Funders fund people as much as projects. Learn how to write a key personnel section that shows reviewers your team can actually deliver.

Behind every funded project is a question reviewers ask before they recommend writing the check: are the people who’ll actually do this work up to it?

The key personnel section is your direct answer. It’s where you name your team, show their qualifications, and convince a reviewer that the project director isn’t just credentialed but available, that the staff aren’t aspirational, that the partners are real. It’s a small section that does outsized credibility work.

This guide covers how to write a key personnel section that strengthens, rather than just appends, the rest of the proposal.

TL;DR: Quick Answers

What is the key personnel section? A proposal section that introduces the staff who’ll lead the project, with their qualifications and FTE on the work.
Who counts as key personnel? The project director, key program staff, key partners, evaluators, and senior leadership relevant to the project.
How is it different from a capacity statement? Capacity discusses the organization as a whole; key personnel zooms in on the specific people.
What’s the most common mistake? Listing impressive titles without specifying FTE, role, or relevant experience.

What Funders Want to Know

For each named person, reviewers look for:

Who they are. Name, title, role on the project.
What they bring. Specific, relevant experience.
How much of their time the project gets. FTE or percentage effort.
What they’ll be responsible for. A defined role on this specific work.

The fourth point matters more than people realize. Reviewers want to see that named personnel aren’t just decorative; they have specific responsibilities.

How to Structure Bios

A good key personnel bio runs roughly 4–6 sentences:

Role and FTE. “Maria Lopez will serve as Project Director at 50% FTE.”
Position and tenure. “Maria is [Organization]‘s Director of Community Programs, where she has led similar literacy initiatives for the past seven years.”
Most relevant experience. “Previously, she directed a [similar program] reaching 1,200 students annually, with documented gains in early-reading benchmarks.”
Credentials. “She holds a master’s degree in Education from [University] and is certified in [relevant model].”
Specific responsibilities on this project. “On this project, she will oversee curriculum implementation, supervise three teachers, and serve as primary liaison with school partners.”

This formula scales from project director to junior staff to external partners; adjust depth proportionally.

Who to Include

Typical “key personnel” includes:

Project Director / Principal Investigator. Always.
Key program staff doing significant project work.
The Executive Director (often as supervising authority).
The CFO or Finance Director, especially on larger grants where financial management is a concern.
External partners with significant roles, evaluators, subcontractors, named consultants.
The Evaluator, if external.

For NIH and many federal applications, the funder’s instructions may define “key personnel” specifically; follow that.

FTE and Effort

A persistent mistake: claiming staff effort that doesn’t add up. If your Project Director is showing as 50% FTE on this grant, 40% on a different grant, 25% supervising other programs, and serving as part-time fundraising lead, that’s 115%+ on a 100% job. Reviewers can see it.

A few rules:

Make FTE realistic.
For staff with multiple grant assignments, reviewers may want to see total effort across funders.
Don’t over-commit senior leadership; if the ED is “50% FTE on this project,” reviewers will doubt it.

How Personnel Connects to Budget

Every named person should appear in the budget, with their FTE and salary contribution to the project. A mismatch between key personnel and the budget is a credibility wound, fix it before submission.

Partners and Their Letters

When a key personnel role belongs to a partner organization, include:

The partner organization’s name and credentials.
The specific person from that partner taking the role.
A letter of support confirming their commitment.

Vague partnership language without a named contact and a letter reads as soft.

To-Be-Hired Positions

If a key role hasn’t been filled yet, address it directly:

Describe the position and qualifications you’ll hire to.
Provide a hiring timeline.
Explain who will lead in the interim and supervise the hire.

Reviewers prefer an honest hiring plan to an inflated bio of someone you don’t actually have.

Common Mistakes

Title without role. “Dr. Smith, Director” without saying what Dr. Smith does on the project.
No FTE. Reviewers need to know how much of each person you’re committing.
Over-committed senior staff. ED at 30% on every grant you submit eventually breaks down mathematically.
Partner names with no role. “Our partner [X University]” without saying what they do, or letters confirming it.
Generic credential lists. “20+ years of experience” without saying in what, related to this work.
Disconnect from the budget. Personnel listed but not in the budget, or vice versa.

How Grantboost Helps

Personnel content repeats heavily across an organization’s proposals, bios, FTE, partner roles, but each proposal needs its own framing for the specific work. Grantboost learns your organization (see training AI on your past proposals) so personnel content drafts in your voice automatically, structured around the specific project’s responsibilities, and aligned with the budget and methods sections.

Try Grantboost free and present teams that earn reviewer confidence.

Key Personnel Section: How to Showcase Your Team in a Grant Proposal