Many collaborative applications come with a stack of partner paperwork, and it tends to get chased the night before the deadline. A director is traveling, a board chair has to approve, and the draft you sent days ago is still unread.
This article explains the four documents partners are asked for, what makes a letter credible, how to draft one without making it look manufactured and when to ask. You will finish with a request template you can reuse.
The four documents are not interchangeable
People use "letter of support" and "letter of commitment" loosely, and funders do not always define them the same way. What you need depends on the notice, so read its attachment list before you write a single request. Here is how the four documents are usually understood:
| Document | What it says | Binding? |
|---|---|---|
| Letter of support | The writer endorses the project or the applicant | No |
| Letter of commitment | The writer will provide a named contribution: staff time, space, data, referrals, cash | Written promise, but not a contract |
| Memorandum of understanding (MOU) | Both organizations describe how they will work together | Depends on the wording; often not intended to be |
| Subaward agreement | One organization passes part of a federal award to another to carry out part of the project | Yes |
Agencies draw these lines in their own way. The National Science Foundation's SEED fund, for example, lists letters of commitment from subawardees and consultants as a separate, strongly recommended supplementary document. It states that these are not considered letters of support, and it has a separate set of requirements for letters of support from potential customers. Another agency may treat the terms as synonyms. Follow the exact label and count in your notice.
Where a subaward agreement fits
If your partner will carry out part of a federal award and receive money for it, a letter is not enough after you win. Under 2 CFR 200.331, a subaward is for carrying out a portion of the federal award, and the pass-through entity must judge each arrangement by substance rather than the form of the agreement. Under 2 CFR 200.332, the subaward must be clearly identified as a subaward and carry specific information, such as the partner's unique entity identifier and the period of performance. A letter of commitment at the application stage is a statement of intent. The subaward agreement comes after the award. Say in the letter that one will follow.
What makes a letter credible
Reviewers read many letters, and the ones that stand out are specific. A strong letter of commitment has four parts:
- The contribution, named. "Two hours a week of a licensed social worker for 40 weeks", not "our full support".
- A value or quantity where one makes sense. If the notice asks for cost share, the number in the letter has to match the number in the budget.
- The role in the project. One or two sentences on what the partner does and when.
- A signature from someone with authority to commit the organization. An executive director, a board chair or a department head, depending on the organization. A program coordinator may not have that authority.
A common way a letter looks weak is a mismatch: the letter says 10 hours and the budget says 20, or the signer's title differs from the one in the narrative. Check each letter against the draft before it goes into the package.
Draft for your partners, then let them make it theirs
Busy partners often appreciate a draft. Offering one is fine, as long as the letter ends up in the writer's own voice. When five letters share identical wording, the repetition is easy to see, and it suggests that nobody thought about the project.
Here is how to handle it:
- Send a short list of the facts the letter must include, plus a draft that uses only those facts.
- Invite changes. Ask the signer to rewrite anything that does not sound like them.
- Ask for the letter on letterhead, dated, with the signer's name and title.
- Never write a commitment the partner has not agreed to.
A sample request
Say a community arts center is asking a county library to commit meeting space. The request might read:
Hi Dana, thank you for agreeing to partner on our application to the state arts council. We need a letter of commitment by May 20 (the application is due June 10). It should state that the library will provide its community room for 36 Saturday workshops between September and May, a donated value of $50 a session ($1,800 in total), and name who will schedule the room. A draft is attached. Please change anything that does not match what you can promise, and send it on letterhead with your name and title. We will check the numbers against our budget as soon as it arrives.
The numbers add up: 36 sessions at $50 each is $1,800. The sample also states the deadline, the content and the format, so the partner does not have to guess.
Ask early, and have an internal deadline
Letters take longer than anyone expects, since they may need approval from a board, a legal office or a supervisor. As a rule of thumb, send requests three to four weeks before the application is due, with a deadline roughly a week before yours. That buys time for corrections.
- Make a tracker. List each letter, the signer, the date requested, the date due and the status.
- Follow up on a schedule. A reminder a week before the internal deadline, and another two days before.
- Have a fallback. If a letter is not coming, ask whether the partner can send an email confirming the commitment, or whether the funder accepts a substitute. Check the notice before assuming it will.
A project partner you selected carefully is more likely to answer promptly, because the commitment was discussed before you asked for paper. If you are still looking for partners, where to find partners you don't know yet covers that earlier step.
Your next step
Build a letter request template with the contribution, the deadline and the format already filled in, like the sample above. Keep it with your boilerplate so you can adapt it for each partner and each application. Then check the attachment list in your next notice, so you know how many letters you need and what each must say. If you want a method for that reading, how to read a funding notice walks through it.
SoliContraX helps you get an application started and finished: upload the notice, and it lists what's still missing, including the attachments the funder expects, so your requests can go out sooner. Start your next application.