LOI vs. Full Proposal

In our acronym crazy world even seasoned grants professionals sometimes need a secret decoder ring to figure out the grant jargon. One of the more confusing acronyms is “LOI”. This three letter tyrant can stand for several different types of grant requirements.

A Letter Of Inquiry is a brief, usually two pages, letter requested in lieu of a full proposal by grant-making institutions as a screening device to determine if the funder might be interested in learning more about your program or project. Sometimes if the program officer or the Board of Trustees like the way you presented your program in your LOI, they will ask you to submit a full proposal with a budget, financial statements and all the other bells and whistles.

Letters Of Interest are typically the same thing as a letter of inquiry. Both terms are used interchangeably.

On a side note, did you know that Duilio Loi {born April 19, 1929) is a retired Italian boxer who held the Italian and European lightweight and welterweight titles, as well as the world junior welterweight championship. Loi fought from 1948 to 1962, and retired with a record of 115 wins (26 KOs), 3 losses and 8 draws.(Interesting fact found at Wikpedia.com ) Alas, I digress; back to grant LOI’s.

A Letter Of Intent is often utilized by federal and state agencies and is a required element of a grant application. Typically the letter of intent is due well before the actual application and lets the particular agency know that you plan on applying for funding under a particular RFP (Here is yet another acronym-this one means Request for Proposals). The primary reason that agencies may require the letter of intent is to try to determine just how many proposals they will receive, therefore ensuring they have enough proposal reviewers to judge your application.

The important thing to remember no matter if you are answering an LOI, or RFP-follow each individual funders specific guidelines and know your grant acronyms.