Letters of Support Versus Letters of Collaboration

“Hi Mr. Smith, our organization is in the process of submitting an application to the xx Federal Agency/State Agency/Private Funder and we were hoping that you could provide us with a letter of support this week from your organization?”

How many times have you made or received that call? It’s likely too many to count on one hand. The problem is not just with the short timeframe in which the letter of support was requested. The problem is that it was a letter of support which was requested, and that you are hearing about it in the days prior to submission, not during the pre-planning process that the organization went through while deciding whether or not to apply, and working out their program/project design details.

What makes an effective letter of commitment?

An effective letter of commitment from a partner for inclusion in a grant application should include three key items:

1 – How long and in what capacity has the organization writing the letter been working with the organization that the letter is in support of?

2 – What are the specific responsibilities that the organization writing the letter is going to take during the proposed grant award period for the proposed program/project?

3 – Why do you support the organization the letter is written for and are engaged in this collaborative relationship? How does it better your constituents/clients/community?

When is a letter of support appropriate?

A true letter of support is appropriate when the author will not play any specific role in the implementation of the program/project. This does happen from time to time with grant-seeking organizations supporting each other’s efforts with no specific role to play. This is also always the case with requesting letters of support from local/regional/state/federal elected officials. Their vote of confidence and letter of support does carry significant weight, just as a letter of support. There is no expectation for a letter of commitment from an elected official. It would be the absence of a letter of support from key elected officials that would raise a flag for reviewers in this situation.

I strongly recommend the following as an ideal process for engaging collaborative partners and securing letters of commitment:

1 – Engage collaborative partners in the dialogue (even if only as a for your information session) early on to see what role they can see themselves playing.

2 - Provide clear expectations for involvement by partners in the pre-planning and editing process, and what the timeline will be for any involvement, including providing the letter of commitment.

3 – Provide the specific details of what you would like them to consider, included in the letter and when you need the letter by, providing at least two weeks notice prior to needing it in hand.

Of course things happen; not all grants can be pre-planned as described above, and you still may have to scramble to secure a letter of commitment from time to time. However, if you are able to shift your process and thinking about letters of commitment for the majority of the applications you will increase your scores and competitiveness in a very meaningful way.

Therefore, the next time you start the pre-planning process for any grant application, as you lay out your timeline for the planning work, ask yourself, where should I bring my collaborative partners into the process? How can I ensure their buy-in and that their letters of commitment will help make us more competitive in the process?