Project managers spend a lot of time focusing on activities and what actions best suit the needs of a project. This determination is difficult and outside the realm of this article. However, while internal project planning requires a lot of detail and decision-making, donors do not necessarily want to see all of that in the proposal. You will likely have to summarize your plans in the proposal, and choosing what to include can be hard.
When developing your project activities in your proposal, these are the most basic points you need to prove to donors:
1) Project activities directly follow project objectives
2) Project activities are all aligned with an overall strategy
3) Clear thought and research has been put into the activities
It is important to make the proposal flow and show one cohesive and holistic project. To this end, it is better to show how the activities relate to the rest of the project than to go too far into the particulars. Missing any of these points signals to the donor that the organization is not clear in what it wants to achieve and does not have a good plan. If the donor requires further details, they will ask for it.
Alta Alonzi is a writer and researcher focusing on international development funding and grassroots NGOs. She works with the fundraising consulting company Philantropia conducting research for clients ranging from small NGOs to UN organizations. She also works closely with FundsforNGOs running training webinars, contributing resource guides, and updating the Premium donor database.
Hello
Our Community based orgnaisation is in dare need of someone to help us do fundraising can you be of any help for us or if you know anyone who can help us develop project proposals
Thanks
Dear Stephen: Unfortunately, we do not offer referral services. But for more on proposal writing and fundraising- do check out online courses here.