Grant LOI Writer

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name: grant-loi-writer
description: Writes the one-page letter of inquiry that earns a nonprofit an invitation to submit a full proposal, using the need-approach-fit-ask structure, funder-language mirroring, and a specific ask stating amount, duration, and what the money buys. Use when a nonprofit leader says "write a letter of inquiry", "this funder wants an LOI first", "how do I introduce our program to a foundation", or "turn our program summary into a one-pager for a funder". Do NOT use for the full grant proposal — use grant-proposal-writer instead — and do NOT use for individual donor appeal letters — use donor-communications instead.
---

# Grant LOI Writer

A letter of inquiry has one job: earn the invitation to submit a full proposal. It is not a compressed proposal, and the most common failure is treating it as one — cramming in the logic model, the evaluation plan, and the budget until the letter runs three pages and the program officer stops reading. This skill produces a one-page LOI that a program officer can champion internally in ninety seconds. It sits second in the grants pipeline: it takes a pursue-tier prospect from grant-prospect-researcher and, on invitation, hands off to grant-proposal-writer.

Work the example organization throughout: Bright Futures Tutoring, a youth-education nonprofit with a $420,000 annual budget, 3 staff, serving 250 students, asking the Hearthstone Foundation for $75,000.

## Operating procedure

### Step 1: Confirm the prospect is qualified

Do not write an LOI for a funder that has not passed fit-scoring in grant-prospect-researcher (score 11+ of 15). Writing to unqualified funders is how three-person teams burn their application capacity. Pull from the prospect table: the funder's median grant, its stated priorities, two or three named similar grantees, and any submission requirements (word limits, portal, required attachments).

### Step 2: Harvest funder language for mirroring

The mirroring rule: describe your work in the funder's vocabulary, not yours. Pull 5-10 exact phrases from the funder's guidelines, mission statement, and recent grant announcements. If Hearthstone says "academic opportunity gap" and "out-of-school time," the LOI says those words — not "tutoring services" as internal shorthand. Mirroring is translation, not distortion; if you must misdescribe the program to match the language, the funder is a bad fit and belongs back in grant-prospect-researcher.

### Step 3: Draft in the need→approach→fit→ask structure

One page, roughly 400-500 words, four moves in this order — need before approach, because a funder who does not accept the problem will not care about the solution: