published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 1
www.marylandphilanthropy.org/grantwriting
A Guide to
Maryland Philanthropy Network’s
Grant Proposal Format
The following document is not a form to be completed, but an outline and advice for writing a
grant proposal developed by a task force of grantmakers and nonprofit professionals.
The Maryland Philanthropy Network recognizes the potential burden of application and
reporting practices on both nonprofits and grantmakers. Nonprofit organizations devote
significant time to researching and writing grant proposals and reports, and grantmakers
expend significant (often volunteer) time managing grants and evaluating how to best make a
difference.
In pursuit of its mission to maximize the impact of philanthropic giving, Maryland Philanthropy
Network helps members develop grant processes that meet their information needs and
acknowledge the efficient practices of Project Streamline. Further, Maryland Philanthropy
Network offers nonprofit organizations free (or low cost) resources to identify funding
opportunities and to write high quality grant proposals.
As the largest Maryland network of donors, public charities, corporate giving programs, and
private foundations, Maryland Philanthropy Network brings the voice of grantmakers who
review proposals directly to you. Whether applying for a grant for the first time or checking
your knowledge of grant writing, we encourage you to read this entire document before you
submit your next proposal.
Before You Apply
When applying for a grant, a complete proposal
includes:
1. Cover Letter (page 3)
2. Proposal Narrative (pages 4-6)
3. Budget and Budget Narrative (pages 7-10)
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
Do not twist yourself in knots answering every
bullet in the Maryland Philanthropy Network
Grant Proposal Format. Use judgment whether
the instruction makes sense for your
organization.
published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 2
www.marylandphilanthropy.org/grantwriting
4. Attachments (see pages 11)
The Grant Proposal Format will help your organization create a sample grant proposal that can
be adapted to apply to specific grantmakers. The Grant Proposal Format is not a “common
grant,” a single proposal for a community of funders. The primary purpose of the format is to
provide free education on how to write a high-quality proposal. Before you submit a proposal:
1. Research how your organization and programs fit a specific grantmaker’s funding priorities.
2. Check that you understand the deadlines and process for applying.
a. Does the grantmaker request a Letter of Intent, or conversation, before submitting a
full proposal?
b. Does the grantmaker advertise that it accepts the Maryland Philanthropy Network
Grant Proposal Format?
All grantmakers have unique processes and
guidelines based on their priorities and
information needs. Confirm a grantmaker’s
process by looking at websites, published
directories, or contacting them directly.
Increasingly, grantmakers have online grant
applications or invite direct conversation about
potential fit and partnership. Do not be afraid to
contact a grantmaker by email or phone with
questions about the grant process, but Maryland
Philanthropy Network recommends doing
research first and preparing specific questions in
advance.
Additional information about local grantmakers is available from the Maryland Philanthropy
Network Member Directory and the Grants Collection at the Enoch Pratt Central Library (free).
Writing Style Does Matter
▪ Avoid leftovers. If your proposal has been adapted for multiple funders, make sure you omit
other grantmakers’ names, as well as references to previous requests.
▪ Proposals should always be free of typos and grammar errors. Have someone unfamiliar
with the organization or program proofread!
▪ Avoid jargon and acronyms unless absolutely necessary, and then provide explanations.
▪ Keep sentences and paragraphs concise. Break up text with headings, subheadings, and use
formatting (bullets, italics, bold, etc.) to draw attention to key points.
▪ Avoid fancy bindings. Use paper clips since the grantmaker may make additional copies.
▪ Number the pages. Put footnotes on the same page as their reference.
▪ Best to use single spaced, 12 point font, and one inch margins.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
Contact grantmakers using the method
they request in the time frame they set, in
the way they ask. If they want, or do not
want, a letter of inquiry before a full
proposal, follow that. If they specify what
documents they want to see, show them.
Not following instructions will significantly
reduce your likelihood of getting funding.
published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 3
www.marylandphilanthropy.org/grantwriting
Cover Letter
Standard practice is to write a one-page cover
letter on letterhead to submit with your Proposal
Narrative, Budget and Budget Narrative, and
Attachments.
The Cover Letter should be signed by the chief
executive, or most senior program staff person
responsible for the grant activity.
Your Cover Letter should contain the following
information (1-1½ pages):
▪ Name of the organization and project (if applicable).
▪ Dollar amount requested.
▪ Time period of the grant activity.
▪ The purpose of the request.
▪ Explain how your organization’s proposal
fits with the grantmaker’s mission and
priorities.
▪ Detail previous contact, or relationships,
with the grantmaker to which you are
applying (for example, a corporate employee who sits on your Board or a foundation
contact who invited you to apply).
▪ Contact person’s name, title, daytime telephone number, and email address.
Proposal Narrative
The Proposal Narrative provides an opportunity to describe your organization and what will be
accomplished with grant funding. While your Proposal Narrative may vary in length, a rule of
thumb is to complete each of the following sections within six pages. Be thorough, yet strive
for brevity.
A. Summary Heading
Starting at the top left of your Proposal Narrative, provide
the following basic information.
▪ Organization Name:
▪ Amount Requested:
▪ Activity Start/End Dates:
▪ EIN/Federal Tax Number:
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
Always address your cover letter to a specific
person; never start out with "Dear Sir or
Madam" or "To whom it may concern." Verify
the spelling of names, titles, and addresses.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
The best Cover Letters provide me language
that I can copy for writing a summary to my
foundation Board of Directors.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
Do not repeat the same information
in different sections of a Proposal
Narrative.
More is not better.
It’s not a bloody novel.
published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 4
www.marylandphilanthropy.org/grantwriting
B. Organizational Background
Try and limit yourself to one to two paragraphs. Succinctly provide background on your
organization:
▪ State your mission.
▪ Summarize your organization’s history.
▪ Outline current programs and activities.
▪ If you work with a fiscal agent, or are an
affiliate of another organization, describe
the relationship.
C. Statement of Need
Identify the specific problem, or opportunity, that this funding request will address:
▪ Describe the size and severity of the
need using local data.
▪ Provide demographic and geographic
information regarding the population
benefiting from the request.
D. Purpose of Request
Illustrate the work of your organization or the
activities that will be supported by the grant.
Grantmakers know the problems and
challenges facing the community. Now tell how
you are going to improve the community:
▪ Describe how things will be different if
the project is successful and how you
plan to get to that successful outcome.
Note: You will provide more details about
outcomes in E. Anticipated Results and
Learning.
▪ Identify the tasks you plan to complete that
illustrate how the work will be
accomplished. Consider whether it is helpful
to include —either in the body or the
appendix ― a table or flow chart to show
the process.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
Give more words to CURRENT activity than
your history. I often skip to move quickly to the
Purpose of Request.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
The Statement of Need lets me know that you
understand the problems and therefore can
reasonably address them. Do not pack the
proposal with statistics, but decide which facts
best support the need. I like data:
▪ That is accurate – cite your sources;
▪ That is current, or at least recent; and
▪ That matches the size of the project
(neighborhood, state-wide).
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
In bringing the work alive for me you
are answering what, how, who,
where, when and why. Spend more
time here describing your solution
rather than the problem.
published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 5
www.marylandphilanthropy.org/grantwriting
▪ Describe who will be served and how they will benefit, including age, race, ethnicity or
other relevant characteristics.
▪ Name where the services are provided, including type of facilities or specific site
locations.
▪ For ongoing work, provide context about when activities will occur during the period of
the grant, including frequency of activity and number of participants. For new projects,
provide a timeline for implementation.
▪ Briefly describe who will get the work done – staff/volunteer descriptions. If specific
expertise or credentials are needed, consider attaching staff biographies.
▪ Report your organization’s relationship to other similar community efforts and how you
are cooperating with other agencies working in the field. If you have formal
partnerships, describe the roles and responsibilities of any community partners with
whom you are working.
▪ State the reasons your organization chose this approach to address the need. For new
programs, describe how the program model was developed with supporting research or
evidence of effectiveness of the model, if available. For ongoing activities describe your
past success. Use an appendix, if necessary, for extra information such as detailed
results of a program you are replicating.
Optional for Capital Campaigns
Capital campaign requests are designated for equipment, construction, renovation, or
improvement of a property. The reviewer will be most concerned with the feasibility of
completing the project and future maintenance costs and use of the equipment/building.
▪ Provide a case statement for the project that discusses the feasibility and cost of the
capital campaign and its implications in relation to the organization’s ongoing
operational expenses.
▪ Fundraising strategy. Specify prospects and the amounts committed or requested.
▪ List naming opportunities.
▪ Indicate the board’s financial participation in the campaign (percent participating and
amount contributed).
▪ Identify regulatory approvals, if required.
▪ Describe plans for funding the ongoing maintenance of the new capital project.
▪ Indicate if timing is a factor or a “window of opportunity” exists that impacts the success
of the campaign.
▪ If applicable, summarize your most recent capital campaign including the campaign goal,
amount raised, board contributions, and beginning and ending dates.
published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 6
www.marylandphilanthropy.org/grantwriting
E. Anticipated Results and Learning
Indicate how you will know that you have been successful:
▪ For general operating support requests, describe
how your organization will assess its overall
success and effectiveness during the grant period.
▪ Include specific output and outcome measures that
you plan to collect, and how those measures will
be used to determine if the organization or
program/project was successful. Note: Expect to
report back on these measures at the conclusion of
the grant period.
o outputs are the direct products of your
activities
o outcomes are the benefits or changes your
activities caused
▪ Identify the tools you will use to learn from or
evaluate your program and organization (records,
surveys, interviews, pre- and post-tests,
community feedback, etc.)
▪ Explain how you will incorporate learning from
evaluation to either improve your activities or inform the work of others.
▪ If this is an existing activity, describe current methods of evaluation and provide data on
past performance, including numbers served and client outcomes in the past year (or
the most recent period for which data is available).
▪ If an external evaluation will be conducted, detail who is conducting the evaluation and
their scope of work.
F. Stewardship and Sustainability
Explain how the activity will continue at completion of the
grant period:
▪ State your commitment to meet all reporting
requirements of the grantmaker.
▪ Indicate any specific plans for sharing lessons
learned from your activities.
▪ Specify plans for financing the organization or project at the end of the grant period. List
other financing sources or strategies that you are developing.
▪ Beyond financing, suggest what will be the long-lasting outcomes or mechanisms by
which the change is sustained.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
When I ask organizations to report back
on their grant, I copy and paste the
output and outcome measures from
their proposal and expect to hear what
happened – success or failure – and what
were the lessons learned.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
I want to know what you want to learn.
This may be simply a list of questions that
will be answered once the project or
grant period is over.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
Regardless of need or performance, I am
not able to fund a single organization or
activity forever.
published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 7
www.marylandphilanthropy.org/grantwriting
Budget and Budget Narrative
Maryland Philanthropy Network presents here a lot of
guidance on the budget and budget narrative because
local grantmakers report that nonprofit organizations
struggle with this section of grant proposals. Your grant
proposal must include a budget that shows all of the
information captured in the sample table below. Ideally
the complete budget will be presented on one page so
that the reader can get an overview of the activities and see relationships at a glance.
It is good practice to include a narrative statement about the budget. Also known as a budget
detail, budget description or budget justification, the budget narrative explains what the
numbers in the budget or spreadsheet represent, how you arrived at them and what
assumptions underlie the budget. The budget narrative tells a funder exactly how a grantseeker
will spend its investment.
A. Budget Format
▪ Heading: specify the budget period (e.g., July
1, 2020 to June 30, 2021).
▪ Heading: specify the requested amount and
the total cost of the activities.
▪ Itemize all confirmed and pending sources of
revenue, or income, showing the total for each
(committed and pending), if the requested
amount is different from the total cost of the
activities. You may omit categories that are not relevant to your particular activities.
▪ List each foundation and corporate supporter by name, including the amount of the
committed and/or pending grant.
▪ Do not name individual donors, but provide the total giving by individuals.
▪ For a specific project budget, indicate if any general operating dollars from your
organization will be spent on the project.
▪ Itemize your expenses, including only those costs that are relevant to the particular
activities for which you are seeking funds.
▪ For project or program support requests, you should show two columns – one listing the
total expense and one listing the specific costs requested in this grant proposal.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
An accurate, detailed budget and budget
narrative is super important and a requirement.
I should be able to understand the organization
or project just from reading the budget.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
Many grantseekers understandably focus
on the proposal narrative when applying
for funds, but even the best proposal
narrative will not receive funding if the
budget and budget narrative do not
demonstrate that the applicant has
carefully considered the costs.
published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 8
www.marylandphilanthropy.org/grantwriting
Additional Considerations
▪ All budgets, whether for general operating or project support, should include both
revenue and expenses. A budget is considered incomplete if the revenue section is
missing.
▪ If you are seeking a project grant, you should include both a budget for the
project/program and an organization budget for the same time period. If your request is
for a particular program or project, you should indicate whether the program’s budget is
included in the total organization budget, or whether it is in addition to the total
organization budget.
▪ If you are seeking partial funding for a project, you should still include the entire budget
for the project. This provides context for the scope of the entire project and the portion
that the grantmaker is being asked to support.
▪ Multi-year requests should include a budget for each fiscal year for which funding is
requested.
B. Budget Narrative
▪ The categories in the narrative should
use the same budget line names and
follow the exact order in which the
items are listed in the numerical budget. One option is to number each line item in the
budget to serve as reference marks for the narrative.
▪ Discuss the status of requests to other funders (if applicable) and the overall likelihood
that the project budget can be raised to support the proposed grant period. For pending
requests, include the date you expect notification.
▪ Personnel: List each position that pertains to the proposal. The cost calculation should
show the employee’s annual salary rate and the percentage of time devoted to the
project. Be sure to use the same job titles in the proposal narrative and budget
narrative.
▪ Benefits/Fringe: Fringe benefits should be based on the grantseeker’s established
formula and should be only for the percentage of time devoted to the project. It is
important to explain what is included in the benefit package and at what percentage.
▪ Consultants and Professional Fees: A description of the product or services to be
provided by the consultant should be included along with the rate being charged.
▪ Travel: An explanation for the reason for travel expenses should be included along with
the location of the travel if it is not local.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
Do not be afraid to use abbreviations in the
budget narrative. Mathematical symbols
and equations can also be used. Clarity is
the guiding rule.
published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 9
www.marylandphilanthropy.org/grantwriting
▪ Professional Development: This may include required trainings, workshops or classes for
project/program staff. The project-related purpose should be noted and explained.
▪ Equipment: Non-expendable items should
be listed, including an explanation of how
the equipment is needed for the success of
the project/program.
▪ Supplies: Expendable items should be listed
by type with the basis for computation
shown.
▪ Administrative, or Indirect Costs: Check the
indirect cost policies of the grantmaker
before including it in your budget. Indirect
costs represent the expenses of doing business not otherwise itemized (examples:
insurance, maintenance, and human resources) that are not directly tied to a particular
project function or activity.
WHAT GRANTMAKERS SAY
Before you send me your budget take
the total budget and divide by the
number of people served. Does the cost
per person seem reasonable to you?
published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 10
www.marylandphilanthropy.org/grantwriting
Budget Format
[Title featuring name of the organization or specific activity]
Grant / Budget Period: ______________
Requested Amount: ________________
Sources of Support
Revenue Categories
Committed Funds
Pending Funds
Grants/Contract/Contributions
Federal Government
State Government
Local Government
Foundations (itemize on separate lines)
Corporations (itemize on separate lines)
Individuals
Other (specify)
Earned Income
Tuition/Fees
Events
Publications/Products
Other (specify)
Membership Income
In-Kind Support
Other (specify)
TOTAL
Costs
Expense Categories
Amount Requested
Total Expenses
Personnel
Fringe/Benefits
Consultants and Professional Fees
Travel
Professional Development
Equipment
Supplies
Rent
Utilities
published by Maryland Philanthropy Network Guide to Grant Proposal Format: page 11
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Postage
Printing and copying
Telephone
Other (specify)
TOTAL
Attachments
Check each grantmakers’ guidelines for required and optional attachments. Most grantmakers
today want few or no attachments. Suggested for the Maryland Philanthropy Network Grant
Format:
▪ A copy of the organization’s current IRS determination letter (or the fiscal agent’s)
indicating 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
▪ List the board members, roles and affiliations. Provide the board’s total financial
support of the organization (percent contributing and amount contributed) for the most
recently completed fiscal year.
▪ If this request includes partner organizations, provide a copy of a Memorandum of
Understanding or a description of the roles and responsibilities for each organization
that is signed by all parties.
Frequently Requested Attachments (optional)
▪ A copy of the organization’s registration with the Charitable Organization Division of the
Office of the Secretary of State for the State of Maryland, or indicate the reason for
exemption.
▪ A copy of the organizations most recent 990 tax statement.
▪ For organizations with annual budgets over $500,000, a copy of Audited Financial
Statements for the most recent fiscal year.
▪ Letters of support, recent media articles. Please use discretion in limiting additional
attachments
