Step 3: Letter of Inquiry

Letter of Inquiry Quick Facts

  • All grant applications must be preceeded by a successful Letter of Inquiry
  • Not all LOIs are accepted 
  • Expect to spend 2-4 hours preparing a successful LOI

The Letter of Inquiry must be entered through our online system. Please allow two hours to gather all your information and enter it. You can save your letter of inquiry at any time and return later.

You will need your Federal Tax ID number to access our system (If you are a government agency located in Polk or Yamhill county, or a religious organization please email us to receive access to our system. Once you have logged in and registered with us, your organization will need to use the same e-mail login throughout the process. If you have difficulties accessing our system check our Online Forms FAQ.

For each Letter of Inquiry you will need to complete our simple eligibility quiz.

TO COMPLETE THE LETTER YOU WILL NEED TO PROVIDE:

  • Contact details of your organization, the Executive Director and grant preparer
  • Organization’s founding date
  • Mission statement (verbatim if under 50 words, or summarize it down to 50 words)
  • Organization history (250 words or less)
  • Project title (10 words or less)
  • Primary program area and geographic area served
  • Project description (250 words or less and include who is being served, how many, and how they are selected)
  • Project start date (must begin within 90 days of grant offer)
  • Project end date -- do not exceed 12 months from the anticipated project start date 
  • How much you want SMCF to contribute
  • An itemized list of any other approved or pending funding for this project.
  • The total value of in-kind support (this does not need to be itemized).  
  • Project budget using our template (no more than 1 page)

View a sample Letter of Inquiry and Budget Spreadsheet in our Writing Grants That Rise to the Top page.

Once you submit the Letter of Inquiry we will automatically e-mail a confirmation of receipt to the primary contact person. A Spirit Mountain Community Fund staff member will reply with our decision within 14 days. If you do not get a response after 30 days, please call or email us to check the status of your request.

If you're ready to start, please log in to our online system. 

If you are returning to finish a letter of inquiry or check on your status, please log in here. 

We strongly suggest that your organization keep a printed copy of submitted LOI’s, applications, and any correspondence for your records.

Once a grant application and all accompanying materials are submitted, it becomes the property of the Spirit Mountain Community Fund.

Please do not submit any CDs, videos, DVDs or other promotional information about your project. If that information is helpful in our review process, we will request it from you. 

 

NEXT STEP:

GRANT APPLICATION WORKSHOP >>