Martin Teitel’s 
Thank You for Submitting Your Proposal is a must read for anyone who is serious about receiving grants. He describes how many proposals are discarded immediately, largely because they are for a type of project the foundation doesn’t support. And because your proposal or letter of inquiry will only be scanned the first time, beware of including any extraneous facts. He gives as an example, if the foundation supports the alleviation of hunger in the U.S., and in scanning the proposal he sees the names of foreign countries, the proposal might be immediately rejected. (Of course, it’s possible an agency works to alleviate hunger in the U.S. and abroad, but the foreign work is of no interest to that foundation and should not be mentioned in a letter of inquiry or cover letter least you trigger the “eject” function.)
Keep to the point and make it easy for the first reader of your letter or proposal to understand what you do and what you want from the foundation.
