What is the Project Background?

The project background is an important part of every proposal. It can be very similar to the project rationale or project justification. In a way, it describes the history of how you developed the idea for your project and the status quo that you want to change. Normally, a proposal either has a project background, a project justification, or a project rationale, as they cover similar topics.

The project background will always be at the beginning of your proposal, right after the introduction or executive summary. This is the part of the proposal where you explain exactly why your project should take place in your community and what the problem is you aim to solve. It is important to be very clear and precise in this part to grab the donor´s attention. Take this chance to make a strong case for your project!

Why is the project background such an important part of every proposal?

When you write the project background, you have a chance to show the potential donors that you are an absolute expert on the subject and have put in the legwork to know what you are doing. You can convince them that you are a meticulous researcher and the best person or organization to implement the project because you have all this expert knowledge.

The project background is also the part where you show the donor why the project is necessary, and sometimes this is the most important part. The donor has to completely be on board with your reasoning and has to understand that it is crucial to solving the problem you are describing to achieve their own mission. If you cannot convince your donor that your work is worthwhile, it does not matter if your activities are perfect – they will never fund it. But if you are able to touch them and explain to them why your work is so incredibly important, chances are high that they will want to support your work.

What should be included in the project background?

The project background should include information about the reasoning why you want to implement this specific project in this specific location in this specific manner. It has to explain the current situation and its problems and the way in which you want to solve these problems. These explanations and assumptions should be backed up by reliable data. If you are able to convince the donor of the urgency of your project, you have a much better chance of winning the grant.

So, for example, if you want to build a school, your project background will have to explain

1. The current situation in the field of education in the community you want to work in.
2. How many schools are there?
3. How are attendance rates?
4. How is the education overall in the country you work in?
5. Are there any specific reasons why you want to build a new school?
6. Are there too many students for the existing schools?
7. All these are questions that your project background should answer.

How detailed does the project background need to be?

The level of detail in your project background depends a lot on the kind of proposal you are writing and the kind of donor you are addressing. In general, do not underestimate its potential though.

When you are applying to a call for proposals that is only asking for applications from your specific country, you do not have to start by introducing your country – the donor already knows. Furthermore, if you want to give them the bigger picture, only do so with information that is important to your project. Tourist attractions or other things your country is famous for – as long as they are not part of your project – do have no place in your project background. Use your space wisely.

On the other hand, if you are applying to a global call for proposals, don’t start with the specifics but give the donor a chance to understand the context. Not everyone might be familiar with the regional structure in your country, so give some introductions to make sure whoever reads your proposal understands your reasoning.

As a general rule of thumb, I would always say you should concentrate more on the why of a project than on the how, as this is where you convince the donor. So if you have an extra page to fill, rather fill it with your project background and justification than with more details about the implementation.

Where can you find data for your project background?

When writing the project background, it is very important that it is based on verifiable information. You need statistics and data to base your assumptions on. You want to give a brief overview of the current situation. Make sure to only use data from sources that are reliable. Most countries share statistics about their population, housing, and other indicators online. Other reliable sources can be the UN, the World Bank, and other big organizations like UNICEF. Do not take data for your project background from very small sources, even if it fits your purpose perfectly.

Always state where you found the data that you are using. Make sure it is relevant to your project and not just random. You do not want to lose focus in this section of your proposal, so always keep your goal in mind: You want to convince the donor, that your project is worth supporting and that your work will ultimately contribute to them achieving their own mission.

If possible, also use specific data from your community. You can draw this data from the former project, the baseline study you set up before starting your work, or surveys and interviews. Again, the more concrete and verifiable information about your community you can offer the donor, the more likely it is that they will like your proposal.

Can I reuse the project background from my last proposal?

The wish to reuse parts of a proposal is completely understandable, as writing a proposal from scratch is a lot of work. It also makes sense, as many parts will probably not change much. At the same time, it is important though that you keep in mind that you have to tailor every project proposal to the donor’s needs, and this also goes for the project background.

In the project background, you want to explain why your work is important and why the donor should support you in it. For this, it is very important to take into account the donor’s mission, to make sure it aligns with it.

This does not always mean that you have to completely rewrite your project background every time, but do not only copy-paste it either. Look at it with a critical eye in the context of this new proposal.

Also, make sure all your data is up to date. You want to show that you are the absolute expert, so missing a new report or using data from three years ago is not going to help you with that.

So now you hopefully have a much better idea about how to make your project background more compelling and convincing. Do you have any further questions? Please feel free to let us know in the comments. And if you want to read some examples, we have a couple here.