Letters of Support — What’s the Big Deal?

This is an important milestone for you. The deadline for the proposal is looming and you are way behind. Just before the submission you realize that you completely forgot to follow-up with the folks for whom you asked to write some Letters of Support. Not a single one has gotten back. Now it is like herding cats and there may not be enough time…

It is a common situation, that is, putting secondary tasks off such as having Letters of Support written for you while you are neck deep in a proposal. And some people may have told you they aren’t very important. But that’s just not the case.

The fact is that any element of your proposal may very well be seen as important to a reviewer, if not the crucial item that enabled your proposal to squeak into fundable territory despite all of the supreme competition. So we behoove you to take this seriously and take care of these in the beginning instead of putting them off. Furthermore, we would urge you to draft the Letters of Support yourself, or at least offer to.

Quick Points to consider including in a Letter of Support (LOS):

– A brief description of the letter writer’s organization and his/her role in it

– How the project relates to the organization’s mission

– What the organization is agreeing to do for the project

– Explicit, enthusiastic support for the project

There’s no reason to make the letter long — should always be less than a page.

Here is an EXAMPLE: (read on here: https://www.sciencedocs.com/grant-proposals-letters-of-support-los/)