Executive Summary — The One-Pager

📝 The structure — fill in YOUR words

Write this LAST, even though it goes first. Five short paragraphs:

  1. Who you are (2 sentences max).
  2. The problem (2 sentences — the sharpest version of your need).
  3. What you'll do (3 sentences — the project in a nutshell).
  4. What it costs and what it achieves (the ask + the outcome).
  5. Why this funder (1-2 sentences tying YOUR work to THEIR mission).

✅ A good example

"Northside Community Center has served 120 families since 2019. Over 300 neighborhood teens lack supervised after-school options. We will expand to serve 150 teens twice weekly with tutoring, meals, and mentorship. We request $75,000 to achieve a 30% rise in homework completion by June 2027. This directly advances your foundation's commitment to youth opportunity in underserved neighborhoods."

🚫 Common mistakes

• Writing it first — you can't summarize a proposal that doesn't exist yet.
• New information that isn't in the proposal — the summary summarizes, nothing more.
• Forgetting paragraph 5 — the #1 reason summaries fail is no funder connection.

💡 Tips

• Many reviewers read ONLY this page before deciding — make every sentence earn its place.
• Read it out loud. If you stumble, rewrite.