You're staring at a blank email. It's for a job application or maybe a formal complaint to a utility company that overcharged you by eighty bucks. You type out the greeting. Then you stop. Is it "To whom it may concern"? "To Whom It May Concern"? Does the "whom" get a big letter? Honestly, most people just guess. They wing it and hope the person on the other end doesn't think they're illiterate.
But here is the deal. Capitalizing To Whom It May Concern isn't just a stylistic choice you make based on how you're feeling that Tuesday. It's a standard of formal English that hasn't really changed in decades, even if our use of the phrase itself is starting to feel a bit like wearing a top hat to a backyard barbecue. If you are going to use it, you have to do it right.
The short answer you probably came here for
Every single word in the phrase must be capitalized. Yes, every one.
To Whom It May Concern.
That is the standard. It functions as a formal salutation, much like a title in a book or the "Dear" in a traditional letter. Because it stands in for a specific name or title that you don't know, it takes on the weight of a proper noun. If you write "To whom it may concern," it looks sloppy. It looks like you started a sentence and then just gave up halfway through.
Why Capitalizing To Whom It May Concern Actually Matters
In a world of "hey" and "hi team" on Slack, you might wonder why anyone cares about a greeting from the 1800s. But business communication is about signaling. When you use this phrase, you're signaling that the situation is grave, formal, or official.
Think about it. If you’re writing a letter of recommendation for a former employee, that document might be passed around three different departments. You don't know the hiring manager's name. You don't even know if they have a hiring manager. In this context, the capitalization tells the reader you respect the professional nature of the correspondence.
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According to the Gregg Reference Manual, which is basically the Bible for professional secretaries and administrative assistants, formal salutations should always be capitalized. It’s about the visual hierarchy of the page. A lowercase "whom" or "concern" breaks the visual line and makes the header feel less authoritative.
The Punctuation Problem
While we are on the subject of capitalizing To Whom It May Concern, we need to talk about what happens at the end of the phrase. This is where people really mess up.
In North American business English, you use a colon. Not a comma.
- Right: To Whom It May Concern:
- Wrong: To Whom It May Concern,
The colon indicates that what follows is a formal statement or document. A comma is for "Dear Mom," or "Hey Sarah,". If you’re being formal enough to use "To Whom It May Concern," you're being formal enough for a colon. It’s like a tuxedo for your punctuation.
When Should You Stop Using It?
Let's be real for a second. Just because you know how to capitalize it doesn't mean you should always use it. In fact, many modern recruiters and HR experts, like those featured in Harvard Business Review or Forbes, suggest that this phrase is a bit of a dinosaur.
It's cold. It's impersonal. It feels like a form letter from a debt collector.
If you can find a name, find a name. Use LinkedIn. Check the company’s "About Us" page. If you can’t find a name, "Dear Hiring Manager" or "Dear Search Committee" is usually a better bet. It shows you at least know who you're talking to, even if you don't know their specific identity.
However, there are still specific times when nothing else works:
- Providing a formal character reference.
- Filing a formal legal notice or complaint.
- Submitting a bid to a large corporation where the recipient could be one of fifty people.
In these specific, high-stakes scenarios, capitalizing To Whom It May Concern correctly ensures you don't look like an amateur before the reader even gets to your first paragraph.
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The "Whom" vs. "Who" Debate
Some people get tripped up on the grammar before they even get to the capitalization. Why "Whom"?
In this sentence, "To" is a preposition. The word that follows a preposition is the object. In English, the objective form of "who" is "whom." It’s the same reason you say "to him" instead of "to he."
If you tried to write "To Who It May Concern," you’d be grammatically incorrect. If you wrote "To whom it may concern" (lowercase), you’d be stylistically incorrect. You really need both the "m" and the capital letters to stick the landing.
Variations That Work (And How to Capitalize Them)
Sometimes you want something slightly different but still formal. If you use "To the Claims Department" or "To the Resident," the same rules apply. Capitalize the important words.
You’ll notice that in capitalizing To Whom It May Concern, even the "It" and "May" stay uppercase. This is because the entire phrase is treated as a single unit—a title.
I've seen people try to be "modern" by only capitalizing the first word. They write "To whom it may concern." Honestly? It just looks like a typo. It looks like you were typing a sentence, got distracted by a notification on your phone, and then just hit 'Enter.'
Is There Ever an Exception?
Not really. Not in formal writing.
If you are writing something informal, you shouldn't be using this phrase anyway. It’s like trying to wear a ballgown to the gym—there is no "casual" way to do it. If the situation is casual enough for lowercase letters, it's casual enough for "Hi everyone."
Nuance in International English
If you're writing to someone in the UK or Australia, you might see a comma used after the salutation more often than a colon. But even there, the capitalization remains consistent. Capitalizing To Whom It May Concern is a universal standard across the English-speaking world for formal documents.
The Oxford Guide to Plain English suggests avoiding the phrase altogether when possible, favoring more direct greetings. But they don't dispute the capitalization rules when the phrase is used.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Email
- Check for a name first. Always. Spend five minutes on Google or LinkedIn. If you find "Dear Mr. Henderson," use it. It's 10x more effective.
- Use the full phrase if necessary. If you truly have no recipient name, type it out: To Whom It May Concern:
- Check every letter. Make sure T, W, I, M, and C are all uppercase.
- The Colon is your friend. End the line with a colon (:), not a comma.
- Double space. Put a full blank line between the greeting and the start of your first paragraph.
Don't overthink it, but don't under-edit it either. First impressions are weird. Sometimes the person reading your letter won't notice that you capitalized everything correctly, but they will almost certainly notice if you didn't. It's one of those invisible rules of the professional world.
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If you're still worried about looking too "stiff," consider using "Dear [Department Name] Team," which is slightly warmer while remaining professional. But if you must go the traditional route, go all the way. Commit to the capitals. It's the difference between looking like a pro and looking like someone who didn't check their work.