Folly #37: LOIs

Does a Letter of Inquiry lessen the agony or prolong it?

I admit that I’m on the fence about LOIs (letters of inquiry/interest).

On the one hand, they provide a fairly easy process to see if your nonprofit is a fit with the funder’s priorities. That’s a huge improvement over the officious by-invitation-only that excludes most nonprofits from even getting their hats in the ring.

But, once you’re in, the next step is another complicated proposal.

Examples of Real LOIs

I’ll illustrate with real questions from three LOIs submitted in the past few months: Purple Foundation, Teal Fund, and Green Philanthropy. (I said the questions were real.)

Those seem pretty straightforward.

I’m Just Waiting on a … Reply

To paraphrase the Stones, and then you wait.

How long can vary quite a bit. Here were the response times to these LOIs, in each case inviting the nonprofit to submit a full proposal:

Nearly 2 months for Funder 1 to approve the LOI.

About 6 weeks for Funder 2.

Less than 1 week for Funder 3.

And then, if you’re lucky, you get to write another proposal.

We’re in! That’s good, right?

Here’s where my mixed feelings come in. The full proposal for each of these three funders must answer a lot questions:

Here’s how that looks.

17 more questions for Funder 1.

24 more questions for Funders 2 and 3.

Admittedly, not as bad as the funder who asked 92 proposal questions, but not easy either. And I’m wondering why some of the questions repeat from the LOI (but aren’t populated in the online application – you actually have to enter the info again). Or just seem unnecessary. I mean, doesn’t the budget answer several of these other questions? Will our fiscal year dates affect your desire to fund us now?? Then why ask.

Can you Dish Up a Side of Feedback with All those Questions?

Now LOIs would make a ton of sense if these foundations provided feedback to the applicant. That would be really useful – whether you qualify or not for Round Two. But none of these three funders offered feedback on the LOI you submit.

At least Virginia Humanities, one of these three funders, actually does give the applicant the chance to get feedback – not on the LOI, but on the proposal. The catch is that you’ve got 10 days to get it to them in order to hear back in time to resubmit by the final proposal deadline. (I got tired just reading that.) Ten days is not a lot of time to write another 20 or so questions, with all that other fundraising work you have on your plate.

But don’t even get me going again on lack of funder feedback.

With no feedback to guide you and another lengthy grant proposal ahead, it does feel a bit like LOIs just prolong the agony.

Know an exception? Please…