Give the funder the proposal they asked for. If the guidelines say fill out a form, fill it out. If the guidelines restrict you to five pages, don’t write seven. If they ask for a specific format, follow it. If they say they don’t fund religious
institutions, don’t ask for funding for the Summer Bible School. 

Neatness counts. Misspellings, sloppiness, contradictions in the text, and unclear writing will count against you. Have several people proofread the proposal before it goes out.

Address it to the right person.  You were supposed to call the foundation to
confirm details, right? Don’t trust foundation directories to give you accurate
information. It’s not humanly possible to keep up-to-date information in print

Write clearly and succinctly. Grant officers might be reading hundreds of
proposals. If yours gets to the point quickly and is easy to read, it might be passed onto the next review level. Hard to read or lengthy proposals are often tossed before anyone realizes that a great project has been passed over.

Print in color and include some photos. Funders and clients alike tell me that the proposals I produce that contain photographs of the program in action are more informative and easier to understand. Don’t rush out and buy a new printer, but the next time you need one, buy one with color capacities. A picture really is worth a thousand words, but don’t overdo it. I put photos right in with the text, not on appendix pages where they might be counted as extraneous additions to the proposal. Also, keep all the text in black and save the color for the graphics

Use graphics sparingly. Don’t use clip art in your proposal. Ever.

Scan in your logo and use it on your cover sheet. Personalize your proposal as much as possible. Many board members are computer-savvy and can help with this step.

Use a typeface that is easy to read in a size no smaller than 12 point. Don’t mix
typefaces or you’ll have a proposal that looks is if it was submitted by the Mad Bomber, not your respectable agency. Whether you chose to double space every line or only between paragraphs, chose a format that you can read.