Grant Writing Sample Letter of Inquiry

This is the first step.There are so much grant money that goes unclaimed each year. Foundations are looking for people to give money to, but it goes unclaimed as a result of confusing requests for grants or lengthy inquiry's where Grantmakers are unclear exactly what your asking for the funds for.

Raising funds for a not for profit  sanctuary will be an ongoing process. Every grant will require a different letter of inquiry. Break your need for funds down into projects. (EXAMPLE)  #1 is for the general manager. Inquiry for grant #2 may be for emergency veterinary care for exotic birds that would go untreated, and yet another #3 for an outreach program for one on one guidance for members of the local community.

You will search for funders offering grants for three different purposes. You can not send out bulk mailings successfully.

When writing a letter of inquiry try to stick with the basic information, keeping it short as possible, while making your point. I wrote this cover letter prior to completing grant writing certification. The good news is that after sending out to 11 foundations, the results were as follows:

2 replied with a request for a proposal.

4 replied that our cause for a general manager did not fit their guideline.

No response from the rest.

These results are very close to normal as of what to expect.

A couple of tips:

If in doubt, take it out. Remove as many adjectives as possible.  While this letter was successful we will be shortening ours for future projects. See if you can shorten up this cover letter even further. 

Remember that the people reading these letters are very busy. A grant officer for a foundation receives thousands of requests a year for grant funding. It's 10am and he has a meeting at 10:30am, holding your letter of inquiry in his hand he tries to read it before the meeting. Suddenly the door opens and his boss says "meeting starts in 5 minutes". What does he do? If your letter is difficult to get the point at almost a glance, it could go straight to the trash.

Additionally The color just happened to be our letterhead. You can use your letterhead but keep it simple. Don't go adding a bunch of color to your grant for small proposals. keep it formal, and simple.

Good luck.

SAMPLE INQUIRY LETTER

Flying Colors Bird Sanctuary
of North Carolina, Inc.
105 North Spray Place
Haw River, NC 27258
919-698-9584
 www.flyingcolors-nc.com
 bdirks@flyingcolors-nc.com

April 21, 2008

Mr. Bradley E. Dirks

President:  Flying Colors Bird Sanctuary of North Carolina, Inc.

105 North Spray Place

Haw River, NC, 27258

Grantmaker

C/O Contact

100 Ave of the Americas

New York, NY

Dear Mr.Contact:

I am writing to ask whether the (Grantmaker) would be interested in receiving a proposal from an established animal rescue program for mistreated and unwanted companion birds.  We support adoption of unwanted pet quality birds as an alternative to captive breeding.

Despite the fact, even when bred in captivity, exotic birds are not considered domesticated animals and, as such, they retain the inherent behavioral and physical needs of wild parrots (Davis 1998; Graham 1998).  Birds now represent the largest population of captive exotic wildlife in the U.S.  Population numbers vary widely from source to source, birds are not required to be licensed, bird breeding remains largely unregulated, and birds are rarely taken to a veterinarian.  The number of birds kept in captivity remains a subject of debate. Based on an extrapolation of these statistics, some avian welfare professionals estimate that there may be as many as 52–60 million captive birds in the U.S.

A full time manager is needed to oversee a part-time secretary and volunteers.  They will also be responsible for taking birds to the veterinarian for evaluation.  They will pickup birds that are surrendered or taken due to animal cruelty, with the intake papers required for the situation.  The manager will be responsible for training and educating the volunteers and making out their schedules.  The manager will also be responsible for scheduling education seminars and visits to local schools, to educate the public on care, responsibility, the habits and housing of companion birds.

Companion birds can only be adopted through volunteering.  This way the bird can pick the human and will make for a good relationship with their human.  These volunteers will also be learning about bird care and their responsibilities to the companion bird. 

 The cost of this program is $50,000 per year.  If the (Grantmaker) were to accept a formal proposal, we would request $10,000 of this cost.  The founder donated $8,782 last year and we received approximately $2,127 from application fees, internet donations and other support. This was not enough to pay a full time manager and cover general operating expenses.

                We are very excited about our program and the benefits it will have on how these animals are treated in the future. I hope you will consider helping us to develop it.  Please call me at 919-698-9584 if you have any questions.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Bradley E. Dirks

President FCBS, Inc.