5 Tips to Write a Proposal for Youth Projects

Young people are the future of the world. The UN defines the worlds’ youth as the age group between 15 and 24 years old, making up 1/6th of the human population. Close to 90 percent of them lives in developing countries, where they make up a large proportion of the population. If provided with the necessary skills and opportunities needed to reach their potential, this group of the population can be a driving force for supporting the development and contributing to peace and security. Youth-led projects that work with youth need to be encouraged and empowered to participate in translating the 2030 SDGs into local, national and regional policy.

Today, on the occasion of International Youth Day we want to share with you our best tips for writing proposals for youth projects to support all the amazing NGOs working in this sector.

Make sure you include your beneficiaries in the project planning

It is always important to include all beneficiaries in all stages of project planning and implementation. It is of particular importance when working with youth though because one mayor goal should always be to empower youth. Make sure you amplify the voice of your beneficiaries and help them find their way, instead of imposing your ideas on them. Youth projects should always be youth-driven and will be much stronger this way.

You can use various participatory approaches to collect your beneficiaries’ inputs and to include them. Make sure your organization has youth representation on the board, as this will also strengthen your position when applying for grants for youth projects.

Take a holistic approach

When you work with youth, it is very important to take a holistic approach to every area you want to work in. Different areas are interconnected, and particularly for youth projects, it is important to keep these interconnections in mind. It does not make sense to improve education when you don’t work to create employment as well. Income-generating measures only make sense when they are just and equal for all genders. Political empowerment goes hand in hand with economic empowerment.

Try to keep in mind all the consequences and influences of your project and think in detail about the assumptions and risks of your project. You do not want to start a project that might have a negative impact further down the road.

Think about useful partnerships

Partnership always makes sense when you want to apply for grants. If you consolidate resources of two or more organizations, they can last much longer. Experiences and expertise can be shared and bigger challenges can be tackled. This is even more so the case with youth projects.

Many youth-driven organizations are young – not only their members but the organization itself. Donors do not like to give big grants to brand new organizations. Also, administration, budgeting and project management are best learned with time. Partnerships with more mature organizations from the same area or field of work can make a lot of sense. The smaller organization can benefit from the knowledge and expertise, and donors might be more inclined to support such a project.

Stay up to date

Staying up to date is always important, but when you want to work with youth, it is crucial. The digitalization of the world is moving ahead very quickly, and young people will have to live and work in a completely different world than the one the older generations knew. Being up to date with methodology and technology is very important to be able to design meaningful projects for youth.

Think about an outreach plan early on

When you apply for a grant for a youth project, you should start thinking about your outreach plan early on. Document all your steps with pictures and video, so you can use your social media channels to share your project with other interested people. Next, to using classic channels like newspaper and radio channels, think about modern modes of distribution of information as well. This could be a Facebook post, a tweet or an Instagram video – whichever channel works best for your beneficiaries and partners.

Happy International Youth Day!

Check out this article as well where we combined out best tips to write a winning proposal: 10 Top Tips to Write a Great Proposal


About the author

Eva Wieners

Eva is based in Germany and has worked for nearly a decade with NGOs on the grassroots level in Nepal in the field of capacity development and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. Before that, she worked in South America and Europe with different organizations. She holds a Ph.D. in geography and her field of research was sustainability and inclusion in development projects.

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Victor Awich@Wakati Youth Group Siaya-Siaya
Victor Awich@Wakati Youth Group Siaya-Siaya
5 years ago

Happy new year from Wakati youth group Siaya-kenya, thanks the info great in capacity building, as a youth group actively engaged in farming as abusinees coupled with improved innovations we would like work together to help improve our capacity with more knowledge in Agriculture. Thanks

Samuel A Mbah Igondou
Samuel A Mbah Igondou
5 years ago

I am satisfied with the brief and simple steps into writing a grant for youth projects.
I will be able to use this knowledge to start small discussion in my locality, then proceed into forming an NGO which is youth incline. hence, my first draft project will be publish before the end of 2019

Dr.N.Parasuraman
5 years ago

Dear Eva
I am Dr.N.Parasuraman from M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (NGO) India . We are working youth development program last 30 years . We are looking good Partnership youth project. Our main work was agriculture , food, nutrition and development .
Regards,
N.Parasuraman

Joseph mwansa
Joseph mwansa
2 years ago

Dear Dr. N. Parasuraman, am Joseph mwansa from Zambia. Am very interested for your post my main concern is for agriculture especially to find a machine for making cooking oil and I have no support because I want to support my fellow youths program. And very easy to start poultry farming land it’s not a issue. I thank you God bless

IMG-20220322-WA0000.jpg
Proposals forNGOs
Admin
2 years ago
Reply to  Joseph mwansa

Dear Joseph. With thousands of donors in the world today, we are not able to contact donors on your behalf. We suggest you check our free course on finding 50 donors in 10 minutes and build your own donor mapping: https://philantropia.org/courses/50-donors-in-10-minutes/.

Dr.N.Parasuraman
5 years ago

I send already

Mohit Kumar Mallick
5 years ago

Dear Eva Wieners,
I am from Odisha.I would like to meet with you in person.I would be happy if you will write me about my kind request at your earliest possible time.
With Regards,
Mohit

Nebiyu Chalew
5 years ago

Dear Eva,
Greetings!! am from Ethiopia, as I have seen you have a nice story really I appreciate you again and again,
with best regards!

CHILDREN AND YOUTH SPORTS ORGANIZATION UMBRELLA
Reply to  Eva Wieners

Dear Eva Wieners, we are are Children and Youth Sports Organization Umbrella we lily want to work with you for and we enjoyed you. we are from Rwanda our full contact For more information don’t hesitate to contact us:

Website : childrenandyoutsports.org
P. O. Box 2842 Kigali – Rwanda
Twitter @cyso_org

Office location in Amahoro National Stadium (Remera); Entrance No 4 upstairs.

Regards.

Lindokuhle
Lindokuhle
5 years ago

need your assistance to assist youth in our country Eswatini

GREGORY MAREGESI KIBANDA
GREGORY MAREGESI KIBANDA
5 years ago

CEO& Founder @ GREGORYSON INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION, am very satisfied with the ideas with your sharing with all of us as youth because as a consultant/ project person I prefer to learn more and new things daily. It’s magical to get to learn and even understanding the world. I will actually use the same amount of knowledge to improve the Informations which we share with different clients in the country even the whole world in-oder to improve our services in the end.
Do come to Tanzania! Please welcome all!

Okello Raymond
Okello Raymond
5 years ago

Thank Mr.Eva
Am from Uganda, I am a youth who has just initiated medical clinic which provide youth friendly health activities .
Your information is very vital at time we need helping and but putting it in black and with can make donar fail to spornser and yet it good work.
Thanks
Raymond

Nehwon Macpherson David
Nehwon Macpherson David
5 years ago

Hello Eva, Thanks for your thoughtfulness in writing this piece. I find it very insightful and I would appreciate getting some feedback from you on a couple of things. I am N. MacPherson David, a Liberian and I run a foundation that focuses more on youth development. The Foundation is called N. MacPherson David Foundation. We are involve basically with helping the underprivileged youths with basic skills and carer development opportunities. Coming out of crisis and transitioning into peace and reconciliation, we have realized that the fundamental issues that took us to war are yet to fully be discussed and… Read more »

mubiru philemon
mubiru philemon
5 years ago

Hi Eva this is Philemon in Uganda I am writting to you to help me on how best I can write a proposal to help the youth .. pliz kindly be elaborative if you don’t mind we can discuss more.thanks waiting for your kind response.

Jeremiah Kipainoi
5 years ago

Happy 2019 from Southern Kenya.
This are great tips. We have been running our project from our pockets, and we hope to get support this year.

Tips on writing good youth proposals, or a template would be a great gift for 2019 🙂

Thanks again.

Abdul Haque Ansari
Abdul Haque Ansari
5 years ago

Very impportant tips Eva. I am also from Nepal and working in South America.

Joey
Joey
5 years ago

Hi Eva I need to start a project in my rural community for the youth who are roaming the streets unemployed . I don’t know where to start kindly help .
Regards
Joey Moloisane ledwaba
South Africa

Joey
Joey
5 years ago
Reply to  Eva Wieners

Thank you Eva much appreciated am a third year PhD student with university of limpopo in SA.

Shayed hossain
Shayed hossain
5 years ago

Hi,hope you are doing well.
I am very much interested to work in an NGO,but how can I start? please give a chance to work.

Liban wako
Liban wako
5 years ago

Hello Mr.Eva,,am liban ,from Kenya,am youth leader from a marginalised area where as youths we are trying to put awareness and mentorship programmes to uplift the level literacy in our region,Looking forward on more and more emails on how to prepare a good proposals to benefit our group,,I have subscribed to your newslater and looking forward to be more educated,Thank you very much

Proposals forNGOs
Proposals forNGOs
5 years ago
Reply to  Liban wako

Thank you for your comment.

Kobina Adomadzi Longdon

The SDGs are ambitious and achievable Global Goals. Empowering youths to understand, commit and remain passionate about them is essential.

I come from Ghana on the African continent. Over 90% of our population are youth. I believe we have to adopt Digital Literacy, TVET Skiils training and Agribusiness as the way forward.

Thanks for sharing the inspiration Eva.

ZEKERIA ADEM
ZEKERIA ADEM
4 years ago

i want to work on my countries agricultural mechanization .have a good knowledge and practical experience on design and manufacturing equipment’s and machines so,how i can organize youth for this idea.(my country is full of an employed university graduates)

Miri
Miri
2 years ago

Happy to come across this site while browsing. I am starting to write a project proposal on Youth Empowerment Initiative, any related suggestions will help and enlighten my thoughts. kind regards

Okello Jacob Desmond
2 years ago

Yes

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