Although many foundations prefer to support direct programmatic activities, many do give grants to help nonprofits cover administrative costs, also known as general operating expenses or overhead costs.

Demographic information can help your nonprofit to better identify your community's needs and to find gaps in its services.

Common grant application formats have been adopted by groups of grantmakers to allow grant applicants to produce a single, standardized proposal for those in a specific community of funders (usually along geographic lines).

When funders ask for a letter of inquiry (LOI), they want a few pages that will make them excited about giving you a grant. Some foundations will then invite you to send a full proposal. But for many foundations, an LOI is enough to make a decision. That means a great LOI might win you funding for your project.

There's an old saying in the nonprofit world, "If you've seen one foundation, you've seen....one foundation." Foundations vary so widely that there's virtually no research on the question of what percentage of proposals they fund. We'll give you what we have in a minute, but first consider a question that's more relevant to your success.

The case statement, also called the case for support, is the core document of any fundraising campaign, especially for specific fundraising initiatives such as capital or endowment campaigns.

Your goal is to make it easy for your readers to find and refer to your original source, so that they can confirm the information that you presented and judge its quality for themselves.

The cover letter often is your proposal's first chance to connect your project with the reader's philanthropic mission. It goes on top of a proposal, but it is not the same as an executive summary, which states your proposal's key points.

This may be our most popular question, and we have many resources to help you learn how to write a proposal.

Remember one important rule: "If you don't qualify, don't apply." Foundations that give to individuals have highly specific criteria. This article gives a typical breakdown for an individual project proposal.

It is always a good idea to know about other organizations and funders working in the same areas as you. You may wish to collaborate, check out an innovative program, or model a grant after another organization’s efforts. This is also a good way to connect with thought leaders in your areas of interest.

La mayoría de las fundaciones donantes prefieren dirigir sus fondos programáticos al apoyo de servicios directos. Sin embargo, sí existen muchas fundaciones que otorgan fondos para cubrir los gastos administrativos u operativos de una organización (que se conocen en inglés como "overhead" o "general operating costs").

Una carta de interés bien redactada podría ser fundamental en el éxito de una solicitud de financiamiento para su organización o proyecto. Hoy en día, existen fundaciones donantes que prefieren recibir un proyecto de financiamiento a través de una carta en vez de una propuesta completa.

Tome en cuenta que la redacción de la propuesta es solo un paso en el proceso completo de la recaudación de aportes de fundaciones.