Why Did My Proposal Fail?

There is a variety of reasons why proposals fail. Sometimes a proposal simply does not follow the donor’s guidelines. Sometimes, there are just not sufficient funds to support all projects, even if the proposal is of high quality. And sometimes, it is merely bad luck. There are a couple of reasons for a proposal to fail thought that is more structural and concern the basic approach towards writing a proposal. In the following six posts, we are going through some of the common reasons why proposals fail. Our focus is not on the ‘quick fix’ problems, but the underlying illnesses in some proposals which good proposal evaluators can easily see the symptoms of.

• Cinderella’s Sister Syndrome: Your project does not fit the donor criteria, but you try to squeeze it in any way.
• Spaghetti Syndrome: Your project proposal throws around a lot of different ideas hoping that something will stick to the donor
• Superhero Syndrome: You claim to solve everything single-handed
• Doing-without-Achieving Syndrome: You focus on the project activities and forget the project results
• Adonis Syndrome: You talk too much about your organization
• Boredom Syndrome: You do not engage the donor or show interest in improving your projects

Does your proposal suffer from any of these syndromes?

Do you think, one of your proposals could suffer from one of these syndromes? Do you think, this could be the reason for past failure? If this is the case, do not despair. The first step to becoming better is always to realize that there is a problem. If you want to learn from past failures, take a long and honest look at your proposal and consider if you made one of these fundamental mistakes. If your perspective is not clear, consider asking someone not familiar with your project to read it with the points mentioned above in mind. Sometimes an outsider can give a much clearer picture of a problem.