What a trustee checks, in the order they check it
A foundation trustee reading your letter is deciding one thing first: is this organization safe to give money to. Only after that do they consider whether your work is worth funding. The order matters, because most organizations spend all their effort on the second question and lose on the first.
1. Are you real, and are you currently exempt?
They look you up. Determination letter, current status, and whether your filings are current. This takes them ninety seconds and it happens before anyone reads your program description.
What to fix: file everything you can file. If two federal records disagree about your status, resolve it before you write to anyone.
2. Can they legally give to you?
Deductibility, and whether you appear in IRS Publication 78. A foundation's finance office will not release funds to an organization it cannot verify.
3. Does your public record match your story?
If your letter describes a reentry program and your IRS activity code says generic human services, and your website does not mention the program at all, the trustee is now doing reconciliation work instead of reading your case.
What to fix: correct the activity code, and make sure the program you are asking money for is visible on your own website. This costs nothing and it is the most common gap we see.
4. Can you show what you accomplished?
Numbers, over a stated period, with a stated method. Not "we served many families" but "121 men completed the program in the twelve months ending December; four returned to custody within the following year; we track this through county records."
This is the single most important element of any request. Everything else is context; your outcomes are the argument.
5. Is your governance grown up enough to handle their money?
Board size and whether it meets. Bylaws that were actually adopted. A conflict of interest policy. More than one person authorized on the bank account. None of this is expensive. All of it is checked.
6. Are you already trusted by someone else?
A government contract, a prior foundation grant, a named partner - any funder who has already said yes and said so publicly. Most organizations seeking foundation money cannot show one. If you can, lead with it.
What this adds up to
Fundability is not a quality of your mission. It is a set of facts about your organization that a stranger can verify in about ten minutes. Every one of them is fixable, most of them are free, and the order above is roughly the order to fix them in.