Overview
Foundation funding works differently from research council funding. Many foundations publish a strategy and eligibility rules, accept an initial letter of inquiry (LOI) or online pre-application, and then invite selected applicants to submit a full proposal. Program officers often read everything, may speak with you before inviting a proposal, and care about organizational capacity, community voice and sustainability as much as methodology. Some foundations do not accept unsolicited proposals at all.
We help at each stage: checking alignment with the foundation's stated priorities and past grants, drafting or editing the inquiry, building the full narrative from your program information, and preparing the evaluation plan and budget narrative. For research proposals to foundations such as health charities or science philanthropies, we combine that funder-fit work with the scientific structure a reviewer panel expects.
Throughout, the organization and its leadership own the content. We do not invent beneficiary numbers, partnerships or outcomes, and we cannot promise an invitation or an award, but we can help you present what you actually do in the language each funder uses.
Who it’s for and the problems it solves
This is for you if you are…
- Nonprofits and NGOs applying to private, family or community foundations
- University researchers applying to medical research charities or science philanthropies
- Social enterprises and community groups preparing a first foundation proposal
- Development staff who need a second writer during a busy grant cycle
- Organizations moving from small local grants to national or international foundations
Common problems we help with
- You send the same proposal to several foundations and hear nothing back
- Your need statement relies on general statistics rather than your community's specific situation
- The foundation asks for outcomes and indicators, and you only track activities
- You are unsure how much to ask for or how to present overhead and in-kind contributions
- The foundation's portal has strict character limits and your narrative does not fit
- You were invited to submit a full proposal after an LOI and the deadline is short
What’s included — and what isn’t
Included
- Funder-fit review: mission, priorities, geography, grant size and past grantees, based on the foundation's own materials and databases you can access
- Tailoring plan for each target funder, rather than one generic proposal
- Drafting or editing the letter of inquiry or pre-application
- Full proposal narrative: statement of need, program description, goals and objectives, timeline
- Evaluation plan with outputs, outcomes, indicators and data sources proportionate to the grant
- Organizational capacity, leadership and sustainability sections
- Budget narrative explaining personnel, program costs, indirect costs and other funding sources
- Adapting content to online portals with word or character limits
- Final editing for clarity, tone and funder terminology
Not included
- Inventing or inflating beneficiary numbers, outcomes, partnerships or endorsements
- Contacting program officers or submitting applications in your name without your direction
- Fundraising on commission or a percentage of any award, which many professional codes discourage
- Promising an invitation to submit or a grant decision
What you receive
- Funder fit notes
- A short assessment for each target foundation: alignment with stated priorities, typical grant size, application route and anything that rules you out.
- Letter of inquiry or pre-application
- A drafted or edited inquiry tailored to the foundation's format and length.
- Full proposal narrative
- Tracked-change drafts of each narrative section, adapted to the funder's headings and portal limits.
- Evaluation framework
- A compact table of goals, objectives, outcomes, indicators, data sources and timing.
- Budget narrative
- Line-by-line explanation that connects each budget item to program activities.
How it works
Program and funder brief
You describe the program, organization and target foundations. We confirm eligibility questions and the application route for each.
Fit and messaging
We identify each funder's priorities and language and agree the core case, need statement and outcomes.
Inquiry or proposal drafting
We draft or edit the LOI or full narrative with you, in the funder's order and within its limits.
Evaluation and budget
We shape the evaluation plan and budget narrative so they support the story the narrative tells.
Final review
A last read for tone, accuracy and compliance with the foundation's instructions before you submit.
What foundation reviewers look for
- Mission alignment
- Explicit links between your program and the foundation's stated strategy, geography and populations, in the foundation's own terms.
- Statement of need
- Local, current evidence about the problem and the people affected, including what already exists and why it is not enough.
- Outcomes over activities
- SMART objectives and outcome indicators that show change for participants, not just the number of workshops delivered.
- Evaluation proportionate to the grant
- Simple, feasible measurement for small grants; external or mixed-methods evaluation for larger multi-year programs.
- Capacity and sustainability
- Evidence that the organization can deliver and what happens after the grant ends, including diversified funding.
- Budget realism
- A budget that matches activities, explains indirect costs according to the funder's policy and shows other contributions.
Finding the right foundations before writing
Foundation databases such as Candid's Foundation Directory and grantmaker profiles, national charity registers and funders' published grant lists show what a foundation has actually funded, which is often more telling than its mission statement. We review these with you (using access you or your library holds) to check grant size, geography and whether the foundation accepts unsolicited applications, so effort goes where it can succeed.
If you do not yet have a shortlist, our funder identification service builds one first.
Adapting one program to several funders
A core case statement saves time, but each funder deserves its own emphasis. A health foundation may want clinical outcomes; a community foundation, local participation; a corporate foundation, alignment with its employee volunteering or sector. We keep a master narrative and adapt the need, outcomes and budget emphasis for each application, keeping all facts consistent.
- Keep a single fact sheet of figures so every version uses the same numbers
- Reuse evidence, not identical paragraphs; reviewers at different foundations talk to each other
- Track each foundation's reporting requirements from the start
What the work can look like
Illustrative example — fictional data
Illustrative before-and-after objective for a foundation proposal
A fictional literacy nonprofit is applying to a regional community foundation for a two-year after-school reading program.
Original objective
'Improve children's reading through fun after-school sessions.' The objective is warm but gives the foundation no way to judge progress.
Revised objective and indicator
'By the end of Year 1, 60 of the 80 enrolled Grade 3 pupils will attend at least 70% of sessions, and at least half of regular attenders will gain one or more reading levels on the school's existing assessment.' Data source: attendance logs and termly school assessments shared under the partnership agreement.
Budget link
Tutor hours, books and assessment time are costed in the budget narrative, and the in-kind classroom space from the partner school is shown as a contribution.
Illustrative example with invented organization and figures, showing the type of revision we suggest.
What you’ll need to provide
- The foundation's guidelines, application questions and deadline
- Program description, logic or theory of change if you have one, and past results
- Organizational information: mission, leadership, audited figures or annual report as required
- Draft budget and information on other secured or pending funding
- Any prior correspondence with the program officer
You don’t need everything ready to ask for a quote — tell us what you have and we’ll say what’s missing.
What affects price and turnaround
Price depends on
- Whether you need an LOI, a full proposal or both
- Length and number of questions in the funder's application
- Number of foundations to tailor for
- How complete your program data, evaluation plan and budget already are
Turnaround depends on
- The foundation's deadline or invitation window
- Availability of program staff to answer questions
- Whether budget and organizational documents are ready
Every project is quoted individually. How we price our work.
Questions people ask before starting
Do you work on commission?
No. Payment tied to a percentage of a grant is widely discouraged in the fundraising profession and can conflict with funder rules. We quote for the work based on scope.
Can you find foundations for us?
Yes, through our funder identification service, which uses public sources and databases you can access. Research on unsolicited-proposal policies and grant histories is part of that work.
The foundation's portal has tight character limits. Can you help?
Yes. We often draft in a document first and then condense each answer to the limit, keeping the key facts and the foundation's own terminology.
We are a university research team. Is this the right service?
It is if you are applying to a charity or private foundation. If the funder uses peer review against scientific criteria, we combine this with the structure described on our research council page.
Who owns the proposal text?
Your organization does. You can reuse the narrative in future applications and reports.