It is 9 a.m. at the Mother Lode Foundation, and two men bring in the morning mail on handcarts. Program officers watch with a mix of hope and dread. Once stacked and opened, the delivery yields 275 fundraising proposals. Each officer takes a pile. Within an hour, they’ve flagged 20 applications for further review. They’ve tossed the rest into a giant waste basket.

Question: Where is your proposal?

If your answer is that your proposal is with the head of the foundation’s board, who will be hand-delivering it to a program officer shortly, you go to the head of the class.

If your proposal is in the discard pile (and who hasn’t landed there?), please read on. Whether you are a neophyte or veteran writer of fundraising proposals, these 10 tips can help you keep focused on the things that matter when you knock at a foundation’s door.

(1) Know your audience. You are writing for program officers who were hired to advance the mission of the Mother Lode Foundation. They know their program turf. Their marching orders have nothing to do with furthering your mission—unless your program goals jibe precisely with theirs. In that case, there is a mutuality of interest and the basis for partnership.

Your audience is bright, well-informed on the issues, and looking to see what you can do for them. Don’t mistake them for individual donors (unpredictable and emotional) or corporate donors (seekers of spectacular public relations benefits). The foundation crowd wants fresh and thoughtful programs that work.

(2) Make them look good. When you think about it, foundations don’t do
anything. They just give away money. To accomplish something, they have to find the right nonprofits to work with. When that happens, foundations look good. And like all of us, they enjoy looking good.

Fortunately, they’ve told us how we can please. They’ve done it in their guidelines, which state explicitly what turns a foundation on. Think of those guidelines as a takeout order coming over the phone. If a customer asks for a large pizza with veggie topping, would you deliver a small pizza covered in pepperoni? Never deliver anything more or less than requested in a foundation’s guidelines.

(3) Take time to write. Mark Twain once told a correspondent that if he’d had
more time he would have written a shorter letter. Respect the fact that thoughtful writing takes time. The more work you do in writing the proposal, the easier it will be for the folks at Mother Lode to read and understand it.

Any reader will prefer six lucid, compelling pages of copy to a dozen overwritten pages of torturous prose. If you can write clearly about an exciting new program that resonates beautifully with the foundation’s guidelines, you are well on your way to success. Be sure to leave adequate time for writing.

(4) Be consistent. Time and again, program officers complain that they find
inconsistent information in proposals. An early section of your proposal talks about serving the needs of more than 100 adult students; a later paragraph refers to enrolling 65 adults and 20 youths. Folks at Mother Lode seldom take inconsistent requests seriously. They will send the proposal back to you. You will make corrections, resubmit, and hope they have forgotten your gaffe. Of course they have not.

(5) Line them up. How many times have you started the day thinking you were going to get those ducks arranged just so? Then life happens. Alas, life cannot happen while you are writing a proposal. Only the proposal can happen. And it must have every little fact, every telling anecdote, and every cutting-edge approach in precisely the right place. Everything in your proposal must be in optimal working order.

(6) Be authoritative. They say Babe Ruth pointed to the bleachers at Yankee
stadium and hit a home run to the exact spot. Assume an air of authority in your proposal. If you have confidence in your program and your ability to deliver, show it. Let your sentences be active and direct. Make forceful assertions and back them up. Write like you know what you are talking about.

(7) Be interesting. Sometimes the folks at Mother Lode think they’re reading proposals from “Ponderous R Us.” Lighten up. True, it’s hard to get upbeat about global warming, but why not emphasize the bright and hopeful aspects of your work? Mother Lode’s officers know full well how dire the situation is. That’s why they make grants to advance understanding of the issue. What will your program achieve, and how? Say it in a bright and readable way.

(8) Watch your numbers. There’s a difference between the first draft of a budget and the sixth revision. The former is rough and off the top of your head. The latter is complete, nuanced, and utterly realistic. By all means submit the rough budget if your only purpose is to amuse Mother Lode’s officers. They know a hoot when they see it. On the other hand, you could provide accurate and realistic numbers, and get taken seriously.

(9) Check your attitude. The tone of voice of your proposal matters. Do you sound needy? If so, why would the folks at Mother Lode want to send any of their benefactor’s hard-earned money your way? Mother Lode believes in winners. Do you sound cocky? Mother Lode will be dismayed. In fact, any suggestion that you are entitled to the grant will displease foundation officers. Sound capable and can-do. Come across as the strong partner that can be a vehicle for getting the foundation’s work done.

(10) Double check. That means everything, including numbers 1 through 9 above. Give the folks at Mother Lode no reason to reject your proposal. Besides going over everything yourself, have a colleague review the foundation guidelines and your proposal. Better to discover flaws in your thinking in-house rather than risk having the proposal dismissed out of hand by the funder.

This article originally appeared in Contributions Magazine.