Checklist of Grant Application Attachments

Get Organized and Save Time

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

As you write your first few proposals you may be surprised at the number of grant application attachments you need to include.

Every grant application is different. Each grantor asks for different elements in an application and even for a Letter of Inquiry (LOI). 

Because of that, you will save yourself hours of scrambling and an untold amount a frustration if you assemble the most-requested grant application attachments ahead of time.

When you have the attachments on hand, then you can focus your energy on writing a quality proposal.

Use this handy checklist to make grant submissions simpler.

Basic Organizational Information

• Organization’s mailing address
• Organization’s telephone and fax numbers
• Organization’s email address
• Organization’s website address
• Organization’s social media site addresses
• Organization mission statement
  Have ready both short (10 words or less) and long versions, since you may face a word count limit in some applications
• Federal tax exemption letter
  A written statement from the Internal Revenue Service designating your organization as a nonprofit, charitable organization that meets 501(c)(3) specifications according to code
• EIN number
  The Employer Identification Number (also called the Federal Tax Identification Number), a 9-digit identifier, is assigned to all businesses operating in the United States.
• DUNS number
  A unique 9-digit numeric identifier assigned to your organization which indicates its credit rating, often required in federal grant applications

Human Resources

• Board of Directors listing
  Include a designation of officers and members as well as each individual’s contact information, professional position, and date he joined the board 
• Advisory Board listing
  Include each individual’s contact information and professional position
• Staff and Volunteer Listing
  Grantors may request this list in order to understand what positions your organization relies on to achieve its ends.
• Resumes and Bios
  Have these on hand for key leaders and program coordinators. Grantors review these in order to assess program credibility and stability.

Financials

• Annual Organizational Budget (current fiscal year)
  List revenue sources and specific expenses
• Financial Statements: budgeted vs. actual year-to-date (current fiscal year)
  Have your accountant break out a separate column alongside the regular budget line items, labeled with income and spending to date as compared with the annual budget
• Annual Organizational Budget (past fiscal year)
  Grant makers may request past budget versus actuals to see how your program has changed and to see ratio of income to expenses. For some significant grants or government awards you may be required to provide financial statements for up to three years.
• Program Budget(s)
  Create a separate budget for each major program or service within your organization. For example, you may operate an after-school tutoring nonprofit. Each May you sponsor a special Parents’ Day. The event’s expenses are included in your annual budget, but you create a separate document that outlines expenses that are specific to that event, which show the the grantor how you operate that function.
• 990 Form
  Tax-exempt organizations complete and file this form annually with the IRS.
• Audit
  A copy of your most recent financial report completed by an independent body such as an accounting agency. Smaller nonprofits may be able to submit their most recent in-house year-end financial statement.
• Major Funders
  A list of significant gifts, grants, and funding from the past 1-3 years

Additional Attachments

Though often not required,  when these are requested you can add an extra level of sparkle and appeal to your application by including them.

• Annual Report
• Organizational Newsletters
• Letters of Support
• Press Releases

Bonus Tips for Grant Application Attachments

Bonus tip #1: Store these attachments in a labeled folder on your desktop so you can access them easily.

Bonus tip #2: Make a note on your calendar to update these attachments at the beginning of each fiscal year.

Bonus tip #3: Have documents ready-to-go in both MS Word and PDF versions.

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