Writing Good Letters of Support for Grants
Read this article for additional advice on specific features for letters of support.
One
of the most difficult parts of the grant writing process is getting
good letters of support from project partners. Collecting lots of
letters is not the point. A handful of poorly
written letters will hurt your chances of funding rather than help.
The whole point of submitting letters of support with a proposal is to document your collaboration and the contributions to be made by various partners. If your letters do not accomplish that point, they are more of a hindrance than a help.
Here are some tips to help you write and gather great letters of support:
- Do not use a form letter. Using a form letter for
all your letters of support (just substituting the letterhead and the organization's name) demonstrates a lack
of collaboration, opposite to the effect you want. If you want
to provide samples for your partners, fine, but be aware that some
folks will just copy those samples unless you work closely with them. If your partners cannot put together the kind of letters you need, it would be better to write each letter for
them and submit them to your partners for their approval and signature.
They can then make any necessary changes before putting the letter on
letterhead and signing. They will be grateful for the help, and you'll
get better letters.
- Include the partner's identity and the nature of the relationship and contribution. That's three core paragraphs. The identity of the partner paragraph should include basic information about the agency authoring the letter. The nature of the relationship
paragraph should discuss the history of the relationship and how the
parties are working together on the project in question. The history of
the relationship would go here, too. The nature of the contribution
paragraph should focus on what contributions the partner agency will
make to the project during the life of the grant or at least over the
next year. It should delineate if the contribution is an in-kind
donation of services or if the agency will be compensated for the
contribution through the grant.
- Quantify contributions whenever possible. Contributions
can be quantified, but folks often hesitate because they fear being asked to produce that donation in cash at some
point. That is not the case. If you're that worried about it, say in the
letter that the contribution is in the form of services, not cash. An estimate of the actual dollar value of the contribution is enough.
- Put the letter on agency letterhead. This makes it
look much more official than a letter on plain white paper. Remember, in
the computer age, letterhead can be easily created for free.
- Include the signature of the organization's decision-maker.
The signature of the superintendent or executive director is generally
more valuable than the signature of a coordinator or project manager;
however, if a letter from a lower-level employee in the organization
would be more inclusive of details about how the agencies work together,
go for it! Remember, the content matters.
- Make sure the letters match what you said in the narrative. This is why grant planning and writing can be so challenging. Your partner letters must reinforce and support what you said in the main grant narrative. That means your partners need to play some role in the planning and know something about the proposal. They don't necessarily need to see the full proposal before you can expect a letter, but they should at least know something about it. The more they know, the stronger the letters will be.
Taking the time to gather really good letters can make a big
difference in your chances of funding. Sometimes, the letters will make THE difference. Do not make the mistake of underestimating their value.
Source: Veronica Robbins, http://grantgoddess.blogspot.com/2010/02/writing-good-letters-of-support-for.html
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License.