How to write a proposal???

Planning your approach

In thinking about how to structure a proposal, you should consider these factors:

• Establish whether the donor requires applications to be submitted in any standard format, or has an application form which has to be completed.
• Make a proposal going to a large number of donors personal to each. You can do this by having a standard proposal accompanied by a covering letter, including all the points of previous contact and how the project particularly fits within the donor's guidelines and current interests.
• Size matters. Large aid and donor bodies will be interested in a great deal of detail and evidence of need and professionalism in delivery. Smaller donors want everything shortened and simplified- a page or two at the most.
• Put more time and effort into an application which has a high likelihood of success and in proposals for larger grants.
  Targeting your proposal
  

Whom to send your proposal to will depend on a number of factors:

• If you need the money urgently, it is best to approach those who have already supported you.
• If you require large sums of money, you can either apply for a few large grants from the larger donors including governments who are known to be interested in your sort of work. Or you can make a wider appeal seeking a range of large and small donations from a larger number of donors.
• Make a careful selection of donors based on an assessment of who is likely to be interested. Donors are often interested to know how many other people have been asked and whether others have already agreed to give.
• PNew projects or initiatives are more likely to be of interest to foundations and companies than simply contributing to the running costs of the organisation or providing a basic service. Present your proposal in a way that makes it seem new and exciting, addressing matters of current concern in an innovative way.
• Try to personalise the approach as much as you can, as the personal approach is likely to be far more successful. You can do this by referring to previous contacts and any previous support you have received. Also, match your proposal to the donor’s stated interests, policies or other grants they have made in the past.
• Content of proposal
  

You need to demonstrate the importance of what you are planning to do and achieve, at the same time as describing your work and telling the donor about your plans.

• 1. Questions that the donor will need to have answered before deciding to support you.
  You have a credibility problem if your organisation is new or has had no previous contact with the funder. This can be addressed by:
  
  • What is the problem or the need that is to be met?
  
  • Are there any particular geographic or socio-economic factors which make it important to do something in the area where you plan to work?
  
  • What are the aims and objectives of this project?
  
  • What working methods will be used to meet these aims?
  
  • What are the short and long-term operational plans?
  
  • What are the expected outcomes and achievements of the project?
  
  • Do you have a clear budget for the work, and can you justify all the expenditure?
  
  • What is going to happen when the funding runs out? Will the project continue on a sustainable basis? Will you be able to identify and develop alternative sources of funding? Or will the project come to a natural end?
  
  • What sources of funds have you already identified? And what has already been committed to the project? When do you need the money?

Answer all of the questions as factually and as honestly as possible.

• 2. Answering the question WHY
  In addition to saying what you will do, it is important to answer:
  
  • Why is the need important and urgent? And what are the consequences if nothing is done?
  
  • Why are you the right organisation to do something about it?
  
  • Why is the method you have selected the best/ most appropriate or the most cost-effective?
  
  • Why are you likely to be successful? You can demonstrate this by showing some of the skills and resources you will bring, as well as describing your previous successes.
• 3. Leverage
  What will the grant that the donor provides achieve over and beyond the actual sum of money given?
  
  • What other grants can be mobilised to add to the sum being requested from that particular donor?
  
  • Will you be able to mobilise the efforts and energies of volunteers, and how much value will this add to the work being done?
  
  • Will you mobilise the local community, and how are they involved?
  
  • Will you collaborate with other organisations and agencies, bringing in additional skills and resources?
  
  • Will the project become self-sustaining in some way? Does the sum requested represent an investment which will continue to bring benefit into the future?
  
  • What are your plans beyond the project, to build and develop on this work?
  
  • If the work is innovative, what plans do you have for dissemination, and will it influence how others address the problem?

Taking decision for how much

Find out beforehand the level of grant that the particular donor usually makes. Often this will be less than the total you need to raise. In such cases, you will need to approach a number of funders, asking each to contribute part of the total. There are several approaches to this:

• You can approach, say, three different sources, and ask each to contribute one third of the total (or an appropriate proportion, depending on their size).
• You can break down the project into separate components. Address each component to a particular donor. In each application, highlight the particular importance to the project of what you are asking for as well as the value of the project as a whole.

You need to decide whether you approach all your prospective donors at the same time or one of them first to gain their support, before approaching the others. Whatever you decide, it is important to have a funding plan, and to explain to everyone you are approaching how you propose to raise all of the money you need.

Writing the proposal

When writing up your proposal factors to consider include:

• 1. Length
  For less complicated projects, keep it short (a page or at most two). You can append more detailed information or a photograph or technical information to the proposal, if you feel that it will be of interest to the donor.
• 2. The key points
  Describe the needs you are trying to address, the aims of your project, and how you will achieve them. Include as much detail as is necessary for a person who is not knowledgeable in your area. Also, indicate how you would expect to measure the successful outcome of the project.
• 3. Your credibility
  You have a credibility problem if your organisation is new or has had no previous contact with the funder. This can be addressed by:
  
  • providing CVs of the key organisers
  
  • listing the names of well- connected committee or patrons
  
  • mentioning the support you have previously received from other major donors or a government body
  
  • clippings of press coverage - mention or quote from an evaluation, feedback from users or experts
• 4. Recognition of the importance of the problem
  If the problem itself is not widely recognised, references to respected reports or endorsements by prominent people will help.
• 5. The budget
  Potential funders will always carefully scrutinise your budget which needs to be clear, complete and accurate. Most donors are interested in the major areas of expenditure and income rather than in the small details of your stationery or postage. You should identify capital or other one-off costs, salaries, overheads and any other major operational costs.
  
  Similarly, income estimates will show the money you expect to generate from the project itself or through fundraising. You may also need to show the way in which the money you need in the medium term is going to be raised, say over a period of three years. This may require a summary income and expenditure statement and a capital expenditure statement, both spread over a three-year period. Additionally, you will need to supply your organisation's audited accounts for the latest year available.
• 6. Information on the organisation and its status
  It is useful to include the formal and legal information about the organisation on the letterhead. This includes the registration details, names of trustees, board members and patrons. This shows that you are well established, and will answer points of detail which may come up later.
• 7. Language and jargon
  Write your application in a lively upbeat way, concentrating on your strengths, the opportunities, the desirable outcomes and your hopes for the future. Remember you are selling the idea of supporting your project to a potential donor. Avoid long sentences, long paragraphs, meaningless words and jargon, and waffle. You can use bullet points and bold text to highlight key features, headings and subheads to indicate the different parts of the application.
  
  Get someone who knows little about your work to read what you have written before you send it off. They can ask for explanations and challenge assumptions where things seem unclear to them.
• 8. Facts and figures
  It is important to back up your claims with facts and figures, rather than in generalities. Everything may be `desperate', `urgent', `important', `unique'; but you need to `prove' this by a few selected facts and figures.You can also provide a wealth of detail in a background paper attached as an appendix to the application.
• 9. The human story
  Case studies and examples of how people have been helped and what they have gone on to achieve as a result of your help, can demonstrate clearly that you are effective in helping people. This is what most donors are interested in supporting.
• 10. Presentation
  The presentation of your proposal is not the most important aspect, but it can make a difference. Different standards and expectations apply to different donors. A sponsorship proposal directed at the marketing director of a major company will have to have a different feel to that being sent to a national foundation which is receiving dozens of others each day. And government agencies and international donors will have their own standards and preferred styles. Remember to tailor your style of communication to your target funder.

Get in touch

Skilled fundraisers will rarely send a proposal out of the blue. To ensure a greater chance of success, applicants need to know as much as possible about those they are approaching including whether they expect to get any sort of recognition or benefit in return for their support and the best time for applications to be submitted. Equally it will be an important advantage if the target already knows something about the applicant's work and reputation.