Tips for Preparing Grant Proposals

Are you currently working on a grant proposal? Joint me and you may find these tips helpful.

Include a DUNS Number. A DUNS Number must be included in order for an application to be reviewed.  DUNS numbers can be obtained by accessing www.dunandbradstreet.com or by calling 1-866-705-5711. Include theDUNS number next to the OMB Approval Number, which is located in the upper right corner of the application face page.

Keep the audience in mind. Reviewers will use only the information contained in the application to assess the application. Therefore, the applicant should be sure the application and responses to the program requirements and expectations are complete and clearly written. Do not assume that reviewers are familiar with the applicant organization. Keep the review criteria in mind when writing the application.

Start preparing the application early. If applying electronically through Grants.gov please ensure that adequate time is allotted to register and download applicable software and forms. Grants.gov offered a "Webcast" (registration required) entitled "Get Started with Grants.gov" that provides startup requirements and tips.

Follow the instructions and application guidance carefully. The instructions call for a particular organization of the materials, and reviewers are accustomed to finding information in specific places. Present information according to the prescribed format.

Be brief, concise, and clear. Make each point understandable. Provide accurate and honest information, including candid accounts of problems and realistic plans to address them. If any required information or data is omitted, explain why. Make sure the information provided in each table, chart, attachment, etc., is consistent with the proposal narrative and information in other tables.

Be organized and logical. Many applications fail because the reviewers cannot follow the thought process of the applicant or because parts of the application do not fit together.

Be careful in the use of appendices. Do not use the appendices for information that is required in the body of the application. Be sure to cross-reference all tables and attachments located in the appendices to the appropriate text in the application.

Carefully proofread the application. Misspellings and grammatical errors will impede reviewers in understanding the application. Be sure pages are numbered (including appendices) and that page limits are followed. Limit the use of abbreviations and acronyms, and define each one at its first use and periodically throughout application.

For more information visit Applicant Resources on Grants.gov

How to Write a Proposal to get Funds for NGO Prt5

Strategies and Activities

Proposals are required to outline how the objectives of the project would be achieved. Here, it will be necessary to mention the strategies and the activities to be implemented in the project. There is lot of difference between strategies and activities. Strategies are broad concepts under which activities are placed.

Strategies in a project can include:

• Capacity-building/ awareness raising
• Organizational development
• Research & Development
• Advocacy
• Victim Support Strategy
• Micro-finance and CBO development Strategy
• Participatory Infrastructure Development Strategy

Activities can include:

• Training workshops, street shows, rallies
• Staff selection, staff training
• Baseline, PRA, FGD
• Conferences, meetings, articles, publications
• Establishing shelter homes, counseling, legal support
• Forming SHGs and cooperatives
• Building irrigation tanks, demo plots etc

To develop activities:

• Refer back to the lessons learned from previous projects.
• Identify best practices from other agencies/ projects/sources.
• Activities as identified by the communities
• Develop activities by listing numbers, so that they can referred back easily
• Leave space for unplanned activities that can be added later during project implementation

Activities are usually listed out in a Gantt Chart. A Gantt Chart is a kind of a time table of all project activities given along with the role and responsibilities of the project staff.

Performance Indicators
A Performance Indicator is a measure of the result. It gives a sense of what has been or what is to be achieved.

For example, the number of households keeping their surroundings clean and hygienic or the number of women participating in training programs.
There are two types of indicators, namely, “Process Indicators” and “Results Indicators.” Process indicators define the indicators for a process or an activity like ‘number of women participating in the training on gender development” and Results Indicators refer to the indicators that indicate the result achieved from the implementing the activity like ‘number of women aware about gender rights.”

Risks & Assumptions
Risks and Assumptions are part of the concept based on the principle that we have less and less control of the project results as we go down and down implementing the project.
For example, ‘Government policies/ officials are supportive of the project activities’ or ‘ongoing peace and stability may get hampered by sporadic violence.’

Results
Results are changes that we expect to take place after implementing the project activities. The results are generally positive experiences undergone by the beneficiaries.
Results are divided into three types:
1. Outputs
2. Outcomes
3. Impact
Outputs are immediate results that we achieve soon after the completion the project or any specific project activity. For example, if a training on human rights is carried out in a project, the output or the immediate result of it is “a greater understanding of human rights amongst the participants.”

The outcomes are results that have been or that are to be achieved after a period of time, but not immediate. In the above example, it could that “the participants have gone further to communities to inform them about human rights or carrying out policy advocacy in favor of human rights.”

The impact is the longer-term result that has happened because of the activities undertaken in the project. The impact in the example given above could be “policies are framed by the Government to protect the human rights of the people.”

Monitoring and Evaluation

Although it is the responsibility of the donor to carry out monitoring and evaluation of the project, it usually seeks the plan from the implementing NGO about it.
Monitoring and evaluation enables constant check on the activities and helps review the progress made at every step. Monitoring should be the integral part of project implementation; in fact, there should be an internal mechanism to monitor the results, risks, assumptions and performance regularly through meetings and submission reports. 

The Management Information Systems (MIS) is often used as a mechanism to undertake monitoring. The baseline information is critical to the monitoring process.
Involving external entities such as donors, government people, consultants etc in monitoring would give a good opportunity to collect feedback, provide exposure to the work and also explore new options. Evaluation is carried out by an external agency during the mid-term or in the end part of the project.

Budgeting and Packaging your Proposal
The budget has to be itemized as clearly as possible, presented in the required format. It should be in line with the activities set in the project. It will be an additional advantage to mention contribution from other sources such as the community or other donors. Contribution made by the proposing organization should also be mentioned. It there is any recurring income from the project activities, it needs to be clearly given in the budget section.

Proposal Packaging

When the proposal writing is complete, it is important to ensure that the packaging has been done properly before submitting it to the donor. Below are some important points to be kept in mind while packaging the proposal.

• the Title Page should have Project title, name of the donor agency and name, logo & contact info of the NGO.
• there should be a Table of Contents
• there should be one page for explaining acronyms
• there should be a Project Summary- not more than one page, narrating goal, objectives, results and activities.
• An Organizational overview
• Ensure that page numbering, header & footer are complete.
• While writing, use active sentences more.
• Keep in mind the limit for the total no. of pages for the proposal.
• Attach appendices, if necessary
• Give Bibliography and references.
• The proposal should be signed and sealed.
• Covering letter is essential

How to Write a Proposal to get Funds for NGO Prt4

Writing Project Objectives

Many people think that its difficult to come up with project objectives. Let’s find out if it is.. Project Objectives should be SMART : [Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound].

Project objectives are the specific objectives the project works to achieve within the stipulated time. They should directly address the problem mentioned in the problem statement. They should be specific: the more specific it is the better to design activities/indicators/LFA and address the problem and easier to convince the donor. It will helpful to mention the number of women, children benefiting from the objective; this will be useful in measuring the outcome. Some more tips to write Project Objectives:

• Think about what success means for your project and how you would show that success
• Refer to the results you expect from the project
• Describe the focus population and the desired change among the population
• Include the location and time period for each objective
• Reflect the intended changes in systemic conditions or behaviors that must be achieved to accomplish the goal/strategic objective
• Should have measurable indicators which show what, when, and how conditions, behaviors, and practices will change
• Must be verifiable at some point during the execution of the project

A good objective can be:

To increase the income-level of women farmers from 5% to 15% in the district/ area where the project is implementing.

Some Relevant Words to be used while writing Objectives:

 

• Decrease…
• Increase…
• Strengthen…
• Improve…
• Enhance…

Some Inappropriate words not to be used while writing Objectives:

• Train
• Provide
• Produce
• Establish
• Create

How to Write a Proposal to get Funds for NGO Prt3

How to write a Problem Statement/Project Rationale in a Proposal

 

The Problem Statement/Project Rationale gives an explanation about the issue that is beingaddressed by the project. It also argues in favour of implementing the project in the proposedarea in the existing conditions. It is very critical that we give evidence to what we are writing inthis section of the proposal. Evidence can be in form of other research, existing literature or datacollected by the organization itself. 

The following are some important points that need to beremembered while developing the Problem Statement/Project Rationale:

• Problem Statement/Project Rationale is a brief analysis or summary of the problems identified relating to the project or issue to be addressed by the project.
• It has to be precise and point-to-point basis.
• Use of quotes, live examples, references, research data and press articles would be very helpful.- It has to be very specific to donor issues and priorities.
• Giving references to other NGOs, Governmental work in the area working against the same problem would be useful.

Some common information we use in this section includes:

• Country, region, area details (location in region, government, population etc);
• Poverty information, including information on the state of the economy
• Employment/unemployment;
• Gender issues;
• HIV/ AIDS situation;
• Health and education;

Explaining the Problem Statement in the Proposal

Sometimes, we may find difficulties in writing the exact problem we intend to address in the proposed project. It happens this way that the problem we are mentioning in the proposal is not a problem at all, but is actually an effect of another problem. Suppose there is high child mortalityrate in our project area and we wish to put up a proposal on it, we cannot mention this as a problem because this is an effect of a problem, while the problem is something else. For example, in this case, it could be the prevalence of diarrhoea that is leading to high child mortality. So the problem here is “the prevalence of diarrhoea.

It is also necessary to mention the cause of the problem because it is an integral part of the project implementation. In this scenario, the cause of the problem for the prevalence of diarrhoeacould be the poor knowledge of the community on hygiene and sanitation.

Effect -> Problem -> Cause

The relationship between the three has to be outlined in the Problem Statement of the proposal. If we have an issue, it will be a good exercise to go a step back and forth to find out its cause and effect relationship. The best way to understand the cause of an issue is to as “Why” continuously.

This will help reveal the cause of the problem. A problem can have many causes and effects.

“The Why of Why”

•  Projects evolve out of identified problems
• It is the problem that comes before a project
• The secret of solving a problem is proper identification of the problem. This requires a thorough investigation.
• A problem does not happen in isolation. It goes hand in hand with cause and effect.
• There is a relationship between cause and effect. They are linked by the problem.

A way to analyze a problem is through analyzing the root causes and its effects.

• State the problem as effectively and precisely as possible
• Refer to any research data that is available, including publications, reports, newspapers etc.
• Give a narration of community perception with quotes.
• Check back how well it matches with the donor guidelines or issues.
• Give a thorough background information about the region, community and resources available.
• Explain the organizational strength and capacity in countering this problem and achieving long-term results.

What is a Project Goal?

A project goal is a very general, high-level and long-term objective of the project. It is different from project objectives because the latter are very specific and have to be addressed alone by the project. But the goal cannot be achieved by the project on its own since there will be other forces like the Government, other agencies etc also working to achieve it. It is a major benchmark to compare work between different projects. Usually there is one project goal only and it can be reflected in the title of the project. It should ideally support the overall policy of the government or the donor agency.

Example:

“Providing housing facilities to earthquake affected victims”

This cannot be a project goal, but can be a general objective

“Reducing the impact of natural disaster over communities belonging to the hilly region”

This can be a project goal, as you are contributing to the problem in addition to other efforts