There
are many types of donors out there; most of them tend to be unique when it
comes to the kind of proposals they will accept or reject.
A
proposal is an essential marketing and document that helps cultivate an initial
professional relationship between an organization and a donor over a project to
be implemented. The proposal outlines the plan of the implementing organization
about the project, giving extensive information about the intention, for
implementing it, the ways to manage it and the results to be delivered from it.
Some of the things you should consider
while writing funding Proposals
·
Donors
want their money to count and the work they fund to be successful. More importantly,
donors want to be seen to be / as successful.
·
To
acquire knowledge, understanding and information. This has some ethical
problems, if interventions are directly geared toward the generation of
knowledge without clear and tangible outcomes to be attained by those receiving
the development assistance.
·
To
share knowledge, understanding, information, and, in so doing, add value to
their chosen interventions.
·
To
increase their influence in addressing what they consider to be the problems of
the world, the region, the country, or a particular area.
A
proposal is a very important document. In some cases, a concept note precedes a
proposal, briefing the basic facts of the project idea. However, the
project idea faces a considerable challenge when it has to be presented in a
framework. The proposal has a framework that establishes ideas formally for a
clear understanding of the project for the donor. Besides, unless the ideas are
not documented in writing, they do not exist.
Hence,
a proposal facilitates appropriate words for the conception of an idea. Proposals
have recently become more sophisticated. This reflects the increased
competitiveness and larger resources existing in the NGO sector. The trend of
inviting proposals for contracting development programmes began with the
allotment of substantial resources for development that triggered off the
mushrooming of NGOs around the world.
Enormous
opportunities existing in the sector has led to the trend of making proposal
writing a profession. Proposal writing poses many challenges, especially
for small and unskilled NGOs. Here, we discuss some basic and necessary information
required for developing a proposal. Before we start learning about proposal
writing, it will serve our purpose if we outline the exact difficulties we face
working on the proposal.
The following are the common problems
we face while trying to write a proposal:
What is the best Proposal
Format?
There
are as many proposal formats as they are number of donors and each donor has a
different format. Although the basic information requested by the donor through
the format is generally same, yet we often encounter snags that make the entire
process confusing.
Planning during
proposal writing
Although
a good idea exists, yet when we try to plan it out extensively, we face many unexpected
challenges.
Fear of proposal rejections?
No
matter how much of an expert we are in writing proposals, the underlying fear
of proposal rejection hovers over us while writing it.
Tight deadlines
of the Proposal Submission
This
is perhaps the most universal problem for all proposal writers. For some reason
or the other, we are expected to complete the proposals under a very tight
deadline.
Solicited and
unsolicited proposal
Solicited
and unsolicited proposals are quite confusing. Many NGOs work hard and
submit proposals to donors, who have never solicited proposals
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