How NGOs can convert good

project ideas into Successful

Project Proposals
 About the Author
Dr. Saumya Arora is a development professional with cross-
disciplinary experience in project management, resource
mobilization, donor relationship management, community
mobilization and project execution at the field level. She is
currently working towards building fundraising and resource
mobilization capacity of community-based organizations, apart
from developing functional linkages with donors across the world.

Table of Contents

1. Why is it important to have a structured approach? .......................................................2

2. Ideation and Brainstorming...............................................................................................3
2.1. Project planning worksheet .......................................................................................4
3. Funding organizations and opportunities ........................................................................7
3.1. Donor Mapping Sheet .................................................................................................8
3.2. Donor Research Tools ................................................................................................9
3.3. Donor Contact Information Tracking: ......................................................................10
4. Proposal Planning Guidelines and Tools .......................................................................11
4.1. Task and responsibility sheet for proposal planning .............................................12
4.2. Proposal Structure....................................................................................................13
5. Critical Aspects of a Successful Process of converting project ideas into successful
project proposals ....................................................................................................................15

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 The e-book is designed to help your NGO to conceptualize ideas to address various issues
and problems, conduct research and collect data for ideas, and finally develop your project
ideas into successful project proposals. We hope you will get inspired to implement your ideas
into projects by making use of various tools, worksheets, formats given in this e-book.

NGOs tackle complex social problems and issues by designing and implementing innovative
approaches and solutions. But to do so, they need resources. Financial resources/ funding is
needed to implement the breakthrough solutions that NGOs devise on the ground to affect
change. Good ideas and innovative approaches can come from anywhere, but the key skill and
expertise needed is around giving these ideas a structure in the format of a project proposal.
Once you have your solutions structured systematically in the form of a proposal, you can
approach the funders/ donors to seek the financial support you need.

1. Why is it important to have a structured approach?

Working on the ground level to tackle complex socio-economic-cultural development issues, you
would be well versed with the local community level problems and might also have ideas about
how they can be solved. As an NGO, you would also be aware of the challenges one faces
when trying to address these problems, the key challenge being finding the financial resources
to implement your ideas on the ground and make an impact.

It is important to understand that most funding opportunities are:

- Highly competitive
- Periodic
- Have well-defined eligibility criteria
- With clear guidelines looking for a good fit between organizations’ missions and goals.

Therefore, it’s important to give your ideas a structure so that you can present your ideas in the
form of well-prepared project proposals to various funding organizations. This structure can
come from a systematic process of putting your ideas together and in this e-book, we are
showing some ways to do so - in the form of templates, worksheets and examples.

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 2. Ideation and Brainstorming:

For ideation and brainstorming around your project ideas, you would need to put in efforts in
focused research too, aside from using the firsthand knowledge you might have acquired by
project implementation. The new ideas for new projects might be for the following:

1. Entirely new projects:

a. New theme for a project/ solving a new problem (e.g. an NGO that is working in
employment and livelihoods realizes a need to work in a specialized manner in
agriculture/ women empowerment for betterment of the target population and
deeper impact)
b. New geography for a project (e.g. an NGO may be working in districts X and Y
and might have realized a need to expand to a new geography, e.g. district Z
with the help of existing knowledge and partnerships).
2. Expanding or scaling up your existing projects:
a. Scaling up an existing project to larger population (e.g. an NGO was working in 5
schools in a region but might have identified a need to expand the same project
to 10 schools in the area for deeper impact)
b. Expanding to new project domains (e.g. an NGO that is working in the areas of
employment and livelihoods, identifies a need to address the root causes and
decides to work in the education domain too for a holistic development
approach).

Before starting the planning for any project, you need to conduct a ‘Situational Analysis’ and
‘Needs Assessment’ to make sure you have analyzed each aspect to be sure of the project
feasibility and relevance. You need to check the following aspects of a project feasibility:
Demand from the community + Needs as defined by project staff and specialists = identification
of the problem to be tackled.

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Try to answer these questions with your team to understand the project feasibility:
- What are the resources available that can be mobilised: human/material/financial (within
your organisation, your community and outside)?
- Do you have the capacity to tackle this problem you are discussing?
- If you do, your project idea is likely to be relevant. Once the project idea is identified, it
needs to be carefully planned.

Community
Demand

Needs
Organizational
identified by
capability
experts

Figure: Project feasibility and relevance

2.1. Project planning worksheet

In order to put a proposal together to approach an existing or a new funder for your project
ideas, you would need to delve deeper into the issues at hand- by understanding the issue in
detail by conducting background research using primary and secondary sources like
government/ official data around the issue. You would then also need to consolidate the data,
conduct analysis, and articulate the findings in a way to describe the situation and problem at
hand, and how your approaches, project activities, past experiences and learning from the
ground are going to solve the issues. Here is a draft template you may use with your team for
this brainstorming and ideation stage:

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 Project planning worksheet

Question Your response/ discussion points

What is the project idea? Example- The project idea is to address the issue of
school drop outs in region X, increasing education
outcomes and improving education indicators.

What problem will the project Explain the problem, why the dropout rates are high, what
solve? bigger problems does that lead to, why this problem needs
to be addressed?

What is the relevance of the Explain the unique context of the community and the
problem/ extent of the problem region/ geography, use national level/ regional level data to
in the local community that you strengthen this section, impact of current state in the
are trying to address? Why is it region and communities, explain how the problem is being
important to address this tackled right now (perhaps existing programs, government
problem? initiatives or lack of them), why existing efforts are lacking
or inefficient and why these problems need to be
addressed.

Outcomes of the project? As a result of implementing a proposed project, what

Changes expected? would be the changes expected in the current situation?
What are the expected outcomes of the project?

What are the steps you need to To achieve the above outcomes, what steps do you need
take to make these changes to take? What approaches or activities need to be
possible? implemented to bring about the expected outcomes? Here
you can also use your existing knowledge, experiences
from past and current projects. Draw assumptions carefully
and document the assumptions you are making.

Who would be the stakeholders Who would be the key stakeholders in the project? E.g.
in the project? Government departments, local schools, communities,
parents, teachers, village level authorities, etc.

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What would be the resources Financial resources, human resources, equipment,
needed for this project? knowledge partnerships etc.

What would be the budget Put tentative amounts by mapping the resources needed
amount needed to implement and using the budget planning template given further in
this project? this e-book.

Teams and individuals needed to be involved in project planning:

- Existing project/ program team- program managers and officers for ground insights
and ideas
- Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) team/ person
- External consultants if needed (for baseline data, data and research)
- Leadership/ management to be informed and kept in loop.

While planning the project, ensure the following:

1. Ensure project logic:

Situation Problem Solution Sustainability

Make sure you adequately define the situation, the problem in the current situation, the solution
you are proposing and the sustainability aspects of the project to make sure it’s not a temporary
solution but rather is following a long-term sustainable approach.

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 2. Ensure internal coherence:

Problem

Means Outcome

It is important to ensure the internal coherence, meaning a coherence among the project idea,
in terms of what the problem is, the outcomes intended and the means to be used or
implemented to bring about a change/ intended outcome.

3. Logic check-list:
- Don’t leave a problem unsolved
- Identify problems for which you have a solution
- Outcomes MUST correspond to a problem
- Propose activities that are directly linked to problems and outcomes
- List all the resources that match the outcomes you aim to achieve.

3. Funding organizations and opportunities

Once you have a clearly documented project plan with all the necessary details of a project plan
at a big picture level, it is important for you to compile and analyze the available funding
opportunities, check your eligibility and details of the funding opportunities, before you begin the
proposal planning stage. Every opportunity will be different; and the key eligibility criteria,
funding priorities, profile of the funding organization and funding proposal formats and timelines
will be different too - your proposal has to correspond to each one on a customized basis,
tailored to each opportunity. Hence, it is extremely important to conduct adequate research

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about the funding options. Read on to find the templates for researching the funding
opportunities and organizations, documenting and tracking the relevant information.

3.1. Donor Mapping Sheet:

Mapping your donors will help you strategically channel your efforts by understanding the
aspects which make some opportunities/ funding organizations better fit for your requirements
as compared to others. Based on aspects like eligibility criteria, theme, geographical focus, etc.,
this step can help you focus your efforts for more detailed donor research that will follow this
step. Donor mapping is like a dashboard that would have a summary of your prospects/ donors,
while donor research will be more in detail but guided and informed by your donor mapping
sheet.

Donor Mapping Sheet

S. Donor Key Focus Geographi Funding Current Typical

No Prospect Name Areas and cal Mechanis Partners Budget/
. and Category Broad Presence/ ms or Support
Themes Focus Projects
Funded

1. USAID, E.g. Health/ Donor Any open Names of As

UNESCO, etc. Education/ emphasis opportuniti current available
(Bilateral Livelihoods... on which es for partners/
Agency/ geography/ seeking past
Multilateral/ current funding, projects.
Alliance/ funding timelines Names and
Foundation) focus... notes. types of
past and
current
funded
projects.

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 3.2. Donor Research Tools:

Donor research involves a great amount of strategy and a structured approach. You can
customize these strategies, approaches and techniques for your NGO. A template to maintain
all the information about your prospective donors can be a record of institutional memory and as
a testimony of building a culture of continuous research. Remember to be strategic while doing
this. For example, someone in your board will be ideal to touch base and build a relationship
with a very big donor agency to ensure credibility. So, make sure you involve your board and
team in planning this. Networking will also be very helpful in getting more detailed and reliable
information and also to triangulate your findings from other sources. To help you with this
process, here is a template to document and maintain prospective funding organizations’
information:

Donor Research Table

Donor Key Geographi Financial Contact Action Respon Deadlin

Prospec Focus cal Information Informati Items sible e
t Name Areas/ Presence/ on Person
Themes Focus

Prospect Human Donor Information Contact Steps The Deadlin

ive Develop emphasis about typical informatio in the person in e or
Donor 1: ment, on which budgets or n like form of your timeline
USAID Health, geography/ funding email/ action team the to apply/
Educatio current provisions in contact items prospect to start
n... funding the past/ number is steps as
focus... current year with the allocated per
name of to action
contact items
person

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 3.3. Donor Contact Information Tracking:

You can also create and maintain a document where you can track and record funding contact
related information. Here is a format:

Donor Contact Information Record

Funding/ Donor Organization

Address

Contact Details

Name of Point of Contact

Designation of Point of Contact

Date Contacted

Mode of Contact

Contacted by

Discussion Points

Results/ Outcome/ Decision

Follow up steps

Timeline for follow up

Responsible person/ team for follow up

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 4. Proposal Planning Guidelines and Tools

- Set task-wise deadlines based on dependencies as applicable (C depends on B; B depends

on A). For example, the coordinating person who is incharge of proposal writing can only
start writing the proposal once the logical framework is in place- which is to be written by say
M&E team. And once the log frame is in place and activities are specified, the finance team
or the proposal writing team can prepare a budget based on them. These dependencies will
be brought forward during the pre-proposal meeting.
- Put people’s names in front of the task lists to ensure accountability and to reduce
confusion. Even if a team is supposed to provide you with information, make sure one
person is held in-charge of the responsibility of making it available.
- Set the timelines well ahead of the actual deadline. Make sure you have time to review the
bits and pieces of information and the proposal makes coherence in flow and logic.
- Create milestones and checklists: This will help in keeping track of all the forms and
documents. Share these with all the collaborators, but make sure one person is responsible
for tracking everything. Have a clear timeline and stick to it.
- Have a clear costing strategy in line with your technical strategy. Estimate costing as
accurately as possible but keep scope for contingencies. Study clearly the scope of costs
allowed as per the funding opportunity, ask questions to the funding organization if anything
is not clear, be consistent and transparent with the costing and budgeting.

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 4.1. Task and responsibility sheet for proposal planning

Task and responsibility sheet for proposal planning

Grant Application for Donor Agency ABC (Deadline XX)

S.No Task Responsible Timeline Location of

. person/s documents on
Google Drive

1. Providing a logical Name

framework for the
proposed program
model

2. Providing team Name

members names and
role descriptions

3. Findings and data Name

from the pilot and
overall organizational
information and data

4. Visual content (photos, Name

media, videos) to
enrich the proposal

5. Proposal framework
completion

And so on...

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In this way, you can ensure clear role divisions and accountability. Make sure the process is
done in a participatory manner and everyone buys in the timeline and the role assigned. You
can make a calendarized timeline too to make sure everyone knows what is required to be done
by when and the milestones and end goal are visible to everyone.

4.2. Proposal Structure:

Check if the grant providing organization has given a format for proposal submission. If they
have, you will have to stick to that. You must follow the guide for proposal format, flow, style etc.
or you can face rejection. If there is no specified format provided, you can use your own. In
either case, it will help if you keep certain templates and information ready as per the tentative
sections of a typical proposal.

Even if the template is set by the organization, you can use some of the sections which are kept
ready from other proposals or in your central repository. For example, if your baseline data is up
to date, you can use it to feed in your secondary research or background section to set the
context. On the other hand, sections and information like organizational profile, Board of
Directors, Financial Statements and information, most of the promotional material are mostly
static and can be used readily if it is maintained in a consistent format.

Here is an example of one of the typical structure/ outlines of a proposal:

- A cover letter (Stating NGO’s interest and summarizing the proposal synergy with grant
organization’s requirement)
- Organizational Information (with overview and overall model, geographical and thematic
experience and expertise, past experience, past and current projects, previous and
current partners and funding agencies, Board of Directors, team information,
achievements, etc.)
- Overview of the proposal (in the form of an Executive Summary and brief budget)
- Context setting (Brief background of the issue or problem at hand backed by the
secondary data and learning from primary/ baseline data if available; from local, regional
and global perspective as appropriate)
- Proposed program’s overall goals and objectives
- Logical framework for the proposed model
- Description of activities and relevant information
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 - Monitoring and Evaluation plan
- Sustainability perspective
- Financial requirement (the program budget as per your typical budget template or as per
the one provided by the organization as part of the application process)
- Supporting documents as needed in the form of attachments/ annexures: e.g. previous
similar programs undertaken- data and learning, typical reporting formats, other
programmatic and financial supporting documents
- Promotional Material like pictures, case studies, evidence of achievements, etc.

You can find sample proposals and draft templates for various kinds of proposals on
fundsforngos.org. Explore our resources to find more.

4.3. Checklist:

Despite trying our best to keep everything in order, making sure we complete the application as
per the timeline, we might miss out on some important information simply due to high pressures,
tight timelines and time-bound targets. To avoid any oversight that could cost us dear, it is
important to keep a checklist of every step required to complete our grant application. This
process will be an additional control to tell you whether you should apply or not or apply now or
later, based on the documents required/ specifications as per application requirements. So,
remember to make a checklist to ensure you are ticking all the boxes when making your
application. A sample checklist is here for your reference:

Sample Checklist for Grant Application/ Proposal

S. No. Application Steps and Document Required Status

1. Application document on google drive shared with key team ✓

members involved

2. Detailed Logframe and activity plan ✓

3. Team structure for proposed project ✓

4. Timeline and Evaluation Framework ✓

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5. Project Budget ✓

6. Recommendation Letters ✓

7. Audited Financial Statements for previous 3 years ✓

8. Registration/ Incorporation Certificate ✓

9. Organization Accreditation Certificate ✓

10. Others as needed.

5. Critical Aspects of a Successful Process of converting project ideas into

successful project proposals:

5.1. Conducting proper needs assessment in the community:

Here is why this is important:

• To learn more about what your group or community needs are.
• Are they felt: To make sure any actions you eventually take are in line with needs that
are expressed by the community
• Objectivity: To get a more honest and objective description of needs
• Priority: To become aware of possible needs that you never saw as particularly
important
• Most importantly, to get community support and participation for the actions you will
soon undertake.

How to conduct a needs assessment:

• Have a pre-set list of questions to be answered- context-wise
• A representative sample of the number and types of people to answer these questions
• May be done by personal interviews, group discussions, focused groups, observation,
PRA- All are equally important!
• Even if you know the community too well…Make sure to prepare a questionnaire: Ready
reckoner!
• Remember that a needs assessment is not a baseline survey. However, a baseline
survey can help in need assessment)
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 5.2. Stakeholder Analysis:

Here is why this is important:

• Not all stakeholders in a particular group or sub-group will necessarily share the same
concerns or have unified opinions or priorities
• All stakeholders may bear positive or negative influence on the project.

Types of Stakeholders:

Individuals or organizations who may directly or indirectly, positively or negatively affect or be

affected by the activities of a proposed intervention package. Stakeholders can be:
• Beneficiaries: Those who are benefited from the project either directly or
indirectly(direct beneficiary/ indirect beneficiary)
• Target group: A group of people/organization who will be directly benefitted by the
project interventions. Target group may include the implementing partner organizations
at field level.
• Final beneficiaries: Those who benefit from the project in the long term at the level of
the society or sector at large.

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Sample Stakeholder Analysis:

Stakeholder Problem Interest Potential Interaction

Local tribal Poor literacy rates, Ration cards, Mobilization, Direct and
community high incidence of water pipeline, empowerment frequent
poverty, lack of college
alternative admissions, job
employment opportunities

Government Low interest, lack of Achieving targets, Advancing Direct and

Officials initiative, poor expected work government periodic
rapport with tribals being done schemes,
without much encouragement
effort and
empowerment of
tribals,
community
advocacy

Government Schemes not Unutilized funds, Community Direct and

contractors completed in time, diverted to other action by infrequent
manipulates tribals, contracts pressure groups,
does not want leading to
empowered encouragement
community and
empowerment of
tribals

Politicians Small number of Potential for Community Direct and

votes, no electoral publicity advocacy, occasional
weight, lack of pressure on
political will government and
contractors

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Other nearby Taking advantage of Vested interest in Involving them, Direct and
communities the current situation maintaining status provide them frequent
quo with benefits

Once you have submitted your proposal, all the best!

Now there may be many factors that might be beyond your control. You have done your best so
if you succeed, congratulations. If not, do not be discouraged and keep at it. There are many
factors in determining the success of a proposal and even if you have not succeeded this time,
building lasting relationships with the community and the donors/ funding organizations is also
very important. All the best for all your endeavors!

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fundsforNGOs LLC.

28 April, 2021

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