Design a Call for Proposals

What You Will End Up With

A call for proposals that tells a stranger, in a page or two, what you fund, who can apply and what to send. A grant is money given for a specific purpose, and it is not repaid, so the call has to make that purpose clear.

You will also have a call that asks for as little as it can. Lighter paperwork gives grantees more time and space to reflect and to focus on their missions, and it gives you a shorter pile to read.

Before You Start

Settle these before you write a word of the call.

• Check your criteria. Revisit them so that they do not give preference to more established or well-funded organizations. A call that quietly requires a long track record will filter out the groups you may most want.
• Name the need you fund. Grant applications make sense when an organization has a new or expanded project with costs its current budget cannot cover. Decide whether you fund that, or something broader.
• Pick your purpose and your area. Some funders emphasize ongoing support, and others start-up or seed money. Some limit themselves to a geographic area. Decide yours, because applicants check.
• Decide on a screening step. A short letter of intent can show whether funding is likely before anyone writes a full proposal.

Steps

1. State who can apply and where. List the eligibility standards so applicants can tell in a minute whether they qualify. Name the geographic area you cover, since some funders have preferences or restrictions and applicants will look for yours. A reader who can rule themselves out quickly has been done a favor.

2. Say what the grant is for. Grant funds must be used specifically for the designated purpose. If your rule is that the work must not have started yet, write it down in the call. Give the purpose in plain words, with no jargon that only grant writers know.

3. Put the guidelines where people can find them. Most foundations that accept public applications will provide basic guidelines and any separate application form on request. Many also post guidelines, forms and contact information on a website, and many expect electronic applications. Do both: publish the documents and answer a request quickly. Add a contact so an applicant can call or write with a question the guidelines do not cover.

4. Start with a short letter of intent. Ask for a brief letter first. Read it for fit, and invite a full proposal only from the groups where funding looks likely. This spares the others weeks of writing and spares you their proposals. Keep the letter short enough that nobody resents writing it.

5. Ask only for what you need. Request information from grantees only if you specifically need it and cannot get it elsewhere. Public records can tell you a prospective grantee's purpose, programs, leadership and financial standing, so do not ask applicants to retype what you can look up. Read those public records first, then ask only for the detail they leave out.

6. Accept work done for others. Say in the call that you can accept proposals and reports originally written for other funders. One private foundation goes further and invites prospective grantees to send a proposal they have already submitted to another funder in place of a formal application. This is the plainest way to reduce paperwork, and costs you nothing but the willingness to read a document in someone else's format.

7. Give a timeline and a term. Tell applicants when the call closes, when you will decide and how long the grant runs. Applicants need these to plan staff time and project phases. Terms differ from place to place and from funder to funder. Whatever your norm, state the term.

8. Say what comes after the award. Mention that a funding agreement will record the shared understanding of the grant's purpose, and note how you will follow how the money is used. Applicants should not first learn about monitoring after they have won.

A template to start from. Copy the headings, fill in each line in plain words, and cut any heading you do not need:

• What we fund: the purpose in one or two sentences
• Who can apply: the eligibility standards and the area
• What the grant covers: the kinds of costs, and what it will not cover
• How to apply: the letter of intent first, then what a full proposal contains
• Dates: the deadline, the decision date and the grant term
• Questions: a name, an address and a phone number

Using AI Safely

An AI assistant can give you a draft of the call quickly. It tends to produce long lists of requirements that you would never use. Read what it gives you against your own aims, line by line.

• Strike requests for what you can look up. If the draft asks applicants for their leadership, programs or financial standing, check whether public records already hold it.
• Audit the eligibility section. Remove any criterion the tool added that favors established or well-funded organizations.
• Check the submission rules. The draft may insist on a formal application when you meant to accept proposals written for other funders.

Keep applicants' details out of public tools, and prune any long set of forms the tool suggests down to what you need.

Common Mistakes

• Requesting unnecessary data. Asking for what public records already show adds work for applicants and for you.
• Hiding the basics. If guidelines and forms are hard to find, applicants cannot tell whether they fit before spending effort.
• Pushing applicants to twist their priorities. Designing a program to match a funder's interests, such as adding a group the organization does not care about, is generally discouraged. Write the call so that applicants can stay true to their mission while taking a real opportunity.
• Being vague about purpose or place. State whether you cover the applicant's area and whether you fund ongoing support or start-up money.
• Insisting on one rigid form. It shuts out qualified groups. Accept proposals and reports written for others.