Letter of Inquiry Sample: Three Annotated Grant Examples

Below are three grant letter of inquiry samples you can model: a complete one-page letter with notes on what each paragraph does, the same request rewritten for an online inquiry form with character limits, and a short email inquiry to a corporate giving program. All three are illustrative: the organizations, funders, people, contact details, and figures are invented to show structure and level of detail.

If you need the underlying guidance first (when funders ask for a letter of inquiry, what it must include, and how long it should be), read how to write a grant letter of inquiry.

Sample 1: Full one-page letter of inquiry

Northgate Community Health Alliance 412 Warren Street, Northgate

August 14, 2026

Dr. Elena Marsh Program Director, Health Equity The Calloway Foundation

Dear Dr. Marsh,

The Calloway Foundation's Health Equity portfolio funds work that moves care to where people already are, rather than expecting them to reach clinics. Northgate Community Health Alliance requests $85,000 over two years to place licensed diabetes educators inside four food pantries serving Northgate's east side, where the adult diabetes rate is 18.2 percent against a state average of 11.4 percent.

Northgate's east side has one primary care practice for 24,000 residents and no public transit route to the regional hospital. County health data show that 61 percent of diagnosed diabetics in the neighborhood had no HbA1c test in the previous twelve months. The barrier is not willingness; it is distance, cost, and hours. The same residents visit one of four food pantries an average of 2.3 times a month.

We propose to place a licensed diabetes educator in each pantry for one four-hour session weekly, delivering point-of-care HbA1c testing, medication review, and enrollment support for patients who have fallen out of care. Over two years we expect to reach 480 residents, complete 900 HbA1c tests, and reconnect 200 people to a primary care relationship.

Northgate Community Health Alliance has operated in this neighborhood for fourteen years and runs a mobile screening program reaching 1,100 residents annually. All four pantries have signed memoranda of understanding to host the sessions, and Meridian Family Medicine has committed to accept referrals and provide physician oversight at no cost to the project.

The request covers a half-time diabetes educator, point-of-care testing supplies, and evaluation. In year two, we plan to apply to the state health department's chronic disease program to extend the model to two more sites.

I would welcome the chance to discuss whether this fits your current priorities, and can provide a full proposal on your timeline.

With thanks,

Ruth Adeyemi Executive Director, Northgate Community Health Alliance ruth@example.org · (555) 010-0148

What each paragraph is doing

Opening: fit, then the request. The first sentence restates what this funder funds, in terms that show the writer read the funder's materials rather than its homepage. The second gives the amount, the project, and the headline statistic. Compare the opening most letters use: "Founded in 2012, Northgate Community Health Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health outcomes." That sentence gives the program officer nothing to act on and pushes the request down the page.

The need: compressed and evidenced. Four figures, each doing different work: the problem is severe, it is worse here than elsewhere, there is a structural cause, and the cause has a measurable consequence. The line "The barrier is not willingness; it is distance, cost, and hours" answers the reader's unspoken question about why people are not already getting care. The pantry visit figure sets up the intervention so it feels logical rather than clever. For how to build the full version of this section, see our guide to the grant statement of need.

The project: mechanism and numbers. How often, how long, what happens, and what results. There is no logic model, evaluation methodology, or work plan; those belong in the full proposal. The outcome figures let the funder do the math it will do anyway: $85,000 for 480 residents is about $177 per person reached.

Credibility: why this applicant. Track record, current scale, and, most important, commitments already secured. Signed agreements before the money exists show the partnerships are real. This is where organizational history belongs, and it is short.

Budget and sustainability in two sentences. What the money pays for in broad categories, and a named next funding source with timing. That is all the sustainability planning a letter of inquiry needs.

Close. An offer to discuss or submit a full proposal on the funder's timeline, and direct contact details.

Sample 2: The same request on an online inquiry form

Many foundations have replaced letters with web forms. The content is the same, cut to each field's limit. Here is how Sample 1 might look in a form with character limits (counts include spaces).

Project summary (500 characters): Northgate Community Health Alliance will place licensed diabetes educators in four food pantries on Northgate's east side, offering weekly point-of-care HbA1c testing, medication review, and reconnection to primary care for residents who face distance, cost, and transit barriers to clinics. Over two years we will reach 480 residents, complete 900 tests, and reconnect 200 people to primary care.

Amount requested and project period: $85,000; two years

Describe the need (750 characters): The east side has one primary care practice for 24,000 residents and no transit route to the regional hospital. The adult diabetes rate is 18.2%, against 11.4% statewide, and 61% of diagnosed diabetics had no HbA1c test in the past year (county health data). Residents visit neighborhood food pantries an average of 2.3 times a month, which makes the pantries a practical place to deliver care.

How does this project align with our priorities? (500 characters): Your Health Equity portfolio funds care delivered where people already are. This project brings clinical services into food pantries residents already use, removing travel as a barrier for a neighborhood with the county's highest diabetes rate.

Organizational capacity (500 characters): Fourteen years in the neighborhood; mobile screening program reaching 1,100 residents a year. All four pantries have signed agreements to host, and Meridian Family Medicine will accept referrals and provide physician oversight at no cost.

What changed: nothing in the argument, only the packaging. The alignment answer is new because the form asks for it separately; the organization's history shrank to one line. Write the full letter first, then cut, and you can reuse it across funders with different forms.

Sample 3: Short email inquiry to a corporate giving program

Some corporate giving programs and smaller family foundations accept a brief email before any formal application. Keep it to a few short paragraphs.

Subject: Inquiry: $15,000 for summer reading program, Riverside

Dear Ms. Patel,

I am writing to ask whether Lakeview Credit Union's community giving program would consider a request of $15,000 to support Riverside Learning Alliance's summer reading program, which serves 80 children from families that are members of your Riverside branch.

Children in our program lost no ground in reading over the summer last year, measured by spring and fall screening, while classmates who did not attend lost an average of five percentile points. This year's waitlist is 45 children. The request would fund two additional teachers and books for every child to keep, allowing us to serve all 125.

Your giving guidelines mention early literacy and financial education for families; we would be glad to include a family money-management session led by your branch staff.

If this is a fit, I would be happy to send a full proposal or meet at your convenience.

Sincerely, Marcus Bell Executive Director, Riverside Learning Alliance (555) 010-0172

Why it works: the subject line states the request, the first sentence asks a direct question with an amount, a single result and a waitlist carry the case, and the offer of a branch-led session gives the company a reason specific to its own priorities.

What none of these samples include

Leave these out of a letter of inquiry unless the funder asks: detailed budget tables, evaluation methodology, board lists, full organizational history, letters of support, and attachments. Leave out hedging, too. "We hope to potentially reach approximately 400 to 500 residents" reads as uncertainty about your own program.

Adapting a sample to your funder

Each funder's own instructions override everything above: required elements, a word or character limit, a mandated order, or an online form. Some funders decline letters that ignore their structure. Read the guidelines twice, build to their shape, and use these samples only to judge what goes in the space they give you.

To draft your own, start from our letter of inquiry template. Before writing to any funder, make sure it is the right one; our guide to vetting a funder before you write covers how to establish the fit the opening paragraph depends on. If a funder asks for a structured document with headings instead of a letter, see our grant concept paper example, and if you are invited to submit the full proposal, our complete grant proposal example shows what comes next.

For nonprofits pursuing several foundations at once, we write letters of inquiry for nonprofits as part of a full funder strategy.