Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are taking on the multifarious challenges of nation building. Their traditional role as community service providers has evolved into working shoulder to shoulder with the government in not only developing and implementing national programs in diverse sectors, but also monitoring and evaluating them. So much so that NGOs are emerging as resource organizations generating knowledge and information vital for national planning through large scale surveys and studies. In the process, they have amassed skills and are reckoned as a resource pool of experienced professionals as well as a grassroots level work force capable of reaching out and delivering services to neglected populations under most trying conditions.
Whereas enhanced expectations from NGOs have contributed to their growth and diversification, the matching funds are hard to come by leading to a mad race for seeking grants for sustainability and survival. At the same time, not all NGOs have the capacity to write proposals which are acceptable to the funding agencies. In the wake of increasing demand for grants, funding agencies have also raised their standards of evaluation. As a result, a large number of NGOs who are not so resourceful are pushed out in the first round. Know-how for preparing a proposal for funding, which meets the rigors of scrutiny at the hands of funding agencies is therefore a crying need of all but a few privileged NGOs.
Identify Your Strengths and the Interests of Funding Agencies
Every NGO has a certain domain within which it implements programs. Thus, the areas of operation of an NGO give it an entity by which it is known to the outside world. This implies that the organization looking for funds has to search the funding organizations within their domain of functioning as a first step.
Just as operational areas of organizations are varied, the funding agencies have equally wide interests. They will like to entertain proposals only in the areas of their interest. Websites of national and international funding agencies could prove useful to NGOs in identifying organizations active in different fields. Sometimes, but not always, funding agencies give out notices in the press inviting proposals, better known as “expressions of interest”. Tenders also appear in newspapers inviting bids. Organizations looking for funds have to keep their eyes and ears open and constantly explore opportunities for funding.
Grant Seeking is an extremely Competitive Affair
The next step is to equip yourself with the skills required for making your proposal better than others. Given below are some tips which could enhance your chances of success.
1. Be up to date with the facts and figures
The person evaluating your proposal on the other end would like to know how well informed you are. It is important, therefore, to stay current with the facts and figures. Documents like National Family Health Survey (NFHS), District Level Household Survey (DLHS), Census of India and reports of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) are some of the prominent sources of information. UN agencies, such as UNICEF and UNFPA also bring out reports on topical themes from time to time. The knack of retrieving information lies in the knowledge of which information is available where.
2. Literature Review
Just as facts and figures lend credibility to your proposal, it is equally important to sound knowledgeable by stating what has gone before. In other words, you should be aware of the developments in your field by a regular study of the reports of work done by others. Papers published in relevant journals, reports of work done by other organizations, and presentations at conferences and symposia will prove helpful in this regard.
While making out a case for what you propose to do, you have to show how your work is different from what others have done or what is already there. No funding agency would like to support any work which is mere duplication. In the “Background” section of your proposal you are expected to clearly and substantively demonstrate that there is a strong need for the type of work for which you need financial support. It may be upscaling the existing body of knowledge or a new initiative throwing fresh light or examining the scenario from a different perspective which has been overlooked by the earlier work. Or, you may have hit upon some practices and procedures which look promising but more work is needed before you share it with others. Literature review not only helps in putting ideas in their proper perspective but also contributes to strengthening the underlying rationale.
3. How is Your Organization Competent to do this Work?
State the strengths of your organization in terms of qualified and experienced manpower, track record of accomplishments in the proposed field of study or similar work done. The key players and their short CVs always form part of the proposal along with their role in execution of the project. Infrastructure available with the organization in the form of adequate space, geographical advantage such as experience of having worked in the physical area and familiarity with the local population and dialect of the area, equipment required for carrying out the work etc serve to strengthen the impression that your organization is competent to do the job.
4. Goals and Objectives
Having taken care of the preliminaries, it is crucial to state what exactly you are trying to achieve. Goals are the broad statements of what you want to accomplish, whereas objectives are more specific. It is objectives which result in measurable outcomes and are thus looked upon very critically by the reviewers. Moreover, activities to be undertaken are determined by the objectives. Some amount of uniqueness and innovation is expected in formulating the objectives. The objectives have to be put very precisely and clearly without any ambiguity.
5. How are you Going to Realize the Objectives?
Describe the methodology and the plan of action which is the next most important component of the proposal. Many proposals suffer from methodological weaknesses and are therefore dropped for further consideration. While the methodology proposed has to be feasible and justifiable, the essential ingredients of methodological design are along the following lines:
Target Population – Who are the likely beneficiaries from the work proposed? How will they find manifestation in the proposed work? In other words, how will the sample be drawn from the population? Selection of sample and size of the sample are two most crucial considerations on the basis of which technical merits of the proposal are judged. These are considered to be the indicators of technical competence and quality of the proposal. Therefore, utmost care should be taken in describing the sampling procedures.
Geographical Area – Which areas are going to be covered and why? This may form part of the sample selection, since samples are drawn from people living in a particular area. However, the characteristics involved in the two cases may be different. For example, variables like gender, age and socioeconomic status are typical of the target population, while rural-urban areas and the state (s) represent the geographical coverage. The basis for representation of the target population in the selection of sample has to be clearly brought out.
Interventions / Activities – The specific actions envisaged to accomplish the objectives have to be presented in the form of a carefully worked out action plan. Timelines for performing various actions need to be given in all detail showing who will be doing what together with infrastructural facilities and equipments required for the purpose. Different players involved, including any partners, should be spelt out with their specific roles.
Monitoring Plan- it is very important to outline the steps for tracking the action plan over given time periods. The funding agency pays particular attention to this section of the proposal to ensure that the implementing organization understands its implications in terms of achievement of targets laid down within the successive time periods. This is interpreted as the extent of seriousness on the part of the recipient organization to do justice to the precious amount of money being invested and the delivery of results. Once the donor agency is convinced about the sincerity of purpose reflected in the monitoring plan, they may even work with the organization for enriching it further.
Evaluation Plan- Funding agency would like to know how to gauge the success of your efforts. For this purpose, you have to come up with a strategy which enables assessment of the extent to which you have achieved your objectives in the light of measurable outputs. Evaluation that is done midway in the course of implementation is called Mid-term evaluation. End-term or Final evaluation is done at the end and it aims at demonstrating how far the project fulfilled what was proposed. In either case, the proposal document has to create an evaluation plan describing how the evaluation will be done in the light of objectives laid down and outputs expected.
Documentation and Reporting - activities undertaken and the resulting outputs have to be documented while they are being implemented, since they provide the evidence in support of processes involved and achievements made. As such, they are integral part of the deliverables to the funding agency from time to time. The team members directly involved in implementation keep on recording their daily activities and results obtained. This information is regularly made available to the project managers who prepare reports based on the data collected thus. These reports are provided to the funding agency half-yearly or annually. The release of funds is usually linked to the timely submission of reports and satisfactory progress of the project, as per the plan of action and timelines agreed upon.
Organizational Profile – The funding agency would be definitely interested in knowing fully well the organization applying for grant, its strengths, its achievements to date, professional standing, assets, functional structure, and most importantly, its financial status. Therefore, a well drafted organizational profile should be handy giving biographical information, projects undertaken, funds received so far and the funding agencies. Obviously, the organizational profile has to be an accurate account of all about the organization. As a matter of practice, NGOs have readily available profiles for all occasions. They need to be updated regularly. It is also a common practice to attach the latest Annual Report in support of the facts stated.
Structure of the Proposal
Proposal writing is invariably a two-step process. First step is submission of “Expression of Interest” which follows more or less the format given above. The organizations short listed on this basis are asked to submit detailed proposals for which a prescribed format is usually provided.
A proposal has two main parts – Technical and Financial. The technical part has been dealt with above. The financial part addresses the funds required for carrying out the activities, as specified in the work plan. It provides a detailed account of all the costs involved, as given below:
The Human Resources identify the people who will be paid from the grant and who have a well defined role, giving an idea about the time they will be devoting along with the rate of payment. As a rule of thumb, the expenditure under this head should not be more than 40% of the total budget.
Equipment / Supplies / Communication- Any gadgets like tape recorder, VCR, computer, printer, stationery, furniture, telephone, photocopier etc would have to be included in the budget required. The items needed should be justifiable in accordance with the operational plan. The cost estimates should be realistic, and not bloated.
Travel – Any travel involved in connection with implementation of the project would need a break-up in terms of mode of travel, frequency of travel, boarding and lodging costs, and the per diem. Most funding agencies have their guidelines pertaining to travel subhead. These should be consulted before preparing the cost estimates.
Other Costs – may include the fees of consultants, estimate of expenditure on evaluation, rentals to be paid etc.
Appendices
Supporting documents like the Registration certificate, FCRA certificate, financial statements for the last three years (or as required by the funding agency), and particulars of any partner organizations have to be furnished as appendices.
Final Scrutiny
It is extremely important to ensure that the proposal is clear and cohesive, devoid of any vagueness. For this purpose, it is recommended that the proposal should be critically read by an experience person who is well acquainted with the technicalities of proposal development. Similarly, somebody who is well versed in budgeting should look at the financial proposal. As a final step, it has to be assured that the proposal is free from any language flaws or deficiencies in expression.
Thus, a good proposal involves team work, a collective effort of experts in their respective areas.
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—About our writer:
Prof. Satish Bhalla is an academician and a researcher turned health and development professional with extensive teaching experience in universities of the United States and Africa. He Has many projects and published papers to his credit.
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