This paper provides first-time grant writers with suggestions on how to approach a private funding source. While intended for rural health care advocates, the remarks are equally applicable for educators and others. The rural crisis has produced many heart-rending stories about medically indigent people, but there is a lack of reliable statistics on these people. Faced with a wide range of concerns, grantmakers want to see hard data on the location and nature of the problem in order to judge the validity of the proposed solution. Presentation of an objective case is part of a cooperative attitude which views agency and foundation as partners. Such an attitude is essential for successful grant-writing. Indexes of foundations, grants, and services are available from the Foundation Center; many public libraries carry these. Foundation procedures vary; many have a two step process of a preliminary letter and the full grant application. The project's short- and long-term goals should be stated in a concrete and realistic manner in a preliminary letter. Shortcomings frequently found in rural health care applications include: (1) a lack of community involvement and support; (2) failure to have other funding possibilities; (3) proposal to establish a permanent social service agency (rather than a model demonstration project); (4) assumption of a one-on-one delivery system, making costs prohibitive; and (5) failure to consider networking arrangements to lower costs. (SV)