A letter of inquiry is the shortest document in fundraising that can cost you a year. Two pages, usually no attachments, and the funder decides from it whether you may apply at all. It is at least standardized enough to be learnable.
An LOI, also called a letter of intent, is a brief summary of a request that a funder reads before deciding whether to invite a full proposal. For some foundations it is the only front door: the Independence Foundation and the Stulman Charitable Foundation both state that they do not accept unsolicited proposals.
What the LOI Is Actually Screening For
Program officers are not reading an LOI to evaluate your program. They are reading it to answer three questions fast: are you eligible, are you a fit, and is the amount plausible. That framing is ours rather than any funder's, but every published format makes those answers easy to find, and it changes what belongs in the letter. A theory of change that leaves the dollar amount to the last paragraph loses to a plain letter that puts the request in sentence two. Save the argument for the proposal you get invited to write.
Length: One to Three Pages, and the Funder's Number Wins
The published ranges are narrow. Candid says an LOI should be no more than three pages. Ahmanson asks for a one to three page narrative, and says not to send a full proposal at the LOI stage. The Stulman Foundation and Independence Foundation cap it at two.
So: write to two pages unless told otherwise, and when the funder gives a number, that number is the only one that matters. A page limit in published guidelines is a screening criterion in a formatting costume.
The Parts, in an Order That Works
Candid's six-part structure is worth following because program officers have read a thousand letters in roughly this order:
- Introduction. Who you are, the amount requested, what it will do, the qualifications of project staff, a timetable. One paragraph.
- Organization. A short history and current programs, chosen to connect to this request rather than to list everything.
- Statement of need. Population and geography, statistical data in abbreviated form, several concrete examples.
- Methodology. What you will do, the major activities, names and titles of key project staff, your objectives.
- Other funding sources. A sentence or two on who else has been approached or has committed.
- Final summary. Restate the purpose, offer to answer questions, thank them.
On attachments, Candid and Michigan Tech's grant-writing guide agree: include them only if the funder asks, and leave figures and charts for an invited proposal. An unrequested audit stapled to a two-page letter reads as an inability to follow instructions, which every screening step exists to catch.
A Working Structure You Can Fill In
Paragraph 1. "[Organization] requests $[amount] over [period] to [one-sentence description of what the money does]. We are writing because [Foundation]'s [named priority area, in their words] aligns with [the specific program]."
Paragraph 2. "[Organization] has [served this population / done this work] since [year]. We currently run [two or three programs], serving [number] people a year on a [budget] operating budget."
Paragraph 3. "In [geography], [statistic with source]. For [specific person or site, anonymized], that means [concrete consequence]."
Paragraph 4. "With this grant we would [activity one], [activity two], and [activity three]. [Name, Title] would lead the work. By [date] we expect [two or three objectives stated as numbers]."
Paragraphs 5 and 6. "Of the $[total project cost], $[amount] is committed from [funder or earned revenue], and requests are pending with [funder]. We would welcome the chance to answer questions. Thank you for considering this request."
Each bracket is a decision you already know the answer to. Filled in, that runs 400 to 500 words, inside two pages. If you cannot fill the brackets, the gap is in the plan rather than the writing, and the letter has done you a favor by finding it early.
When the LOI Is a Form, Not a Letter
Plenty of funders have replaced the letter with a portal form, which has its own rules. The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation LOI is published in Word and PDF on its how to apply page, the courtesy to look for before starting. It sets no page limits, offering suggested word counts as a guide: about 250 words on organizational history, 500 on programs and people served, 250 on outcomes and impact data, and 500 describing a capital project or program.
Four attachments are required: a board list with names and professional affiliations only, the most recent Form 990 with Schedule B and all other schedules, an audited financial statement, and a list of institutional funders with amounts for the current and most recent fiscal years. Parsons requires an audit above $1 million in expenses; below that, unaudited year-end statements or an accountant's review or compilation. The test is expenses, not revenue.
Two consequences. Parsons recommends against drafting in the portal at all, and warns that bullets and other formatting often do not survive submission, so compose in Word and paste plain text. And a form wanting a Schedule B and a board list with employers is screening for something no narrative can fix, so assemble those files first. If you are unsure what a funder actually funds, reading its 990-PF answers that.
Capital Requests Get Screened on Completion Risk
Funders that write checks for buildings, renovations, and equipment screen on a different fact pattern, because their real fear is a half-finished project. Select capital support on the Parsons form and it opens extra branches: the project's current status, construction progress, total funding raised to date, and a timeline. Program and capital requests both need an itemized project budget.
Read that as one question: can this be finished. Which is why, in our view, the money already raised is the strongest paragraph in a capital letter, and belongs early. At 60 percent committed, that sentence does more work than any description of the need.
The Ahmanson Foundation LOI screens similar ground, but as its standard LOI rather than a capital-only branch. Every applicant gives the current fiscal year operating budget; the top five foundation or corporate grants of the last two fiscal years, with institution, amount, and fiscal year; secured, pledged, and pending funding with amounts and restrictions; whether permits are required and when; and a projected timeline. A project budget is attached whatever the request is for. One item alone is conditional: if the request involves renovations or alterations to property, you confirm whether you own or lease, and on what terms.
Before You Send It, Decide Whether To
An LOI costs a few hours of writing. It can cost more, which is the argument for checking five facts first.
Eligibility and geography, usually hard limits, not preferences. Ahmanson's published eligibility rules require organizations based in and serving Los Angeles County, in operation a minimum of three to five years. Independence Foundation funds Philadelphia and four surrounding Pennsylvania counties, and its LOI channel is for organizations that have not recently received its funding; grantees who completed the full proposal process for a current grant and want renewal are contacted by staff instead.
Grant size. Asking $75,000 of a funder whose grants to organizations new to it run $5,000 to $10,000, as Independence says of its own, signals you did not read the guidelines.
Whether the door is open. Rolling is not the same as always. Independence accepts LOIs on a rolling basis when its cycle is open, but as of October 2026 its page carries a "Letters of Inquiry Currently Closed" notice. Check it the day you start drafting.
Your odds. Independence says that because of its multi-year general operating commitments, only a very small number of LOIs are likely to be invited to full proposals each year.
Your next shot. A declined LOI is not free. Parsons makes you wait a year from the declination date, and Ahmanson asks 12 to 18 months from your decision date whether you were approved or declined. A careless letter costs a few hours now and a cycle later.
No funding history to point to is normal rather than disqualifying at most funders, though some screen it directly, as Ahmanson's minimum does; the honest version is in grants for new nonprofits. On open solicitations, reading the RFP properly saves the same hours, and finding funders worth an LOI at all is the actual process for finding grants.
Edge Cases Worth Knowing
No published format. Use two pages and Candid's six parts. A clean two-page letter is rarely the reason a request fails.
Signatures. Stulman requires two signatures, the Executive Director and the Board President. If your board chair is hard to reach, start that request the day you begin drafting.
You are fiscally sponsored. Parsons asks for your legal name or your sponsor's, then for your own numbers: operating expenses for your organization rather than the sponsor's, and year-end statements for your organization or project, not the sponsor. Forms vary on whose financials they want, so read the labels closely and loop your sponsor in early; it usually signs the agreement. If that relationship is new, how fiscal sponsorship works covers who signs what.
No answer. Check whether the funder commits to a response. Parsons promises an email within six to eight weeks and Stulman contacts you either way, so silence past the window is a reason to chase delivery rather than a verdict; portal mail gets filtered, which is why Parsons tells applicants to safelist its addresses. Where no response time is published, treat silence as a no once the cycle closes, not as a judgment on the work.
After You Send
The gap between LOI and decision is longer than most people plan for. Stulman takes LOIs on a rolling basis and reviews them monthly; invited proposals run against three deadlines a year, mid-January, mid-May, and mid-September, with board meetings about two months after each and decisions within a week. Independence estimates two to three months from the application due date, through staff review, advisory committees of local nonprofit professionals, and a board vote. Stack those stages and an LOI sent in February becomes money in the fall. Build that into the cash-flow plan rather than the hope.
The takeaway
Write to two pages, put the dollar amount in the first paragraph, follow the funder's format exactly, and attach nothing they did not request. Check eligibility, grant size, whether the cycle is open, and the waiting period after a decline first. The LOI is a screening document, so the goal is not to be impressive. It is to be easy to say yes to twice: to the invitation, and to the proposal that follows.