Planning, Developing, and Writing Successful Proposals, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated,
2019. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Created from ashford-ebooks on 2025-04-24 02:44:37.

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26 Winning Grants Step by Step

•On the
Web

WORKSHEET 2.1:
Letter of Inquiry Questionnaire

1. What is the purpose of this letter of inquiry? To whom is it being sent, and what is the
connection?

2. Is the name of the program and amount of the request clearly stated in the first paragraph?

3. What year was the organization founded? What is the mission of the organization?

4. What are the long-term goals for the organization? What programs does the organization conduct
that support these goals?

5. What is the need in the community that you seek funding to address? What population and or
geographic areas does the program serve?

6. Is the need the proposed program intends to meet clear? Are some preliminary data included to
support the need for the proposed program?

7. What does the organization propose to do about this need and what success has it had
in the past?

8. What outcomes does the organization and/or its program(s) anticipate reaching over the
next year?

9. Is program implementation briefly described?

10. Is the “fit” or natural connection between the organization’s program and the funder’s priority
areas, as identified in their guidelines, included?

11. What is the total cost of the proposed idea for the requested year, or what is the cost to expand the
current program? (Or multiple years if you plan to request multiple-year funding?) If there is some
funding already committed to the project, is it mentioned?

12. How much is being requested from the funder, for what time period, and how will it be used?

13. Is the program’s contact person clearly identified, including all contact information?

Winning Grants Step by Step, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

O’Neal-McElrath, Tori, et al. Winning Grants Step by Step : The Complete Workbook for Planning, Developing, and Writing Successful Proposals, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated,
2019. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Created from ashford-ebooks on 2025-04-24 02:43:41.

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