Advice for Grantseekers

Carefully read the foundation guidelines. 

Take note of eligibility requirements, proposal formatting instructions, application deadlines, the number of copies you need to submit, and any required attachments. Foundation guidelines may change from year to year.

Pay attention to deadlines.

Foundation deadlines change frequently. If a deadline is on a weekend or holiday then the proposal should be received by the next business day. Assume that the deadlines for most foundations are received-by deadlines not postmarked-by deadlines.

Call if you have questions.

We are an accessible company. If you have any questions about the application or are not sure whether your organization is eligible for funding, please contact us before submitting a proposal.

Keep proposals simple.

New England applicants are encouraged to use the Associated Grant Makers' Common Proposal Format unless otherwise indicated.

Please do not submit proposals in notebooks, binders, files, or folders. A binder clip works fine. Do not send video tapes.

Be financially explicit.

Always include most recent organizational and project budgets indicating revenues and expense.

Provide a budget narrative.

Always provide a budget narrative with your proposals.

Identify your prospects.

Provide a list of committed, pending, and future funding sources for the specific project.

Required attachments are required. If you cannot provide required attachments, please provide an explanation.

People often forget to submit project and organizational budgets, board rosters, financial information, and proof of nonprofit status.

Don't submit proposals to foundations that do not accept unsolicited proposals.

Contact Foundation staff directly about your prospects for applying or submit a brief concept letter inquiring about making an application.

Use snail mail or drop off your proposals.

Please do not fax or e-mail proposals or concept papers unless the foundation has specifically allowed these options.

Report on previous grants.

If you are applying for continued funding, please submit an interim report on last year's grant. Foundation trustees are eager to hear about the impact of your work. Feel free to use the Associated Grant Makers' Common Reporting Format.

Make sure you are up-to-date.

We update our Web pages frequently. Most pages have a "last revised" date at the bottom. Also make sure your browser cache options are set to verify documents at least once per session and hit the "Reload" or "Refresh" button to load the latest version of the web page.

last update 01/23/03