Letter Of Support Templates [How to Write + Samples]

A letter of support is crucial to a non-profit organization, a student, or an individual seeking to secure a grant from its partners, donors, or individuals interested in supporting them. A support letter is considered a testimonial. This helps explain why the mentioned organization or individual deserves to be granted the requested funds. In addition, it is an efficient way of showing the grant provider why they should support and believe in the course and mission of the company or the research project of the student.  

Writing a support letter for an organization you believe in is essential. This builds and reflects positively on the reputation of the organization that is asking you for a support letter and also on your company. In this article, you will learn more about a letter of support, its importance, and what to include when preparing this document.

You can download the following templates for free:

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What is a Letter of Support?

A letter of support is a written document explaining why you support a particular organization, individual, or idea.

For a non-profit organization, the letter supports the organization’s claims, which boosts its chances of getting a grant from investors, partners, and well-wishers. Note that you should submit the support letter directly to the organization’s management for evaluation and review before reaching the partners and other entities that support the cause of the business.

For an individual, it plays a crucial role in ensuring they get the financial aid they need. The aid can be in the form of a loan or a student scholarship. It is a testimonial used to show that an individual or organization deserves to be considered for grant funds or any other financial aid.

Moreover, it implies that the individual or organization being supported has the potential to provide and deliver whatever they are proposing. Therefore, before creating and submitting this letter, it is essential to research and gather important information that will help you accurately depict the organization positively. Additionally, the letter should help convince the target audience to offer a helping hand.

Who Writes Letter of Support?

A letter of support can be written by anyone who feels the need to offer assistance and recommendation to an individual or a business. Organizations can request support letters from you if you have excellent and vital work relationships with them.

Additionally, those benefiting from the services offered by the non-profit organization can write a thank you letter to you to show their appreciation. People who can write it for the organization may include the grantee’s partners, community members, investors, and other organizations.

Purpose of a Support letter

The essence of the support letter is to boost the chances of an individual or organization getting financial aid. The letter shows the donors and investors that the project being proposed is genuine and has the potential to have a significant impact upon its completion. Additionally, with individuals or entities like you supporting a particular organization or students, it will show the donors and grant providers that the proposed project will likely significantly affect the community.

Therefore, the letter is designed to prove the sincerity of the organization and its proposed project. Additionally, the letter shows the organization’s commitment to the project. Also, it shows how committed the applicant is to attaining the proposed project’s objectives.

How Does a Letter of Support Work?

A support letter works by elevating the grantee’s chances of getting a grant. The letter depicts what you think about them and their projects. The letter best describes the organization’s trustworthiness and ability to complete its proposed project once they receive financial aid. Additionally, the letter shows the grant providers that the applicant has a good reputation and that the community believes in their projects. Finally, the letter will describe the applicant’s credibility.

A letter of support may be confused with other official documents that offer and contain similar information.

Here are the differences between a support letter, a letter of recommendation, and a memorandum of agreement:

Letter of support v/s Letter of recommendation

A letter of support is usually attached and submitted together with the grant proposal. Additionally, the letter is written and prepared by individuals or organizations looking to support the grant applicant. In most cases, a support letter shows that you are committed and believe in the cause and ideas of the organization or individual you are supporting.

On the other hand, a letter of recommendation is usually sent separately from the application letter. Therefore, when preparing a recommendation letter, you must be aware of the qualifications and personal details of the applicant. Note that, as a recommendation letter writer, you are not directly involved in the application process.

Letter of support v/s Memorandum of agreement

A memorandum of agreement may accompany a grant proposal or application. It is attached to the grant proposal and sent to the grantors and partnering organizations as a supporting document. Additionally, it can act as a letter of support as it is used to outline the expectations of the financial support a grantee is looking for.

Consequently, the letter may or may not be similar to a memorandum of agreement. This letter is meant for potential donors/grantors and is permanently attached to the grant proposal. It is always prepared by an outside individual or organization looking to convince the grantors that the applicant is genuine and worthy of funding.

Before writing your letter, you need to consider certain practices to ensure careful planning. These pre-considerations will help you understand how you can start writing an effective letter that will benefit the company applying for a grant.

Below are some pre-writing practices for a support letter:

Review the grant application guidelines

Start by reviewing the grant application guidelines to ensure you gather all the necessary information to write a proper letter. You can also ask the non-profit organization, asking you to write a letter to provide you with details about their organization. With such information, your letter will be well-detailed and effective in convincing the grant provider to provide the required funds to the applicant.

Know your audience

You also need to know and understand your audience. This way, you can easily customize your letter to send to the grantor. With proper research about the grantor, you will be able to include information that resonates with them, such as previous accomplishments or the financial standing of the non-profit organization. If you include the kind of information the audience likes to read, the letter will easily convince them to provide the grant.

Brainstorm ideas

The third thing you need to do before writing the letter is to brainstorm ideas. You need to know all the details you want to include in the letter, such as data, anecdotes, facts, or even statistics. With proper brainstorming, you can quickly identify how to convince the grantor about the value of the mentioned project. Ensure you write down all your ideas.

Create a list of key points and develop an outline

You will need to identify and create a list of key points from the ideas you brainstormed. Then, you need to include these essential details in an outline that will help you write a proper support letter. You should choose only the most impactful points that align with your ideas for the letter. At this point, you can select engaging storytelling techniques, create meaningful paragraphs and organize your work to ensure that all your elements are included properly and cohesively.

Craft a rough draft

Finally, create a rough draft of your support letter using your outline. The rough draft should contain complete sentences based on the ideas in your outline. Also, try and link together the elements and phrases to form paragraphs that can be understood. Always add transitional words and phrases between your paragraphs to correlate ideas properly.

When writing a support letter, the following essential sections must be included to make your document effective:

Provide the header

Start by preparing your header. In this section, provide your complete information as well as of the recipient. As a sender, ensure that you include your organization’s name in full, the logo, ABN and/or incorporation number, website address, postal address, primary email address, and the main telephone number.

Once you include your information, ensure that you include a date using the extended format to make it easier to understand. Then, proceed to include the recipient’s/grantor details.

Once you have written the recipient’s details, proceed to include a subject line that provides a reference to the reason why you are writing the letter, that is, Support letter for a grant applicant. For this subject line, you can either include the project name or the grant name. After that, add a salutation line: Dear [Name] or Dear [Sir or Madam]. Finally, ensure that your letter of support is always written on your organization’s letterhead.

Write the introduction about your organization

The next part is the introduction which should provide details about your organization. This section should be brief, about 30 to 50 words, and 2 to 3 sentences long. In this section, you need to provide your organization’s authority and relevance to the project that needs a grant. Again, avoid including too many details about your organization.

Explain why you will support the project

The third section of your letter is the most crucial part. Here, you should explain why your organization supports the mentioned grantee’s project. Ensure that you provide exact details when explaining your reasons. Also, you can mention if your organization is supporting the project through funding, providing labor, volunteer work, or any other way. In this section, you must request the grantor to support the grantee.

This section is meant to show the grant provider that you believe in the project’s value; hence, convince them to provide the required funding. Finally, apart from just your organization, ensure that you explain how and why you expect the project will benefit other community groups, residents, and other groups.

Wish the grantee well

For the last section of your letter, you should speak well for the grantee to show the grantor that you support them fully. This is meant to remind the recipient of the letter about the grant application and emphasize how significant the funding is for the project’s success. Nevertheless, if your letter is already too long, avoid this section and pass your wishes in a single line.

Include signature and title

The letter is a formal document, meaning you should have a proper sign-off at the end. Do not forget to include a professional complementary close. You can use ‘Yours faithfully’ if you addressed the letter as ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ or ‘To Whom It May Concern.’ If you addressed the letter using the recipient’s name, ‘Dear [Name]’, then it is best to use ‘Yours sincerely.’  Finally, this section should include your signature as well.

Tip: If you are requested to write a letter of support and choose not to write it, you should find a way to reject the request politely. In most cases, the project might not have the same goals as your organization, or you might not be in a position to write a proper support letter. In other cases, the period available before the deadline may not be sufficient for you to write the letter, or you might be preparing the same grant application for your project. Whatever the reason, ensure that you politely decline the request as quickly as possible and inform them with a quick explanation as to why you cannot accept the request.

When writing a support letter, there are practices that you should consider if you wish to prepare adequate and proper documentation.

These practices include the following:

Decide on a document format

Ensure that you use the Portable Documentation Format (PDF) for your letter. This ensures no changes can be made to the document; hence, the content, formatting, and layout remain the same. This means your document can be easily opened on different computers. Unless you are instructed to use a different format, the PDF style is the format you should always choose.

Keep copies 

Ensure that you have a copy of the support letter before sending it. You need to have both the original document and the PDF you sent. Having a copy means having a reference document for future purposes. This will make work easier for you when you want to write a letter of support for someone else.

In addition, it is essential to keep a copy since you might want to update the document by changing the date or by changing the address and preparing it for another grant provider. Keep the copies for as long as possible since you can use them for up to 6 to 12 months old.

Make it short

Your letter of support should be short, usually between a half page long and a single page. However, some cases might allow you to write a longer letter than a single page. To ensure you maintain a brief and concise letter:

• Use shorter paragraphs
• Remove blank lines between paragraphs by setting it at 8 or 9pts, but not less than 5pts
• Reduce the line spacing to at least 0.9 lines
• Reduce the font size to as low as 11pt for the body section
• Reduce the margins but not lower than ½ inch or 1.2cm
• Reduce your letterhead details if allowed by your corporate identity standards.

Proofread and send your letter

Finally, ensure that you proofread your letter before sending it. You can check for sections that need additional information and those that need less information. Ensure that you also check for spelling, grammatical and punctuation mistakes. In other cases, you can ask your colleagues at the organization or the company asking for your support to review the letter and highlight the mistakes for you to correct.

• Letters of support are written by people or entities that support the mission of a business or a student’s project.
• Support letters are attached and submitted together with the grant proposal and may be required by a grant provider before allocating the requested funds.
• The letter should contain accurate details of the individual or business and a description of the project you are supporting.
• In some cases, the letter can highlight an agreement between two parties working together. In other words, the letter can be used as a memorandum of agreement.
• For writing a support letter, it is necessary to keep it short, precise, and straight to the point. It is essential always to use a formal tone.
• Finally, always make sure you go through the grant application guidelines to write a letter that is in line with the provided instructions. This will increase the chances of the company getting the needed grant.