Grant Seeker Guidelines
1. Introduction
Proposal writing is a challenging enterprise. In preparing the proposal, the organization seeking a grant must demonstrate its capacity to address a need. But funders are diverse, and have different criteria for giving support.Prior to submitting a proposal, the grant seeker should research each funder’s mission, strategic priorities and budget. Indeed, the potential grantee greatly increases the likelihood of receiving funding by seeking support for respective components of its work from the appropriate source. These guidelines outline what the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) considers the main elements of a grant proposal.
OSIWA requires all organizations seeking funding to submit a completed application. In addition to the body of the proposal, the application should include the following information as attachments:
- A cover letter signed by the organization’s chairperson of the board or another executive;
- A proposal contact name and complete contact details of the organization for purposes of follow-up and clarification;
- Proof of registration and, if available, a copy of organizational statutes;
- A list of board members, trustees and staff;
- A list of current activities or, if available, a most recent annual report;
- A current organizational budget and, if available, an audited financial statement;
- A recent project or organizational evaluation, if available.
2. Proposal Body
This section describes how to structure a proposal.2.1 Executive Summary
The executive summary provides an overview of the project for which you are seeking support and briefly answers the following questions:- What is the issue or problem that you are addressing?
- What is the project’s timeline?
- In brief, what is the methodology applied?
- Who will implement the work?
- What level of funding will the project/program require?
You may want to organize the executive summary in the following way:
- Problem/Objective: A brief statement of the problem or need you have recognized and are prepared to address.
- Approach: A short description of the project/program, including methodology, beneficiaries and geographic scope.
- Duration of the Project/Program: Indicate how long you expect the project/program to continue, in addition to how long the requested funding will last.
- Project/Program Partners: Describe project developers and any partners. For example, your organization may decide to develop a program in collaboration with another institution. Or, a funding agency has expressed interest in supporting a portion of the program/project and also helped conceive the project.
- Funding Requirements: Indicate funding sought, other funding received, and expected future funding needs. It is important to make clear what percentage of the total contribution to the project is being requested and which other funders have been approached. Indicate the local currency used and convert each budget line item into US Dollars, indicating the exchange rate that you used.
2.2 Rationale
This section is intended to assist evaluators to understand the context of the work. You should demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the problems addressed through your work, an understanding of the work’s immediate and long-term impact, and your practical capacity to carry out the planned activities. In presenting the merits of your proposal, you want to be concise, while taking into account questions such as:- What need or problem is the proposal addressing? Background facts and statistics can be included here. Information that is too general or broad will not help the argument.
- How and by whom was the need identified? (For example, the role of the local community in the identification process.)
- Why do you have a unique contribution to make in this area? How will it complement, but not replicate the work of others?
- How does the program fit in with your organization’s overall strategy and mission?
The project description provides the reader with a picture of what you intend to do, how you will accomplish stated goals and in what timeframe. This section should answer the following questions:
- What? This is a detailed description of your project’s mission and objectives. A mission is conceptual and abstract.
- Objectives are specific, concrete, measurable, and achievable in a specified time period.
For example:
Mission: Our after-school program will help children read better.
Objective: Our after-school remedial education program will assist 50 children in improving their reading scores by one grade level as demonstrated on standardized reading tests administered after participating in the program for six months.
- How? This is the detailed description of the program’s components, what will occur from the time the project/program begins until it is completed. Your methods should match the previously stated objectives.
- When? This section presents a timeline, the order and timing for the tasks. It might make sense to provide a timetable.
- Expected Outcomes? This section of your proposal is like the project objectives, but stated in more complete and detailed form. Be sure you cover all your proposed activities. Every cause must have an effect.
2.4 Sustainability
A proposal should include some description of a project’s sustainability. It is not possible to anticipate every future detail, but a good plan can be worked into the structure of your project/program strategy and be part of your work plan.Sustainability is the ability of an organization to secure and manage sufficient resources to enable it to fulfill its mission effectively and consistently over time without excessive dependence on any single funding source. Sustainable organizations have at a minimum the following:
- A clear mission and direction;
- The skills to attract resources from a variety of sources including local, national and international funders, and the know-how to manage them efficiently to benefit communities.
Ideally, sustainable organizations also have some or all of the following:
- The ability to scan the environment, adapt to it, and seize opportunities it offers;
- Strong leadership and management;
- The ability to attract and retain qualified staff;
- The ability to provide relevant benefits and services for maximum impact in communities;
- The ability to demonstrate and communicate this impact to leverage further resources;
- Community support and involvement; and,
- Commitment to building sustainable (not dependent) communities.
Benefit sustainability
This refers to the continuation of benefits that result from an activity with or without the institution or program that stimulated that benefit in the first place. The source of these benefits may change but the benefit is still available because the community demand for it is so strong.
Organizational sustainability
Organizational or institutional sustainability places importance on building sustainable organizations to achieve sustainable development benefits.
Financial sustainability
Financial sustainability is a component of sustainability. It suggests that an organization is able to raise resources from a variety of sources (for instance, local, national and international, private and public) and should include increasing amounts of local funding and earned income, to move the organization away from dependency on foreign donors.
Community sustainability
This type of sustainability implies that NGOs contribute to the building of sustainable communities, i.e., communities that do not depend on NGOs in the long term for provision of services. Instead they will be empowered to:
- create community-based organizations to provide services;
- effectively lobby government to provide services; and
- create services within the private sector.
Given the definition above, you may wish to discuss a variety of issues relating to sustainability in your proposal such as:
- Multiple donors;
- Cost sharing (pooling funds, in-kind matching, etc.);
- Extent of involvement of partners;
- Examples of benefit, organizational, financial or community sustainability as described above;
- Planned fund-raising challenges; and
- How the donor’s role will decline through time.
2.5 Evaluation
An evaluation is a good management tool and most donors recommend that each organization explain how it plans to evaluate its program or project through time. Like strategic planning, an evaluation helps you refine and improve your program. An evaluation can be an excellent means for others to learn from your experience in implementing their projects.There are two types of formal evaluation. One measures the product or results of your program; the other analyzes the process by which you reach your objectives. Either or both might be appropriate to your project. For either type, you will need to describe how evaluation information will be collected and how the data will be analyzed. You should present your plan for how the evaluation and its results will be reported and the audience to which it will be directed. For example, it might be used internally or be shared with the funding organizations, or it might deserve a wider audience.
2.6 Staff list, governance and partner background information
In describing the strategy, you probably will have mentioned staffing for the project. You should try to include at least some information about the number of staff, their qualifications, and specific assignments. CVs can be ncluded. Staffing may refer to volunteers or to consultants, as well as to paid staff. If you are entering into this project with a partner whose staff will be involved in putting the program together, be sure to include some background information on key staff involved.If your program is being developed with a partner organization, it is important to include some background information about that entity to demonstrate why it is well suited for the project.
You may wish to include the following information:
- Where/when the organization was founded;
- Examples of other activities the organization is involved with;
- Its primary sources of funding;
- Whether or not you have worked with the organization in the past and when.
It would also be useful to include copies of documents indicating that the partner is in fact willing to commit to this specific project, as well as any proof of funding already secured from their side, if applicable.
Finally, it is important to describe governance within the project, especially if it is being implemented by two or more partner organizations.
- How are decisions being taken within the project?
- Has a project committee been convened? How and by whom?
- Describe who and what organization takes responsibility for which parts of the project?
- Has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two or more groups been entered into and executed?
3. Project Budget
Normally, a budget summary followed by separate administrative, program and capital costs should be submitted to donors.Organizations should submit:
- An overall organizational budget (which includes all administrative, capital and project costs for your organization) for each year to be funded, in addition to the budget a donor is being asked to fund.
- An indication of what budget items are to be funded by each donor your organization approaches.
Your list of budget items and the calculations you have done to arrive at a final figure for each item should be summarized on worksheets. You should submit these with your budget as an annotation and keep these to remind yourself how the numbers were developed. These worksheets can be useful as you continue to develop the proposal and discuss it with funders. These annotations are also a valuable tool for monitoring the project once it is under way and for reporting after completion of the grant.
If your project is planned for more than one year, you should include as detailed a budget as possible for the entire duration of the project, year by year.
It is not necessary for your partner to submit a detailed item-by-item budget, but you should indicate generally what costs will be covered by your partner’s contribution to the project.