This sample letter of inquiry may give you ideas. Some elements may not apply to you, but hopefully this will get you started.
photo by Unseen Studio
If not using your organization’s letterhead stationary, begin with standard business letter form with the following information flush left, in five separate lines: street address; city, state/province zip code; email address; phone number; date.
To the Board of the __________ Foundation: [or to the designated contact person]
I am writing to ask whether your foundation [use the full name if you have addressed the contact person instead of the board] would be interested in receiving a proposal for a ________ program [or project] for [target group that would benefit].
As you may be aware, [describe the difficulty facing this target group and a sentence or two of statistics about the difficulty and a statement by an authoritative organisation that your type of solution would be advantageous.]
- The _______ program/project is intended to provide [number of beneficiaries] with ________. At the same time, participants will develop _________ which will enable them to ________.
My [organization, group] currently provides the following resources [or benefits] for [target group you will help, or the community you will serve or impact]: [bullet list if there are several]. Resources I currently have include _______. The commitment we bring to the project is shown by _______. [State your qualifications such as work experience and/or education in the relevant area. Describe briefly two or three projects you or your group ran or completed successfully]. we are partnering with _________, which is underfunded but has agreed to act as a fiscal sponsor.
Funding for [startup costs, operating expenses, a specific purchase, consultant fees] would give us the opportunity to ________. We expect the project to cost $-$$. I hope you will consider helping us to develop the program/project.
Sincerely,
[after your signature, add below it a printed version of your name]
That’s it! If you’d like help to review your letter of inquiry, you might check the rates and availability of experienced grant writers listed in our consultants page. For additional tips on a letter of inquiry, Foundant Technologies has further suggestions you may want to consider.