How to write a concept note for funders

Turn a project idea into a short concept note that gets a funder interested and, ideally, invited to send a full proposal.

WhatsAppEmail

What You Will End Up With

A concept note is a brief summary of a proposal. It describes your project idea and the objectives you want to pursue, and it sticks to the what and why. Work plans and administrative formalities can wait. Expect two to five pages, though most funders that ask for one want three to five, and some foundations are happy with a one to three page letter.

Some funders use it to decide quickly whether an idea fits their priorities and to screen out proposals unlikely to succeed. It also helps you: writing it is a checkpoint on whether your team is ready to invest in a full proposal.

Before You Start

Gather these before you write a word. A generic note tells the funder you did not do your homework.

  • The call or guidelines. If a call has been announced, read it first and put its key characteristics in a table: requirements, duration, objectives and target outcomes. Funders usually have no fixed concept note format, so length and layout depend on what they say.
  • The funder's interests. Research their objectives, hot topics and priorities. If you approach several funders about the same issue, write a different note for each.
  • A way in. With no announced call, a note sent cold to a general address rarely works. Find an internal contact or a personal introduction.

Steps

If an assistant helps with any step, check every claim, number and citation by hand afterward.

  1. Read the call and build your summary table. Keep the table beside you while you draft and test each section against it. Remember what the note is for: capturing interest and starting a conversation, not asking for money.

  2. Write the title and background. Aim for a title that is snappy, informative and distinctive. You can split it into a short attention-catching part and a plainer descriptive part. Open with a hook or a clear statement of the problem, and focus on the problem itself rather than on how little research exists about it. Build the background on two questions: why the problem must be addressed, and what has already been done about it. Tie the project to the funder's mission and priorities, and, only if the funder asks for them at this stage, add a one-line estimated budget and timeline in the introduction.

  3. State objectives, outputs and expected benefits. Be specific about your main objectives and the impact you expect, and say how success will be measured.

    • Outputs should relate directly to the objectives. They are usually tangible: a facility, materials, workshops or meetings.
    • For beneficiaries and impact, give the expected benefits in numbers and in words, when and where they will occur, the assumptions behind them, and who will assess the impact.

    Write about outcomes and community impact, not your internal processes, and skip the jargon.

  4. Summarize activities and management. Say briefly what you will do. Then show who leads the project, who handles financial management and who handles monitoring and evaluation.

  5. Add a budget only if the funder asks for one. If they do, first list the inputs you need: people, travel, vehicles, equipment, supplies, services, works, facilities and overheads. Then show the major cost categories and the likely total. Leave out line items.

  6. Tailor it and cut it. Match the language to the reviewer. Technical terms work for specialists and fail with generalists or lay readers. Do not bury the reader in detail, but do not sound vague or unsure about what you want to do either. Stay inside the funder's page limit, and check that every objective fits their priorities.

One warning before you send. In many cases a concept note is binding. If you are invited to submit a full proposal, you should usually keep the project's aim, even if later research suggests a better idea. After you send it, a funder may invite a full proposal, ask for more information or decline. Replies can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months.

Using AI Safely

An assistant can help you structure and polish a note, but only if you control what goes in and what comes out.

  • Keep confidential material out. Grant proposals are confidential. Text and prompts entered into public AI tools may be stored and reused, so never enter personal, sensitive or confidential information. Your organization's AI policy should bar sharing such data with public tools.
  • Verify everything by hand. AI tools can produce inaccuracies, plagiarism and incorrect citations. You remain responsible for the content, so check accuracy, bias, integrity and completeness, and check every citation and number against your own source material.
  • Have staff review it. Nothing goes to a funder until a person on your team has read it.
  • Disclose when asked. Some funders require explicit acknowledgment of AI use. Read their rules and be open about it.

Common Mistakes

  • Sending a generic note. A letter that could go to any funder signals no research.
  • Writing a short proposal. A concept note does not request funds.
  • Overloading the reader. Too much detail loses people, and too little sounds unsure.
  • Including a budget breakdown or attachments nobody asked for. Leave figures, charts and attachments out of the first contact until you are invited to submit a full proposal, and give major cost categories and a likely total rather than line items.
  • Sending unsolicited notes with no contact. Find a person to send it to.
  • Leaving success undefined. Say how success will be measured.
  • Skipping the human check on AI text. Unreviewed output can carry errors straight to a funder.