RF_NGO_16_SUDHA.pdf
Media
- extracted text
-
RF_NGO_16_SUDHA
PROJECT FORMULATION AND PROPOSAL WRITING
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1:
THE PROCESS
Stage One:
Formulation
Formulating the idea
Preparing a Preliminary project Paper
Stage two;
Circulation and Feedback
Circulating the preliminary project Paper
Gaining Approval and Support from Bosses and
Central Agencies
Generating Support from Colleagues and Related
Agencies
Stage Three: communication with Donors
Identifying and Courting Potential Donors
Stage Four:
Writing and Submission
Writing the comprehensive Proposal
Presenting and submitting the Proposal
CHAPTER 2:
THE CONTENTS
section one:
Eight Modules
Summary
Problem Statement
Goals and objectives
Strategy
Implementation Plan
Monitoring and Evaluation
Budget
Profile of the Applicant
Section two:
project Design Frameworks
Logical Framework
Basic project Elements Framework,
CONCLUSION
R 787
Th:
r.
I cl u.’j.
INTRODUCTION
All of us involved in developing and managing projects
have nad to learn sooner or later that money does not
necessarily flow just because we have a gppd idea.
Although numerous organizations are in the business of
granting or lending money for development, these agencies
need to be provided with well written convincing documents
presenting our case. They require proposals that show
that what we have in mind is a priority, is feasible, is
cost effective, fits with national plans, does not
duplicate anything already being done, and so forth.
Project managers are usually good at identifying
problems and developing relevant solutions and new
interventions, but they often lack the-time and the skills
to present these ideas in the form required by the
potential financiers and partners.
This is true of many of the managers in the Health
Learning Materials (4LM) Network where good will and good
ideas abound but money does not. The HLM clearinghouse at
,-l.iO has attempted to provide advice and assistance,
wnerever possiole. But it is essential that national HLM
projects become more independent and self-reliant in
writing proposals and approaching donors. Towards this
end, tne a LM clearinghouse has produced these guidelines
for project formulation and proposal writing.
Although developed specifically for HLM Network
Managers, this document can also serve other middle and
senior level nealth managers in government and
non-governmental agencies in the Third World. it draws on
materials from international and non-governmental
organizations and, in particular, on the experience of the
African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), a
Kenya-based regional non-governmental organization
involved in designing, implementing and evaluating a wide
variety of nealth development projects.
The guidelines deal with the process of formulating
ideas, soliciting feedback, developing support, writing
and submitting project proposals, as well as with the
contents of proposals.
Chapter One takes you through the main stages that
make up the process of project formulation and proposal
writing. For each of the four stages that have been
identified, there is a description of what usually happens
and a few points on how to proceed and wnat to watch out
for.
In its first section, chapter two presents eight
modules tnat can be used to produce preliminary project
papers and full project proposals, a second section
describes techniques for charting essential project
information in summary tables.
Process and contents are inextricably linked in
project formulation and proposal writing. By covering
both, we hope that these guidelines will point the way and
help you get over all the hurdles you will encounter as
you formulate your idea and produce a proposal that
attracts the support and resources you need.
CHAPTER 1:
Stage One:
THE PROCESS
Formulation
*
Formulating the .Idea.
*
Preparing a preliminary project Paper.
The initial process of formulating a project idea
varies enormously, depending on the temperament, training
and opportunities of the concerr’d individual, it. spans
tne period in time from becoming aware of a particular
problem to the moment when you have settled on a
particular strategy to approach tnat problem.
Whether you have arrived by leaps and bounds or step
by step is not important. Nor does it matter whether or
not the idea has come to you in what planners would regard
as a logical sequence. No matter how you got there,
unless you are independently wealthy and run your own
one-man or one-woman organization, you must now get ready
to present your project idea to those whose assistance,
support, approval and money you need for its realization.
You have recognized a problem, an unmet need, a
condition that requires a change in the present course of
action or inaction, you have thought of a solution. It
is now time to sit down and put your analysis and your
propositions on paper, and to critically review your own
ideas.
It is both unnecessary and unwise to start by
preparing a comprehensive detailed project proposal.
It
is unnecessary because the bare bones of your project idea
are sufficient for a first review by your colleagues, your
bosses and by potential donors, it is unwise because
writing a full proposal is a great deal of work which may
turn qut to be a waste of time if your basic idea is not
acceptable to your organization or to the donors.
Produce a preliminary project paper of no more than
five pages. The paper should cover a statement of the
need, the goals and objectives, your proposed strategy and
an indication of the type, size and value of resources
required. Writing the paper will provide a mechanism for:
thinking systematically about your project,
reviewing and clarifying the connection between
tne need, goals and strategy;
identifying 'gaps and inconsistencies you may not
have noticed before;
considering the scope of the proposed
intervention and the feasibility of implementing
it under the prevailing economic conditions and
within the limitations of your organization;
making a rough calculation of the resources
required from external sources;
developing a solid basis for soliciting feedback
and development support among peers and decision
makers within your own institution, from other
relevant organizations and from potential donor
agencies.
Stage two;
Circulation and Feedback
Circulating the Preliminary project Paper.
Gaining Approval and Support from Bosses and
Central Agencies.
Generating support and Cooperation from
Colleagues and Related Agencies.
You have completed your preliminary project paper.
The purpose of doing this has been to clarify your own
thinking and to produce a brief document describing the
essential elements of the project., you can now use this
document as a basis for discussion and as a tool of
persuasion.
At this stage, you need feedback from your superiors
and your colleagues about the merit of your idea. Do they
agree with your needs assessment; problem formulation;
tne objectives you have set and the strategy you have
selected? What about feasibility? Do they consider the
technical solution as appropriate and implementable?
What
about the projected resource requirements - is the
proposed solution affordable?
Circulate your paper to a well selected group
including possible adversaries. Observe carefully whether
your ideas are understood in the way you meant them'. How
well have you communicated your analysis, yotir visions?
Be sure to consider tne process of obtaining feedback
not just in technical terms. The reactions you receive
will help you review not only the technical contents of
the proposal, but equally importantly, assess the
feasibility of its adoption in terras of organizational and
political support.
Although rationality and logic are stressed in guiding
you through the process of formulating your ideas and
writing proposals, we all know that these standards of
rationality often do not apply in the real world.
Projects may be perfectly logical and needs assessments
objective and valid. Yet, a project does not get adopted
oecause it does not coincide with the interests and
values of an important decision maker in your
organization. The need nay be considered a priority
within your organization or sector but the central
treasury, dealing with the allocation of scarce resources
between different sectors, may not agree with your
assessment, your objectives and strategy may be perceived
to be competing or conflicting with someone else's pet
project and rejected for this reason.
Discussions of the preliminary proposal can be
skilfully used co develop interest and support for the
project idea. This is the time to lobby, to bargain and
to form coalitions that will assure not only the adoption
of the proposal out also develop solid support for its
successful implementation. Consider all the forces that
affect your project and see how you can acquire allies at
ail levels.
Stage Tnree:
Communication with Donors
Identifying and Counting Potential Donors.
Donors have their own priorities and values.
This is
not only true of the major donors whose operations are
largely determined by macro political and economic
considerations. it is equally true of most other donors .
wno usually have geographical and sector priorities as
well as preferred strategies within sectors, if one were
to caricature the donor situation, one might say that
Africa is 'in', community participation is 'in', the
district is 'in', hospitals are 'out', and so forth.
These 'ins' and 'outs' tend to change every few years,
to
be sure, they are usually based on careful considerations
of needs and experiences in the field. in any case, it is
important to be well informed on what current trends in
donor thinking are and to use appropriate terminology as a
tool to market the project proposal, without compromising
vital principles of your basic idea.
You.should develop and keep up-to-date an inventory
that contains profiles of all potential donors, including
the following information:
- geographical priorities
- sector priorities
- size of projects funded (range)
- maximum project duration
- preferred health strategies
- proposal format
- channels for project submission
- reporting and evaluation requirements
To obtain this information, contact as many embassies
and international delegations as possible in your capital
city and ask for a list ,of development and aid agencies in
tneir country or region. if they cannot provide it
tnemselves, they will give you the name and address of an
institution in their country that can help. There are
also directories of international foundations issued
periodically by different organizations, such as
Organization for Economic cooperation and Development
(OECD) and the united Nations Development Programme
(UNDP). See whether you can find these through the office
of the UNDP representative, or in the library of your
national development institute.
Finally, there are two particular concerns of donors
that you will need to carefully consider and address in
your discussions and negotiations.
Firstly, donors are
inevitably concerned with the economic feasibility and
institutional capability for continuing the project after
external funding ceases. They wish to see project
strategies that explicitly address the development of
institutions and that promote self-reliance.
Secondly, donors understandably aim- to fund activities
tnat will produce tangible results. They usually insist
on identifying ways for measuring the success or failure
of the project, they are helping to finance. The
development of systems for monitoring and evaluation are,
therefore, of special importance.
Stage Four:
Writing and Submission
Writing the Comprehensive Proposal.
Presenting and Submitting the proposal.
in writing the final proposal you will carefully
scrutinize all the feedback information you have
received. It will not be possible to please everyone and
to incorporate all comments, if you do, chances are that
your proposal will become confused and inconsistent. When
you make changes in one of the key sections of the
proposal, be sure to review whether the logical link
between objectives, strategies and inputs remains intact
or whether other sections also med to be altered.
The preliminary project paper is usually produced with
scanty information. completeness and validity of
information are important when you write the full proposal
and will probaoly require additional work.
The interactions you have had with colleagues, bosses
and donors have helped you define the strategic space
within which you must now develop your full proposal.
Whereas at the idea stage, organizational and political
realities may nave been remote, you will need to take full
account of these in producing the final document.
Once you have completed the proposal, you usually need
to submit it through the formal channels. This will
involve central ministries, such as the Ministry of
Economic Planning, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs or the Office of the President. in
some unfortunate situations, it involves not just one but
all of these, proposals to non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) do not always have to follow this route. dowever,
they often require a supporting letter- from the head of
your institution.
To minimize delays, it helps to draft
such a letter for the signature of the relevant person
rather than wait for it to be done by usually very busy
top officials.
Going through official channels need not prevent you
from informally submitting an advance copy to the donor,
provided it has been approved within your own organization.
Cost Sharing
Do not necessarily expect to find a single donor who
will finance your entire project. There are donors who
are willing to provide seed money for operational research
to further investigate problems and to carry out detailed
project design work-. Many donors favour co-financing
arrangements whereby two or more donors participate in
funding a project. Keep donors informed of your
approaches to other agencies, if you have convinced some
donor agencies of the value of your undertaking, they may
even help identify and approach additional donors.
10
Follow-up witn Agencies and Rewriting
Once you have submitted the documents, perseverance
becomes the name of the game, project submissions may get
stuck at each point on the way to the donor, you will
need to checK regularly whether the proposal is moving in
tne right direction. Be prepared to spend time and effort
to see that the proposal arrives at its destination.
Technical officers often consider their labours over, once
a proposal has been completed and accepted by their
superiors. it is difficult to overemphasize the
importance of making an effort to see that the proposal
arrives in the right hands and to show yourself willing to
rewrite and re-edit sections, if necessary and appropriate.
Alterations in propsals at tne request of central agencies
and donors are not unusual.
in fact, donors' requests for
revisions are a positive sign; at least they have not
rejected the proposal.
Although you need to ascertain that the proposal
remains technically sound and organizationally feasible,
your work has not oeen completed until a mutually
satisfactory version of the proposal has found its way to
the final decision makers.
CHAPTER 2:
THE CONTENTS
Section one;
Eight Modules
Section two:
Project Design Frameworks
Information requirements and formats for proposals
vary a great deal from donor to donor, some donor
agencies insist that applicants adhere to their format,
others simply offer guidelines to assist the applicant and
to ensure that major points are adequately covered.
It is noteworthy and comforting, however, that the
same key sections tend to appear in almost all standard
formats of the major donors, smaller donors frequently
leave the questions of tne format to the applicant,
provided that specified essential information is included.
You will find more variation in the words used to
denote the most important components. For example, what
some donors refer to as objective is called purpose by
others. Donors are usually after one and the same thing
wnen they ask you about the approach of your project, the
method of intervention, the technical plan or the project
strategy.
13
Keep in mind that what these sections contain is more
important than how they are named. Your proposal needs to
be internally consistent arid easily comprehensible to a
wide spectrum of reviewers. Be sure that the logic of
your presentation is clear in your own mind and well
understood by those you have asked for comments and
feedback in the first round.
.in the next section, you will find eight modules which
allow you to present all essential information about your
proposed project. These modules can be used for both the
preliminary project paper and the full project proposal.
The eight modules together will produce a
comprehensive project proposal. If your donor requires
less detail, you may want to omit some modules. For the
preliminary project paper, you need only three modules (2,
3 and 4) and one section of a fourth module (5), covering
the problem statement, goals and objectives, strategy and
resource inputs.
Each module begins with the key question to be
addressed in the relevant chapter of .your proposal,
followed by definitions and a discussion of what the
chapter should contain. Examples and questions are added
wnere required to illustrate these points.
Section two of this chapter deals with project design
frameworks for presenting all essential project
information in tables.
SECTION ONE:
EIGHT MODULES FOR PROJECT PROPOSAL
WRITING
Module 1
SUMMARY
What is It All About?
Module 2
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Wnere Are We now?
Background
Needs Analysis
Module 3
GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Where
Goals
Objectives
Module 4
STRATEGY
Which Route Will We Take?
Components
Assumptions
Methods
Outputs
Feasibility
Module 5
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
'How Will We Travel There?
Resource inputs
Workplan
Organization
Module 6
MONITORING AND
EVALUATION
How Will We Know When
We Arrive?
Monitoring
Evaluation
Module 7
BUDGET
How Much Will It Cost?
Capital Cost
Recurrent Cost
And Who Are We?
Organizat ion
Record of
Achievements
Module b
ANNEX
PROFILE OF THE
APPLICANT
do
We Want to Go?
Module 1;
Summary
What is It All About?
The summary is perhaps the most critical section of
your proposal,
you may wonder why it is so important to
write a summary. Remember that decision makers are very
busy people. In addition to attending many meetings, they
review large numbers of documents and propositions every
day. They often do not have the time to carefully read an.
entire document. Only a limited number of the proposals
that come across their desks can be considered.
you need to provide them with a short and concise, but
interesting summary of your project. That summary must
convince the decision makers that your project is relevant
to their particular concerns and to the needs of the
country, and that it is well thought out.
Although short,
it must cover the essential points of the full proposal.
Be sure that you state the objectives and the overall
strategy of the project clearly and succinctly. Explain
how the project will solve or significantly contribute to
the solution of an urgent problem, or to addressing an
important unmet need. Outline the shortcomings of the
preent situation and then put forward a picture of the
future reflecting the changes that will result from the
proposed project interventions.
16
The total project cost is an essential part of the
summary. it allows tne decision maker to relate costs to
anticipated outcomes and to ass'ess the economic
feasioility of sustaining the project activities in thelonger term.
Although in the proposal the summary comes first, this
section should be written after you have completed all the
others.
Module 2;
Problem Statement
Background
Needs Assessment
Where Are We Now?
This part of the proposal should cover the general
background as well as an analysis of the need to be
addressed and alleviated by the project interventions.
The background section should be short and confined to
aspects of the general situation that are relevant to the
problem and to the interventions you are about to
propose. Explain how you (your organization) came to be
involved in identifying and addressing the situation.
This should be followed by your analysis of the unmet
need, diagnosing and further defining the nature of the
problem to be addressed, you will explain the importance
of the problem, commenting on its magnitude, its relevance
to the policies and priorities of your organization and
your government and its importance to the delivery of
effective and efficient health services, as you present
your needs analysis, keep in mind that the objectives and
strategies, which you will put forward in subsequent
sections, need to be clearly traceable to this part of the
proposal.
Tne following is the first paragraph of a problem
statement introducing a proposal for the rehabilitation of
referral nealth facilities and services. it illustrates
how to use the background section to set the scene for
discussing specific needs and for proposing a strategy to
address the situation.
"As a result of the political and economic
disturbances of the 1970s, the national health
referral system has deteriorated to the point that it
no longer provides adequate backup support for the
delivery of basic health care services. Minimum
repair of facilities would include restoration of
electricity, water, sanitation, basic equipment for
primary health care, and limited inpatient and staff
housing. in addition, health facilities have
continued to decline because of insufficient funds for
maintenance, and purchase of essential equipment and
supplies for basic referral functions. An important
factor in the deterioration of physical plant and
equipment has been the attrition of skilled technical
staff who are required to maintain, operate and
administer the health facilities. An additional
factor has been the inadequate level of support for
recurrent operating costs".
20
Module 3;
Goals and objectives
Goals
Objectives
Where po We Want To Go?
Goals are broad statements of what is ultimately to be
accomplished. Objectives are more specific aims which the
project is to achieve with its own resources and
activities and within the time frame specified in your
proposal.
Statements of goals and objectives form the basis for
the consideration of different strategies for their
attainment. Be sure that your statement explains the
purpose of the activities to be performed and establishes
a logical link between the problem stated in the preceding
section and the strategy you are proposing in the next
section.
Because most of the problems we try to address are
complex, you will find that there is a hierarchy of goals
and objectives pertaining to your project. This can be
confusing. Concentrate on the status you want to achieve
oy the end of the project as a result of your project
interventions (called EOPS = End of project Status by some
donors),
your project objective is a statement of the
EOPS you are striving for. It will provide a standard
against which to assess the project's achievements.
22
Some Questions
What has led to the identification of this
problem and to the decision to develop a project
to address it?
What is the general situation and how is the
problem developing? Will it grow rapidly, if
unchecked?
Wnat has been done so far to address the problem
and with what effect?
Wnat has been your (your organization's)
involvement?
Wave there been any evaluations of previous
activities and what have been the findings?
What evidence is there of both need and demand
for a workable solution?
bow is addressing this need relevant to the •
nation's stated priorities?
Tlie Catholic Hospital Association ol India
............ '’.ccaRAO-500 003.
Your project goal is the impact on the bigger picture
in health manpower development, in the provision of health
services or in improving the health status of people, to
which your project should lead or contribute.
An example of a goal statement is 'control and
reduction of the incidence of malaria in Eastern
Africa' with the project objective 'to assist
participating governments in monitoring the
sensitivity of falciparum malaria to current and
candidate curative and suppressive drugs'.
Another project goal may be 'orientation of health
care towards the most prevalent health needs in the
population' with tne project objectives 'to broaden
and improve the existing health information system'
and 'to produce population-based health information
through sampling in selected pilot areas'.
Some Questions
What is the overall goal of the sector or
programme which your project is part of?
-
What are the objectives to be achieved within
your project?
At the eno of the project period, where do you
expect to be?
23
Module 4;
Strategy
Components
Assumptions
Methods
Outputs
Feasibility
Wnich Route Will We Take?
Project strategy refers to the design for a set of
interventions that will meet youi objectives and
contribute towards attainment of the larger developmental
goal. Tne underlying assumption of a strategy is that its
successful implementation will eliminate, reduce or
control the stated problem and that it can be implemented
witnin the time frame of the project and with the
financial and organizational resources available to the
project, including those resources requested from the
donor. Tne project strategy is the core of your project
design.
A strategy may consist of a single intervention or a
number of simultaneous or sequential interventions, it is
useful to examine ano descrioe your strategy both as a
whole and by means of its components. For example, the
strategy for a national continuing education programme
will comprise a large set of interventions, including
reorientation and training of trainers and facilitators;
refresher courses and learning surveys for rural health
workers; distance teaching; development and production
of learning materials; library development; and the
development of a system of supportive supervision.
A number of assumptions are underlying your strategy
for continuing education, for example:
'if health workers
are better trained they will do a better job and, thus,
provide better care to the people'; and ‘continuing
education provides a vehicle for more and better contact
Between different levels in the health system'.
Explain what approach, what methods will be employed.
The next paragraph- is an excerpt from a proposal,
illustrating how to present your approach.
"We will offer assistance and training in developing
country-specific Health Learning Materials (3LM)
production strategies along the following lines;
identification of priority needs for materials,
and of potential authors and potential
readership;
development of the materials through workshops,
editing and pre-testing to produce a relevant,
usable draft of any book;
conducting a workshop with potential teachers,
trainers, specialists and other interested
parties to ensure the correctness and
acceptability of the draft;
re-editing;
artwork;
typesetting;
printing;
paste-up and
distribution.
Throughout this process, research, testing and
evaluation of all aspects of need, relevance,
usability, design and layout for different readerships
and purposes should be carried out'.
26
Try to describe the outputs resulting directly from
each set of planned activities, outputs are those
concrete and tangible products that are needed to achieve
the project objective and that will happen as a result of
specific activities, in the health learning materials
network, your outputs will be the establishment of
institutional units, e.g., a fully staffed and equipped
HLM unit; a number of trained staff; and, of course,
books and other teaching and learning materials. in an
immunization programme, your outputs will be vaccinated
children and mothers; in a rehabilitation programme,
outputs will include adequate staffing to allow full
functioning of the facility, management systems developed
and established to support and supervise activities, and
renovated buildings.
You will also need to comment on the feasibility of
your intervention strategy in technical, economic,
organizational and socio-cultural terms. For instance,
can your organization establish and maintain a printing
unit for tiLM? Will your organization allocate the funds
required for the operation of the unit after external
funding expires? What are the constraints likely to be
encountered?
In order to arrive at a project strategy, a number of
options are usually considered and examined with regard to
tneir cost effectiveness and feasibility. Briefly outline
tne main options you have considered and explain wny you
have selected your proposed strategy.
some Questions
What are the key elements/components of your,
strategy and what are the premises on which
these are based?
wnat are the methods used in this approach?
What are the expected outputs/results of each of
these components?
is the technology proposed in your strategy
available and appropriate for the project area?
Is there an existing infrastructure/organization
to which the project can be linked or does one
need to be established?
Will the implementing organization absorb the
additional recurrent costs implied by this
activity?
Can the implementing organization continue
project activities and sustain the benefits
beyond the expiration of external funds?
Are there any political or bureaucratic
obstacles to the adoption and/or successful
implementation of this project?
28
Module 5:
implementation plan
Resource inputs
Workplan
Organization
■low 'Will We Travel There?
Tnis is a core section of the proposal, describing
wnat is actually going to be done, saving decided where
you want to go and what route to cake, you are now
explaining the details of the journey.
Begin by specifying all the inputs required in terms
of manpower, facilities, equipment, supplies and operating
costs.
Include all inputs, not only those you are
requesting to be funded by an external donor agency. Also
descrioe what resources are already available and where
tney will come from. For example, your organization may
provide office space tnat you already have, vehicles that
nave oeen provided by other donors, and management support.
Next, you need to present a workplan outlining
activities, targets and schedules. in a large project,
you may want to divide your workplan into several specific
project components. These can also be referred to as
responsibility centres when different staff members head
these components.
- 29 -
y
Tne following taele is an example of a workplan,
containing the essential elements that permit easy review
of acnieveraents and constraints.
Output
Timing
Activity
Target
(By Component)
Critical
Assumptions
Indicator of
Achievement
Component a
Activity Al
Activity A2
Activity a3
Component B
Activity Bl
Activity b2
Page 32 shows an example of using this type of
workplan for a national health planning programme.
Another possioility for charting activities and their
timing is the Gantt chart, as illustrated below.
Activities
Jan
Activity 1
XXX
Activity 2
XXX
Activity 3
Feb
Mar
Apr
XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX
May
XXX
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
yet another option is a time table in the following
format:
1987
FEB
JAN
Planning
Planning
AUG
JUL
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
Writers
Operators
Develop
Production
Course
Course
Software
Assistance
Package
Kenya
DEC
SEP
—
OCT
NOV
Editors
Distribute
Operators
Manuals
Computer
Production
Course
Software
Course
Testing
Course
Assistance
Consulting
Consulting
Tanzania
Package
Under timing, note whether this is a continuous,
periodic or time-specific activity, if periodic, indicate
frequency, if time-specific, indicate estimated date of
start and completion, under target, indicate what will be
tne direct result or output of the activity, if
Be sure that each result of output specified
successful.
can be related to an objective stated in the goals and
objectives section. under critical assumptions, state
essential conditions that need to be present for the
activity to take place and the target to be achieved.
Under indicator of achievement, describe the concrete
evidence or source of information required to demonstrate
that the activity has been completed and to indicate to
what extent its target has been achieved.
Tne workplan need not be overly detailed.
Refer to
the key activities and indicate by project quarter when
you expect the activity to start and to terminate.
32
Health Planning Programme
Workplan 1986 (Excerpt)
No.
ACTIVITY
____________ Title
TIMING
__________
OBJECTIVE/
TARGET
CRITICAL
ASSUMPTIONS
INDICATOR OF
ACHIEVEMENT
4.
HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS (HIS)
4.1
Produce the Health
Information
Quarterly for
national distrib
ution.
April
July
October
January
1987
To encourage
exchange of
information
activities,
etc. in
Uganda.
Articles sub
Quarterly
mitted ,
distributed
adequate
on time..
editorial
resources,
printing
materials etc.
4.2
Continuous
monitoring of the
Health Information
Systems in two
districts.
April
until
August
To assess
the approp
riateness of
the system.
Field work
begun in
March 1986.
No restric
tions on
travel.
Final Report
on system
with recommen
dation for its
alteration,
adoption or
otherwise.
4.3
Organize
workshop on
Health Information
Systems
August
for
three
days
To finalise
revision of
Health
Information
Systems.
Field trials
complete and
report pre
pared .
Proceedings.
4.4
Organize two
refresher courses
on Health
Information
Systems
November
January
(three
days)
To introduce
finalized
system to
two
districts.
Revised
Course
system
report.
accepted and
forms reviewed
and printed.
4.5
Depending on 4.3
the continuation
of the modified
system in two or
more districts.
September To collect
reliable
data on
morbidity,
mortality
and health
activity
from rep
resentative
districts.
33
An agreed
system is
confirmed;
necessary
modifications
introduced,
funds avail
able. No
restrictions
on travel.
Regular
statistical
output from
the system
on a national
level.
A very important ingredient in the success of a
project is the organizational framework within which
implementation is to take place, a description of the
project organization should be provided in this section.
This may include an organization chart.
Comment on
important linkages between the project and other
organizational units and external organizations. Lines of
authority and of communication should be clarified in this
section. Discuss organizational procedures for project
guidance and control, and for reporting activities and
expenditures.
Some Questions
What resources are required for the project to
function?
Which of these are already in place and can be
used by the project?
What are the activities to be carried out?
What is the timing of these activities?
What are the intended results of these
activities?
What are the major targets and milestones?
What are the conditions that must be present for
activities to be undertaken?
low can implementation of activities and
achievement of targets be verified?
Who will be in charge of the project?
What staff will be assigned and/or recruited?
To which department/division will it be
responsible?
low will it link up with other relevant
departments and organizations?
What reports will be made?
,iow often?
To whom?
What are the communications channels?
Will there be a steering or advisory committee
to provide direction and advice?
What will be its membership?
reference?
35
its terms of
Module 6;
Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring
Evaluation
riow Will We Know When We Arrive?
Surprisingly often, systems to provide information
for management and for evaluation are not adequately set
up at the beginning of a project. At project midpoint,
when donors usually ask to evaluate achievements and
project managers start to think about applying for a
follow-on grant, panic sets in as it becomes clear that no
baseline data is available and information has not been
systematically collected to allow a clear assessment of a
project's achievements against its plans.
To avoid such situations and to assure continuous
review of tne effectiveness of your project strategy, it
is important to develop indicators of achievement and to
set up a system for monitoring and evaluation at the
design stage. Roles and responsibilities in this area
need to be clearly assigned. Be sure to emphasize the
learning objectives of these functions and to develop a
system whicn assures broad participation.
Monitoring refers to the process of systematically
reviewing progress against planned activities and
targets. Evaluation encompasses a more comprehensive
review and assessment not only of project results, but
also of the initial assumptions underlying the project
design, including the relevance of the problem statement;
the relationship between the problem and the established
objectives; between objectives and strategy; between
strategy and implementation;
and between implementation
and outcome.
Monitoring is usually done by the project manager on
the basis of reports, field visits and regular meetings of
the project team. The comprehensive workplans described
in the previous section are an important monitoring tool.
Evaluations are commonly scheduled in the middle and
towards the end of the project period.
Many donors insist
on external evaluations using outside consultants, but the
best results are often achieved when external consultants
and project implementers together make up the evaluation
team. In the long run, evaluation will involve
measurement of the impact of the project interventions on
the situation prevailing at the outset. An example is the
impact of health learning materials on the attitudes and
practices of health workers.
Some Questions
What data will be routinely collected?
What indicators are you establishing for
various targets?
Who will monitor and analyse project
information and how often?
How will evaluations be scheduled and who will
participate?
38
Module 7:
Budget
Capital Costs
Recurrent costs
• -low Much Will It Cost?
in the project budget, you will systematically
enumerate the anticipated costs of planned inputs and
activities. Although estimates must be realistic, keep in
mind that a budget is a forecast rather than a definitive
statement of costs and prices;
Most organizations differentiate between capital
costs which occur only once during the life of a project,
and operating or recurrent costs which recur regularly.
Ah important characteristic of recurrent costs is that
they usually continue beyond the project period and after
external funding expires. Donors are generally wary of
financing recurrent costs unless these are projected to
drop substantially once a programme has been developed and
estaolished.
It is important to keep good notes stating tne
assumptions underlying your calculations. This is
particularly true for budget items which constitute
activities, such as workshops or evaluations. Although
shown as one amount, the cost of a workshop is composed of
several different types of expenditures, such as travel,
per diem, honoraria.
39
However, most line items in a budget refer to inputs,
sucn as commodities (computers, cars) and supplies
(stationery). Personnel costs are best broken down into
individual positions and their salaries and emoluments,
ratner than presented as a global figure.
Budgets should include a contingency for unforeseen
events and expenditures. Provision also needs to be made
for inflation.
Donor requirements vary widely with regard to the
currency in which the budget is to be presented: some
insist on dollar budgets and others on local currency
budgets. yet others require that your budget estimates be
presented in two columns, one for'local currency (LX) and
one for foreign currency (FX). you will need to consult
tne guidelines of your particular donors to be sure that
you present the budget in the required form.
It is quite possible that you will not be able to
find one donor to fund your entire project.
instead of
writing several proposals to cover different aspects of
tne same project, you may simply divide up the costs
between different donors. in this case, you can present a
comprehensive budget wnich indicates the amount of money
you are requesting from different donors as well as your
own organization's contribution. If your contributions
are in kind, e.g. premises, equipment, you should point
this out in the budget notes.
Regardless of specific donor requirements, budget
preparation can be quite easy if you use a comprehensive
checklist such as the one below, to guide you.
Budget Check List
Capital Expenditure
2.
Construction
Office buildings;
staff housing;
training schools;
health units; other
construction.
Commodities
Equipment;
vehicles.
furniture;
Recurrent Expenditure
3.
Personnel
Technical staff;
support staff;
consultants; casual
labour.
4.
Training
Fellowships; study
travel; workshops;
refresher courses;
correspondence
courses; extension
courses; other courses.
5.
Travel Costs
Train/bus/air fares;
per diem, etc. for
personnel and training.
6.
Supplies
Medical supplies;
training supplies;
vehicles; office
supplies; printing and
photocopying.
7.
Maintenance
Equipment;
buildings.
8.
Vehicle Running
and Maintenance
Operation and
maintenance of vehicles.
9.
Other Costs
Utilities (electricity,
fuel, water, rent);
communications
(telephone, telex,
postage); licences and
permits.
10.
contingency
11.
inflation
42
furniture;
Here is how a project: budget might look:
PROJECT BUDGET (state currency)
PYI
Line Item
1.
2.
3.
4.
PY3
Total
Personnel
Medical Training officer
100
110
121
331
Nurse Tutor
Secretary
100
50
110
55
121
61
Driver
50
55
61
331
166
166
605
1000
1655
200
200
605
1655
Training
1 Fellowship
1000
5 Refresher Courses p.a.
1 Regional Workshop
500
-
550
-
Travel Costs
Support and Supervisory
Visits
500
Supplies
Office Equipment
1000
1 Vehicle
1000
■ Office supplies
Photocopies
5.
PY2
550
1000
-
-
1000
500
100
550
110
605
121
1655
' 331
500
550
605
1655
1000
1100
6400
3740
1210
4315
3310
14455
Vehicle Running and
Maintenance
(1000 km per year at .50)
6.
Other Costs
Contingency
TOTAL
43
Budget Notes
1.
10% inflation per year included.
2.
Refresher course cost based on an average of 20
participants and one week duration.
facilitators' per diem
participants' room and board
learning materials
stationery
100
Total Cost Per Course
3.
40
40
'10
10
Office equipment includes:
1 computer
1 photocopier
4 filing cabinets
- 44 -
500
300
200
Module 8:
Annex/Profile of the Applicant
Organization
Record of Achievements
And Who Are We?
In this Annex, you belatedly introduce yourself.
This introduction should include a description of your
organization.
If you have a brochure about your
institution or a suitable annual report, this may
suffice. If not, produce a short paper which provides
oasic information about the nature of your organization,
its legal constitution, number of employees and proportion
of professional staff, the size of your budget, your major
funding sources, institutional goals and key areas of
operation, both technical and geographic.
in addition to tne above general information, you
should.outline what your track record has been in relation
to the type of project you are now proposing to
implement. What has been your experience in planning,
managing, implementing and evaluating such interventions?
What have been your achievements in this area?
Finally, your proposal may be much enchanced if you
include short resumes of staff already on board, or to be
recruited, who will work on the proposed project.
45
SECTION TWO:
PROJECT DESIGN FRAMEWORKS
There is now widespread use of certain techniques for
presenting all essential project information in tables.
For some donors, these taoles are a compulsory part of the
proposal, others will ask you to use them when you make a
preliminary submission.
The two most important ones are the Logical Framework
(Logframe), pioneered by the us Agency for international
Development, and now also used by German, Canadian and
other aid agencies, and the Basic project Elements
Framework, developed and used by UNDP. in addition to
serving as concise analytic summaries of the proposed
project, these frameworks can be very useful for reviewing
and discussing project design in small groups.
Logical Framework
The Logframe states causal relationships between
goals, purpose, outputs and inputs, and the underlying
assumptions about the factors affecting them. It
encourages designers and planners to be specific, concrete
and realistic in describing the relationships between ends
and means. it also establishes a basis for project review
by providing indicators which allow comparisons of actual
and intended effects.
46
Basic Project Elements Framework
UNDP's Basic Project Elements Framework is based on
tne same principles as tne Logframe but uses a different
vocabulary, it specifies immediate objectives, outputs
and inputs and reviews success criteria, verifiers and
external factors for each item.
All these terms have already been discussed in the
eight modules of the preceding section. Should your
donors require a project design framework, you can ask
them or the UNDP office to provide you with the relevant
forms and instructions.
CONCLUSION
The chief purpose of this guide is to help develop
marketable proposals. We trust that the preceding pages
provide a useful overview of what needs to be done and how.
AS with any other skill, you will only be able to
develop competence as a result of experience and a lot of
hard work. Do not be discouraged if you are not
successful the first time. Perhaps you have not done
justice to your idea in the way you have presented it.
Perhaps you are courting the wrong donor or asking for too
much money or putting the case forward at the wrong moment
in time. After all, donors are business people and they
do not give their money away lightly.
We suggest that you follow the steps outlined in this
guide, using your own discretion depending on the subject
of the project and the preferences of the donor. Once the
planning and selling have been done, the battle is far
from over.
Rather, it is only just beginning.
The accepted proposal constitutes a contract between
the donor and the implementers. However, there must be
built-in flexibility to be able to modify the project
design in response to experience gained during
implementation. A well thought-out project strategy, a
sound implementation plan and a good monitoring and
evaluation system will go a long way towards ensuring the
success of your project.
49
Program Planning
&
Proposal Writing
Introductory Version
By Norton J. Kiritz and Jerry Mundel
Copyright © 1988, The Grant Smart ship Center
■
"■
11
foundation. It will often be 10-20 pages long, and the funding
source guidelines will contain the sequence to be followed in
writing the narrative portion.
Il is a good idea io read the information describing how
your proposal will be evaluated. Quite often, g< ivemmenl
agency guidelines describe exactly how each section of your
proposal will be weighed. This tells you what the reviewers
look for and helps you to organize your thoughts. If you are
told to limit your proposal to 10 single-spaced pages, don’t
include one or two more thinking that it won’t be viewed in
a negative light. Follow theguidelines meticulously, because
1. The cover letter
the reviewers will. Proposals can be deemed inappropriate
2. The proposal
simply because you failed to follow .specific instructions.
3. Additional materials.
Proposals going to government funders may also contain
unique forms such as face sheet forms where the entire
I.
The cover letter is signed by the Chairperson of the
project, names of key staff, budget, numbers of people
Board of a nonprofit agency, or the top authority in a
impacted by the project, etc. are indicated; assurance forms
governmental agency. Il briefly describes the program, and
(addressing issues such as human subjects at risk); equal
tells the grantmakcr how important the grant would be to the
opportunity policy statements; facility access to the
community served by the applicant agency. It shows strong
handicapped; and a number of other such forms. It is
support of the Board of Directors, which is essential in
important to understand which items must be submitted
^Jgaining foundation grants.
Along with your proposal and how they are to be completed,
2.
The body of t he proposal may be as modest as one pageso read the instructions carefully.
(in the case of a foundation that limits requests to a page) or
3.
Additional materials will generally include those
voluminous. It may be in letter form or a more formal
items suggested bylhe funding source. This usually consists
presentation. In either case, following the instructions in
of job descriptions, resumes, letters of support or
Program Planning & Proposal Writing (PP&PW) will help to
commitment, your IRS tax exemption designation, an annual
assure that the necessary items are included and are presented
report, financial statement, and related documents. This
in a logical manner. Remember one thing: PP&PW can help
you structure your thinking and even plan your project or section (or Appendix) can be extensive when a funding
program. It can serve as your proposal format where the source requests a great deal of information. There are
instances in which the funding source will request copies of
funding source has not provided one—as is often the case
with foundation proposals. Bui it should not be substituted certain agency policies and procedures, copies of negotiated
for anyformat required by a foundation. If they ask you to indirect cost rates, etc.
Generally, this will happen only once, and for refunding
follow a set format, do it!
packages to the same public agency, you will probably not
3.
Additional materials should be limited to those need to resubmit the same documents.
required by the funding source supplemented by only the
We suggest the following as a basic format for planning all
most important addenda. Reviewers don’tgrade proposals by
of your proposals. Thinking through the various sections
^^the pound, so save your postage.
should enable you to create virtually all that either a private
or government funding source will ask of you. It will also
The proposal package to a government funding source
enable you to develop a logical approach to planning and
usually contains these elements:
proposal writing.
1. Letter of transmittal
This is our proposal format:
Proposals written for private foundations and those
written for government grants (Federal, State, County or
City) usually differ in their final form. Foundations often
require a brief letter as an initial approach. A full proposal
may follow in many situations. Government tunding sources
almostalways require completion ofanumberofformsalong
with a detailed proposal narrative. Therefore, proposals to
private and government grantmakers look quite different
The package to a foundation or corporation will usually
contain these three elements:
2.
3.
The proposal
Additional materials
1.
The letter of transmittal is a brief statement (2-3
paragraphs) signed by the highest level person within your
organization. It briefly describes the request, the amount
asked for, and may indicate the significance and importance
of the proposed project It should reflect the Board’s support
and approval of therequest as reflected in the signature of the
Board Chairperson (possibly as a dual signature along with
the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer).
2.
The proposal going to a government funding source
will generally be more lengthy than one going to a private
2
Program Planning & Proposal Writing—Introductory Version
PROPOSAL SUMMARY
I. INTRODUCTION
II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
III. PROGRAM GO,ALS AND
OBJECTIVES '
IV. METHODS
V. EVALUATION
VI. FUTURE FUNDING
VII. BUDGET
VIII. APPENDIX
^5) Eggacs ..... ■■■■■■....
PROPOSAL SUMMARY
The summary is a very important part of a proposal—not
just something you jot down as an afterthought There may be
a box for a summary on the first page of a federal grant
application form. It may also be called a “proposal abstract”
In writing to a foundation, the summary should be the first
paragraph of a letter-type proposal, or the first section of a
more formal proposal. The summary is probably the first
thing that a funding source will read. It should be clear,
concise and specific. It should describe who you are, the
scope of your project,-and the cost The summary may be all
that some in the review process will see, so make it good.
I. INTRODUCTION
In this part of the proposal you introduce your organization
as an applicant for funds. More often than not proposals are
funded on the reputation of the applicant organization or its
key personnel, rather than on the basis of the program’s
content alone. The Introduction is the section in which you
build your credibility, and make the case that your
organization should be supported.
Credibility
What gives an organization credibility in the eyes of a
funding source? First of all, it depends on the funding source.
A “traditional, conservative” funding source might be more
responsive to persons of prominence on your Board of
Directors, how long you have been in existence and how
many other funding sources have been supporting you. An
“avant garde” funding source might be more interested in a
Board of “community persons" rather than of prominent
citizens and in organizations that are new rather than
established.
Potential funding sources should be selected because of
their possible interest in your type of organization as well as
the kind of program you offer. You can use the Introduction
to reinforce the connection you see between your interests
and those of the funding source.
What are some of the things you can say about your
organization in an introductory section?
•
How you got started—your purpose and goals
How long you have been around, how you’ve
grown, and the breadth of your financial support
Unique aspects of your agency—the fact that you
were the first organization of its kind in the nation,
etc.
•
•
.»n
Iu
Thesupportyouhavereceivedfromotherorganizations and individuals (accompanied by a few letters
of endorsement which can be attached in the
■ Appendix).
We strongly suggest that you start a “credibility file”
which you can use as a basis for the Introduction in your
future proposals. In this file you can keep copies of
newspaper articles about your organization, letters of support
you receive from other agencies and from your clients.
Include statements made by key figures in your field or in the
political arena that endorse your kind of program even if they
do not mention your agency. For example, by including a
presidential commission’sstatementthat the typeof program
which you are proposing has the most potential of solving the
problems with which you deal, you can borrow credibility
from those who made the statement (if they have any).
Remember, in terms of getting funded, the credibility you
establish in your Introduction may be more important than
the rest of your proposal. Build it! But here, as in all of your
proposal, be as brief and specific as you can. Avoid jargon
and keep it simple.
IL PROBLEM STATEMENT
OR ASSESSMENT OF NEED
In the Introduction you have told who you are. From the
Introduction we should know your areas of interest—the
field in which you are working. Now you will zero in on the
specific problem or problems that you want to solve through
your proposed program. If the Introduction is the most
important part of your proposal in getting funded, the
Problem Statement is most important in planning a good
program.
The Problem Statement or Needs Assessment describes
the situation that caused you to prepare this proposal. It
should refer to situation(s) that are outside of your
organization (i.e. situations in the life of your clients or
community). It does not refer to needs internal to your
organization, unless you are asking someone to fund an
activity to improve your own effectiveness. In particular, the
Problem Statement does not describe your lack of money as
the problem. Everyone understands that you are asking for
money in yoursolicilalion. That is a given. But what external
situation will be dealt with if you are awarded the grant? That
is what you should describe, and document, in the Problem
Statement
Problem Statements deal with such issues as the homeless,
offenders returning to prison with regularity, children who
are far behind mjheir reading skills, youth dropping out of
Some of your most significant accomplishments as
■ school, and the myriad other problems in contemporary
an organization or, if you are a new organization,
society. Needs Statements are often used when dealing with
some of the significant accomplishments of your
a less tangible subject.’They are especially useful in programs
Board or staff in their previous roles
that are artistic, spiritual, or otherwise value-oriented. These
are certainly no less important as subjects, but they do not
Your success with related projects
Pngnm Planning & Propcnal Writing—Introductory Version
3
—----------------------------lend themselves as directly to the problem-solving model of
PP&PW. You would ordinarily deal with them as Needs and
Satisfaction of Needs instead of Problems and Objectives.
You should not a: sumo that “everyone knows this
problem is valid." Tha may be true, but it doesn’t give a
funding source assurance about your expertise if you fail to
demonstrate your knowledge of the problem. Use some
appropriate statistics. Augment them with quotes from
authorities, especially those in your own community. And
make sure that you make the case for the problem in your area
of service, not just on a national level. Charts and graphs will
probably turn off the reader. If you use excessive statistics,
save them for an Appendix, but pull out the key figures for
your Problem Statement. And know what the statistics say.
In the Problem Statement you need to do the following:
•
Makea logical connection betweenyourorganization’s background and the problems and the needs
with which you propose to work.
•
Clearly define the problcm(s) with which you
intend to work. Make sure that what you want to
do is workable—that it can be done within a
reasonable time, by your agency and with a
reasonable amount of money.
Support the existence of the problem by evidence.
Statistics, as mentioned above, arc but one type of
support. You may also use statements from
groups in your community concerned about the
problem, from prospective clients, and from other
organizations working in your comm unity and from
professionals in the field.
•
Berealistic—don’ttry andsolvealltheproblemsin
the world in the next six months.
Note: Many grant applicants fail to understand the
difference between problems or needs and methods of
solving problems or satisfying needs. For example, an
agency working with the elderly in an urban area said that
what the community needed were vans to get the elderly to
various agencies. They determined that this “need" existed
because not enough seniors were able to get to the social
security office, health services, and related human service
programs. What they had done was to immediately jump to
a “method” by which seniors would now be able to readily
receive services. The problem with that logic is that the
transportation suggested is a method and there arc other
methods as well. For example, what about the possibility of
working with institutions to dccentraliz.c services?
Alternatively, volunteer advocates could work with seniors,
acting on their behalf with some of these service providers.
Ultimately, buying vans might be the best method, but it is
clearly a method and not a problem or a client need. Be very
cautious about this. If you find yourself using “lack of
statements in the problem section, you are probably saying
“lack of a method." This starts you on a circular reasoning
track that will ruin the planning process.
4 Program Planning & Proposal Writing—Introductory Version
, ■!„,
.
■
HI. PROGRAM GOALS
AND OBJECTIVES
A well-prepared proposal has continuity—a logical flow
from one section to another. Your Introduction can establish
the context for your Problem Statement Similarly, the
Problem Statement will prepare the funding source for your
logical Goals and Objectives.
Goals are broad statements such as: Develop additional
resources to provide AIDS information to bilingual
populations; Reduce underemployment rates among adults;
Increase availability of resources to address the problems of
adolescent pregnancies; Create an environment in which folk
art is fully appreciated; or Enhance self-images of senior
adults. These types of statements cannot be measured as they
are stated. They offer the reader an understanding of the
general thrust of a program. They are not the same as
Objectives.
Objectives are specific, measurable outcomes of your
program. Object! ves are your promised improvements in the
situation you described in the Problem Statement When you
think of Objectives this way, it should be clear in most
proposals what your Objectives should look like. For
example, if the problem was that certain children in your
school read al least three grade levels below the norm for their
age, then an objective would be that a certain num ber of those
children would read significantly better when you had
concluded your program. They would read belter than their
classmates who had also been reading poorly, but who did not
have the benefit of your intervention. Tnese “outcome"
Objectives should state who is to change, what behaviors are 1
to change, in what direction the changes will occur, how
much change will occur, and by what time the change will
occur.
Another example of a measurable objective would be:
"Within 30 days of completion of the JTPA Classroom Training
Program, 75% of the 80 participating welfare recipients will have
secured unsubsidized employment at aminimum of $525 per hour.
and will maintain those positions for a minimum ol 90 days."
The Importance of Distinguishing
Between Methods and Objectives
- Many, if not most, proposals state that the purpose of the
program is to establish a program or provide a service. This
is consistent with most thinking in the nonprofit sector, which
sees the nonprofit organization as a “service provider." This
results in Objectives that read like this:
"The objective ol this project is to provide counseling and guidance
services to delinquent youth between the ages of 8 and 14 in the
blank community."
The difficulty with this kind of objective is that it says
nothing about outcome; It says nothing about the change in a
situation that was described in the Problem. That is, unless
the Problem Statement (perish the thought) said that the
problem was “a lack of counseling.” Presumably the Problem
Statement said something about youth being arrested, going
to jail, dropping out of school, or whatever.
Objectives should be specific, estimating the amount of
benefit to be expected from a program. Some applicants,
trying to be as specific as they can, pick a number out of the
air. For example, an agency might say that their objective was
to “decrease unemployment among adults in the XYZ
community by 10% within a certain time period.” The
question you need to ask is: where did that figure come from?
Usually it is made up because it sounds good. It sounds like
a real achievement But it should be made of something more
substantial than that Perhaps no program has ever achieved
that high a percentage. Perhaps similar programs have
resulted in a range of achievement of from 2-6% decrease in
unemployment In that case, 5% would be very good and 6%
would be as good as ever has been done. Ten percent is just
plain unrealistic. And it leads one to expect that you don’t
really know the field very well. Just remember that
Objectives should be realistic and attainable. Decide whether
the 10% figure is attainable. If not, then it is a poor objective
because you cannot achieve it.
Ifyouare having difficulty in defining yourObjectives, try
projecting your agency a year or two into the future. What
differences would you hope to see between then and now?
What changes would have occurred? These changed
dimensions may be the Objectives of your program.
A Note About Process Objectives
You may be used to seeing Objectives that read like this:
The objective of this training program is to offer classes in
automotive repair three times each week, for a period of 36 weeks,
to a group of 40 unemployed individuals', or
The objective of this program is to provide twice-weekly coun
seling sessions, lor a period of 18 weeks, to no less than 50 parents
who have been reported to Child and Protective Services for child
abuse.'
These are Process Objectives, and belong in the Methods
section of your proposal. They tell what you will do, and do
not address the outcome or benefit of what you will do. It is
critically important to distinguish between these process
Objectives and true outcome Objectives. If you do not do so,
you will end up knowing only what has occurred during your
program, and will not have dealt with the changes attributed
to your program: Remember, you have proposed your
program in order to make some change in the world, not to
add one more service to a world already overcrowded with
services and service providers.
Process Objectives may be very useful, but should only
appear in the Methods section of your proposal, so they are
not confused with the results of your proposed program.
IV. METHODS
You have now told the reviewer who you are, the problems
you intend to work with, and your Objectives (which promise
a solution to or reduction of the problems). Now you arc
going to describe th: Methods you will use to accomplish
your Objectives.
The Methods component of your proposal should
describe, in some detail, the activities that will take place in
order to achieve the desired results. It is the part of the
proposal where the reader should be able to gain a picture in
his/her mind of exactly how things work, what your facility
looks like, how staff are deployed, how clients are dealt with,
what the exhibits look like, how the community center
recruits and assigns volunteers, or how the questionnaires
will be administered and results interpreted.
There are two basic issues to be dealt with in the
Methodology section. What combination of activities and
strategy have you selected to employ to bring about the
desired results? And why have you selected this particular
approach, of all the possible approaches you could have
employed?
Justifying your approach requires that you know a good
deal about other programs of a similar nature. Who is
working on the problem in your community or elsewhere?
What Methods have been tried in the past and arc being tried
now and with what results? In other words, you need to
substantiate your choice of Methods.
The consideration of alternatives is an importantaspeclof
describing your methodology’. Showing that you are familiar
enough with your field to be aware of different program
models and showing your reasons for selecting the model you
have gives a funding source a feeling of security and adds
greatly to your. credibility. Obviously then, building
credibility only starts in your Introduction, and can be
enhanced as you demonstrate that you are knowledgeable
throughout your proposal.
Your methodology section should describe who is doing
what to whom, and why it is being done that way. Your
approach should appear realistic to the reviewer, and not
suggest that so much will be performed by so few that the
program appears unworkable. A realistic and justified
program will be impressive. An unrealistic program will not
win you points for good intentions.
V, EVALUATION
Evaluation of your program can serve two purposes. Your
program canbeevaluatedinorderto determine how effective
it is in reaching its stated Objectives. This concept of
Evaluation is aimed at measuring results of your program
[outcome Evaluation],
Evaluation can also be used as a tool to provide
information necessary to make appropriate changes and
adjustments in your program as it proceeds. This concept is
Program Planning & Proposal Writing—Introductory Version D
———----- _£d —---------- —------ —
focused on the way your program has been conducted
[process Evaluation].
Measurable Objectives set the stage for effective outcome
Evaluation. If you have difficulty in determining what
criteria to use in evaluating your program, better take another
look at your Objectives. They probably aren’t very specific.
Subjective and Objective Evaluations
Many Evaluation plans are subjective in nature.
Subjective Evaluations tell you how people feel about a
program, but seldom deal with the concrete results of a
program. For example, the Evaluation of an educational
program that surveyed students, parents, teachers and
administrators of the program would be eliciting attitudes
about the program. It would not speak to the tangible
improvement in performance attributed to the program.
Subjectivity also allows the introduction of ourown biases
into an Evaluation. This could easily happen if you evaluate
your own programs, especially if you feel that continued
funding depends on producing what looks like good results.
One way of obtaining a more objective Evaluation, and
sometimes a more professionally prepared Evaluation, is to
look to an outside organization to conduct an Evaluation for
you. Sometimes it is possible to get an outside organization
to develop an Evaluation design that can be submitted to a
funding source as pan of your proposal. This not only can
suggest a more objective Evaluation, but can also add to the
credibility of your proposal, since you have added the
credibility of the evaluating institution.
It is essential to build an. Evaluation plan into your
proposal and be prepared to implement your Eval uationatthe
same time that you start your program. If you want to
determine change along some dimension, then you have got
to show where your clients have come from. It is very difficult
to stan an Evaluation at or near theconclusion of the program,
for at that time you may not know the characteristics of your
clients at the time of their entry into your program.
‘ VI, FUTURE AND OTHER
NECESSARY FUNDING
No grantmaker wants to adopt you. Funding sources want
to know how you will continue your program when their
grant runs out. If you arc requesting funds to start a new
program, or to expand an existing program, then how will you
maintain it after the grant funds have been spent?
A promise to continue looking for alternative sources of
support is not sufficient You should present a plan that will
assure the funding source, to the greatest extent possible, that
you will be able to maintain this new program after their grant
has been completed. Indeed, if you are having difficulty
keeping yourcurrentoperations supported, you will probably
have more difficulty in maintaining a level of operation
which includes additional programs.The funding source may
6 Prognm Plmncng & Proposal Wriling— Introductory Version
be doing you no favor by supporting a new projcctand putting
you in the position of having to raise even more money next
year than you do now.
At this point in your planning you may realize that there is
little likelihood of any other sources of support one or two
years hence. This ought to bring you to a decision-making
point—whether you should even try to implement a new
program at this time in your agency’s history.
What would constitute a satisfying response in this
proposal component? Could you get a local institution or
governmental agency to agree to continue to support your
program, should it demonstrate the desired results? Can you
get such a commitment in writing? Can you generate funds
through the project itself—such as fees for services that will
build up over a year or two, subscriptions to publications,
etc.? Are there third parties available to provide
reimbursement for services? Are you expanding your non
grant fundraising activities? The best plan for Future Funding
is the plan that does not require continued grant support.
Other Necessary Funding
Other necessary funding refers to what are sometimes
called “non-recurring grants.” That is, one-time only
requests. This could be a request for a vehicle to transport
your clientele, or the purchase of a piece of medical
equipment for your hospital. While these are not program
grants, the funds you request are not all you will need either
to utilize the vehicle, or to operate the medical device. For the
vehicle to be used, you must cover the costs of a driver,
insurance, gas, and maintenance. Similarly, the medical
equipment must be operated by trained personnel. The
funding source will want to know if you are aware of what
you need beyond the purchase requested in your grant, and
have the funds needed to cover these costs. They surely will
not want to fund a bus that will sit in your garage for a year.
VII. BUDGET
Funding source requirements for Budgets vary, with
foundations requiring less extensive Budgets thin
government funding sources. The following Budget design
should satisfy most funding sources that allow you to design
your own Budget and, with minor changes that the sources
will tell you about, can be adapted to fit most government
agency requirements. This recommended Budget contains
three sections: The first is Personnel, the second is Non
Personnel, and the third is Indirect Costs.
When planning your Budget, it is wise to look closely at
your Goals and Objectives to determine the level of activity
in the program, and at your Methods section to review the
specific plan you have proposed. For example, a Volunteer
Senior Peer Counseling program would, one hopes, be less
costly to operate than a Senior Peer Counseling program
involving paid staff. Budgets should be built from the ground
up—that is, based upon your Goals and Objectives and the
methodology you have proposed. In the context of your
program you can begin to itemize such things as the staffing
called for, the facilities needed, the equipment required, the
supplies necessary, travel costs to be paid, and the range of
costs for which your agency must be reimbursed, i.e. time of
the CEC, bonding of employees, fundraising, use of space,
payroll services, in-service training offered, etc.
It is important to go through this exercise in developing a
Budget Without it, there is a risk of developing unrealistic or
impractical requests, where program and Budget are
unrelated.
This is how we suggest you structure your Budget
What docs the 52,000 per month figure for the salary of the
Project Coordinator represent? It may represent the actual
salary paid the Project Coordinator, but not necessarily. If
this is a new project, and if your organization has a typical
five-step salary schedule for job classifications, the monthly
salary range for the Project Coordinator may look like this:
Step A
StopB
SlepC
StepD
StepE
$1,500
$1,750
$2,000
$2,250
$2,500
If you have developed a salary schedule like this for each
position, then you should request the mid-point (52,000)
unless you know in advance who will fill that position. In that
case, list the actual salary anticipated. If not, the mid-point of
the salary schedule allows you to hire someone currently
I. PERSONNEL
making SI ,300/mo., who would welcome the increase even
to Step A. You have the flexibility to hire at any point along
A. Salaries & Wages
the range with the assumption that all staff salaries will
In this section you can list all full- and part-time staff in the average out toward the middle of the salary range. (This
proposed program. We suggest a format which includes the works if there are a number of positions in your project, not
just one or two.)
following information:
How do you determ ine what the salary range for a Project
t of
Amount
Amount
Total
Tide
FuS
% of time # of
Coordinatorought to be? The federal government prefers that
per
monthly employed months requested donated
salaries
be comparable to the prevailing practices in similar
salary
sons
in grant
during
or volun
per
agencies in your community. To justify the salaries you build
grant
teered
titfe
penod
into your Budget you should obtain information from other
local agencies regarding the salaries of persons with job
descriptions, qualifications and responsibilities similar to
How does this look on a completed line item of a Budget? If those of thejobs in youragency. You might go to the local city
you are employing a Project Coordinator at a salary of 52,000 and/or county government, the school district, or United
per month, working full time (100%) for the entire grant Way. By comparing the jobs in youragency with the jobs at
period (12 months) and are asking the funding source to other local agencies, you plan a salary for each position, and
provide the full amount of this salary, then it looks like this: you keep the “comparability data” on hand, should you' be
asked by the funding source to justify your staff salaries.
Req. Donated Total
Another final item to be included in your Budget for most
1
Proj.Coor. @52000 100% time x 12 mos. $24,000 -0$24,000
public agency applications is the matching support being
contributed by your organization, or the donated services.
You can list all of your staff in the same way. If any of your They can either be personnel contributed by you (the
staff are being paid out of another source of funds (for applicant organization), or by a third party (another
example, a staff person assigned to your project by a County participating agency, a corporation giving you a loaned
agency), then you total up their salary and put it in the executive, students, etc.). In many cases this will involve the
“donated” column (also referred to as in-kind, local share, or use of volunteers. You should place a value on the service
applicant share). Like this:
being performed by that volunteer, e.g., plumber, attorney,
carpenter, receptionist, etc. That value is based upon the
Req. Donated Total
function being performed by the volunteer, not on the
2 SocWkrs @$1500/ea. 50% time x 12 mos. -0$18,000 $18,000
professional background or education of the volunteer. A
physician volunteering timeatacommunitycenterwherehe/
she helps out in "painting" the facility is shown at the hourly
This means that you will have two half-time Social
Workers on your staff for the full year and their salaries are wage paid painters, not physicians.
Governmental grantmakers sometimes require financial
being paid by somebody other than the funding source. You
take their full-time salary in the Budget (51,500/mo.) and participation on the part of an applicant, i.e., 10% or 25%
halve it ($750) as they are only working 50% lime; multiply match. You may be able to make this contribution in cash or
theS750 by the 12 months they will be working (giving you in-kind. For example, if you are going to pay the salary of a
59.000) and multiply by 2 (the number of people employed staff member, that is “cash". If you are using volunteers, or
in this capacity). This gives you a total of $ 18,000 of donated receive an executive on loan from a local corporation, that is
“in-kind.”
Social Worker services in this project.
_
Program Planning & Proposal Writing—Introductory Vcnum
7
If you promise volunteers in your program, you arc
required to deliver the promised volunteer services, just as if
the funding source was actually paying their salary. You will
be asked to document the work they perform and to keep
records of their time. Records may be aud ted in the case of
a government grant. Always be able to document 5-10%
more than the required percentage match ju a in the event that
you arc audited and some of your volunteer time is
disallowed.
Why is it important to develop a match (applicant share)
and show the total costs of a project when some of the money
or services are not being provided by the funding source?
There are several reasons. First, the government funding
source wants to know that there is a commitment on the pan
of your agency—a commitment beyond just conducting a
program. It helps for them to know there is some likelihood
that you have resources with which to continue the program
after funding has ceased. It also provides some clarity as to
the "exact" cost in delivering a service. If the program were
to be replicated elsewhere, and donated services were not
available, it tells the funding source what the total cost would
be. Finally, when you have local resources (volunteers, cash,
staff, equipment, etc.), it reduces the amount of money
required of the grantor, thereby allowing additional projects
to be funded in other locations.
B.
Fringe Benefits
In this section you list the fringe benefits your employees
will be receiving, and the dollar cost of these benefits. Some
fringe benefits arc mandatory, but they vary from state to
state, so you will have to determine what they are for your
agency in your state. Mandatory fringe benefits may include
State Disability Insurance, State Unemployment, FICA, etc.
They are usually based on percentages of salaries. For
example, FICA is currently 7.51 % of the first $45,000 of each
person’s salary. Therefore, an entry forFICA on your Budget
might look like this:
Req.
FICA @ 7.51% of $90,000
$6,759
Donatsd Total
-0-
$6,759
590,000 would be the total of all your salaries, up to
$45,000 for any one person.
Some fringe benefits are calculated on a flat amount per
month per staff member, and not on a percentage, e.g., health
insurance. For example:
■
Health insurance @$100/mo par
Req.
staff member x 4 stall @12 mos.
$4,803
Donated Total
-0-
$4,800
As with your salary schedule, your fringe benefits should
be comparable to the benefits offered in similar agencies in
your community.
While you will need to calculate fringe benefits for your
own information, in some grant applications you simply
indicate the fringe benefit total as a percentage of salary.
8
PLmning & proposal Wriling^-lntroduclory Verncm
C.
Consultant and Contract Services
This is the third and final part of the Personnel section of
your Budget. In this section you include paid and unpaid
consultants (i.e. volunteers). You can differentiate between
which items go here and which go in Salaries and Wages on
the basis of the manner in which the individual or business
normally operates. If a bookkeeping firm generally operates
on a fec-for-service basis and is volunteering their services to
your organization, that would fit best under Consultant and
Contract Services. Essentially, be logical and if a Fed yells at
you, change it. (Foundation persons never yell.) Entries
might look like these:
Bookkeeping Services @$200/mo
x 12 mos.
Contracted Fundraising Svcs.
@$400/day x 10 days
Trainer @S2S0/day x 8 days
Req.
Donated Total
-0-
$2,400
$2,400
$4,000
$2,000
-0-0-
$4,000
$2,000
II. NON-PERSONNEL
A. Space Costs
In this section you list all of the facilities you will be using,
both those on which you pay rent and those which are being
donated for your use. Rent you pay, or the valuation of
donated facilities, should be comparable to prevailing rents in
the geographic area in which you are located. In addition to
actual rent, you should also include the cost of utilities,
maintenance services and renovations, if they are absolutely
essential to your program, insurance on the facility,
telephones (number of instruments needed, installment cost,
and monthly cost of instruments), and out-of-town facilities
needed. Include these items in line item fashion like this:
Req.
Donated Total
Office Space of 900 sq feet
@$1.2MooVmoJx 12 mos,
$13,500 -O-
Facility insurance @$600tyear
-0-
$600
$13,500
$600
B. Rental, Lease or Purchase of
Equipment
Here you list all of the equipment, donated or to be
purchased, that will be used in the proposed program. This
includes office equipment, desks, duplicating machines,
word processors, etc. Let discretion be your guide in this
section. Try to obtain as much donated equipment as you can.
It not only lowers the funding source cost, but it shows the
funding source that other people are involved in trying to
make the program happen. Be careful to read guidelines
closely when working with government grant applications—
especially as to their definition of “equipment" and re
strictions which apply. For example, equipment is often de
defined as something costing more than S500 per unit and/or
ha ving a lifetime of greater than one year. Additionally, there
may be prohibitions against purchasing equipment, and you
may be encouraged to lease rather than purchase.
C. Supplies
This generally means "desk top” supplies such as paper
clips, pens, paper, stationery, etc. A reasonable figure to use
is$125 per year for each of your staff. If you have any unusual
needs for supplies—perhaps you are running an art education
program, a sheltered workshop, or some classroom activity
requiring a good deal of educational materials—then have a
separate line item for such supplies. This component can also
include publications, subscriptions, and postage.
D. Travel
All
transpor
tation re
lated ex
included her
Don’t put in
any big lumpsums which will re-1!
quireinterpretation or
raise a question by the '<
funding source. Include
staff travel, per diem rates ap
proved by your agency and/or T
thestate or federal agency you are
applying to, ground transportation,
taxi, reimbursement to staff for use of
their automobiles, consultant travel costs'
use of agency vans or automobiles (if this
has not been included under equipment), etc. Examples
include the following:
Req.
Donated
Total
Four roundtrip air fares LA-NY for
workshop on Creative Accounting
@S500/each
$2,000
-0-
$2,000
Reimbursement lor staff travel @.20.'mile
x average ol 400 milesrino. x 12 mos.
$960
$960
Per Diem (flY) @$1S0/day x 8 days
lor 4 staff at Creative Accounting
Workshop
$1,200
$1,200
Be sure that you use per diem (hotel and meals) rates which
are consistent for the location. Attending a workshop in
Weed, California will be considerably less expensive than
New York City.
E. Other Costs
1.
2.
3.
4.
Bonding of employees
Tuition for classes
Professional Association dues
Printing (unless you placed this under Consultant
and Contract Services)
III. INDIRECT COSTS
The third component of your Budget is called Indirect
Costs. The federal government defines indirect costs as
"those costs of an institution which are not readily
identifiable with a particular project or activity, but
nevertheless are necessary to the general operation of the
institution and the conduct of the activities it performs. The
cost of operating and maintaining buildings and equipment.
depreciation, administrative salaries,
general telephone expenses, general
travel and supplies expenses arc
types of expenses usually con
sidered as indirect costs.”
While it is possible for all
such costs to be charged
direcdy—That is, to the
line items listed above, this is often
impractical, and
you may
group them
into a
common
pool.
The fed
eral gov
ernment
indicates that “An Indirect Cost Rate is simply a device for
determining fairly and expcditiously...that proportion of an
institution’s general expenses each of its projectsoractiviucs
should bear.” An organization or institution can negotiate an
Indirect Cost Rate (generally a percentage of Salaries and
Wages or Total Direct Costs) with any federal agency from
whom it has received funds. This is an important issue since
many larger institutions find that every new project
undertaken costs the institution money unless it is reimbursed
for the indirectcosts associated with operating the institution.
For further clarification of Indirect Cost Rates, contact the
Federal Office’s Regional Comptroller or your Program
Officeror Contract Officer to find out exactly how to go about
negotiating Indirect Cost Rates. Once you have such a rate,
there may still be instances in which the funding source
refuses to pay indirect cost rales or places a cap (a maximum)
on the percentage of total direct costs they will pay.
Nevertheless, this is an area which should be explored and
understood.
This isgenerallyacatch-all category which includeyitems
not reasonable to include elsewhere. For example:
Program Planning b Proposal Writing—Introductory Vrraron
9
SAMPLE BUDGET
Req.
IDonated Total
I. PERSONNEL
A. Salaries and Wages
Project Coordinator @$2,000/month @100% x 12 months
2 Social Workers @S1,500/month each @50% time x 12 months
20 Volunteer Recreational Aides @50 hours each/year x 7.00/hour
-024,000
-018,000
7,000
-0-
24,000
18,000
7,000
4,800
3,600
8.400
-04,000
2,000
2,000
2,400
-0-O2,000
2,400
4,000
2,000
4,000
13,500
' 2,400
-0600
-0-03,600
-O-
13,500
2,400
3,600
600
2,000
4,000
750
-0-0-0-
2,000
4,000
750
375
600
-0-0-
375
600
2,000
960
1,200
-0-0•0-
2,000
960
1,200
800
600
-0-0-
800
600
10,860
-0-
10,860
B. Fringe Benefits
20% of $42,000
C. Consultant and Contract Services
Bookkeeping Services @$200/montn x 12 months
Fundraising Services @$400/day x 10 days
Trainer @$250/day x 8 days
Annual Audit
11. NON-PERSONNEL
A. Space
900 square feet @$1.25/square loot/month x 12 months
Telephones @$200/month x 12 months
Utilities @$300/month x 12 months •
Facility insurance @$600/year
B. Rental, Lease, Purchase of Equipment
Word processor/printer
12-passengervan @$400/month x 10 months
3 desk/chair sets @$250/each
C. Supplies
Desk top supplies @$125/year/staff x 3
Educational matenals @$50/month x 12 months
D. Travel
4 roundtrip airfares LA-NY @$500<each
Reimbursement for staff auto travel @$.20/mile x average of 400 miles/month x 12 months
8 days per diem (NY) @$150/day
E. Other Costs
Conference Tuition (Creative Accounting) @S200/each x 4 stall
Board Liability Insurance
III. INDIRECT COSTS
15.3% of TADC (Total Allowable Direct Costs) as per att. negot. rate with Dept, of Labor, 1988
TOTAL PROJECT COST:
10
Program Planning & Proposal Writing—Introductory Vmion
77,445 36,600 114,045
VIH. APPENDIX
Addenda toa foundation or corporate proposal should be
limited. It is an imposition to suggest that a reviewer plod
through many par es of additional material that you decided
were important c tough to include with your proposal. In
the case of a go\ emment grant, however, the Appendix
may be longer than the body of the proposal. It contains
material which needs to be submitted to the funding source,
but should not detract from the continuity and flow of the
proposal by being included in the narrative. The rationale
for any decision about what to include in the body of a
proposal should be based on your answering the question,
“Do I really want the funding source to read/scan the census
runs, flow chart, or job descriptions while reading the
proposal?” If the answer is "Yes,” then definitely include
the item at that juncture. If the answer is “No,” then include
the item in the Appendix and refer the reader to iL
Funding sources will usually stipulate the attachments
they want you to include with your grant application. This
will involve a variety of documents, many of which will be
required routinely by other funding sources. It is a good
idea for Development Officers, Program Planners,
Grantwriters, or related personnel to maintain a file of
materials which can be included in a proposal package.
Such items ought to be accessible to you at all times.
Items which are routinely requested by many funding
sources include the following:
1. An Audited Financial Statement
Funding sources generally require an “audited”
financial statement Many smaller organizations do not
routinely have an audit conducted, or cannot afford an
audit and an “unaudited” financial statement is often
developed by the agency’s accountant or bookkeeper. It is
important that applicants know whether the funding source
will accept an “unaudited” financial statement A telephone
call to the program officer, foundation staff member, or
related contact person at the offices of the funding source
will provide you with the answer.
2.1.R.S. Determination Letter
This letter from the I.R.S. indicates that your
organization is exempt from federal corporate income
taxes. It contains important information regarding the basis
for your exemption and the requirements associated with
maintaining it. In some cases, individual states also grant
such exemptions, and copies of both letters may be
appropriate for submission.
3. Indication of Nonprofit Corporation
Status
A copy of the receipt of nonprofit corporation status by
the state in which your organization was incorporated may be
required by funding sources. In most instances, the favorable
determination of tax exemption (above) will be sufficient in
that it lists the name of the incorporated nonprofit
organization.
4.
Roster of Board of Directors
A document more and more requested by funding sources
is a rosterof board members by affiliation. Ofconcern is more
than simply the names of your board members, but who they
represent By this is meant their job function—minister,
doctor, banker, social worker, building contractor, ex. In the
cases of retired individuals, indicate their former job or
profession.
In situations where organizations have board members
who are welfare recipients, housewives, unemployed
persons, students, ex., select an area of interest or specialty
for such individuals, and indieax that afxr their name. Don’t
just list a name without any affiliation.
5.
Table of Organization
Another ixm which may be useful is a table of
organization. This table should include the proposed staffing
patxm for the project for which funds are being requested,
and should also include the larger agency/depanment/section
to whom the new project personnel report. With large
organizations, it is not critical that each position be indicated,
but units or departments should be shown. In many instances
it is more important' that the funding source understand how
the major “functions” of the organization are carried out, and
how boards, committees and staff interrelate. The only
problem with these tables is that they too often present such
a confusing picture that one wonders how the organization
could ever work.
6.
Organizational Budget
Some funding sources will require submission of an
organizational Budget for the current or forthcoming
program year. This organizational Budget differs from the
Budget for the project itself, previously discussed. This
allows the reviewer to put the gran t request in a larger context
7.
Summary Chart of Key Activities
Most public grant applications will require that you submit
some form of timeline for major milestones or activi ties. This
can be done in a variety of formats—Gantt charts, PERT
chans, flow chans, ex., and can bedone by month, quarterly,
or by time elapsed from the initiation of theprojecL Whatever
format you use, it should be clear and easily understood by the
funding source.
Other documents are often needed for inclusion as an
attachment w a proposal:
Program Planning & Proposal Writing—Introductory Vmion
11
8.
Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate
A copy of your agency’s negotiated indirect cost rate
should be included in the Appendix when you are citing a
"percentage” amount for indirect costs. This is required when
submitting public agency applications where such costs arc
being charged.
Private foundations may also pay indirect cost rates, b ut be
sure to review foundation guidelines closely in that some
place a limit on the percentage they will pay. In some cases
this percentage is only ten percent (10%) of total direct
costs—considerably less than the negotiated percentage with
the federal agency.
9.
Letters of Support or Endorsement
Letters from elected officials, other organizations and
individuals will need to be submitted as required by a funding
source or on the basis of your organization’s decision that
such indicators of support would be a good idea.
In general, such letters should be addressed to your
organization (Executive Director, Board Chairman, etc.) and
sent to you for submission along with the proposal. Letters
should not be sent under separate cover to the funding source
because they may not get there in lime or may not be filed
appropriately with your proposal. More significantly, many
funding sources simply will not accept documents submitted
separately.
To aid in the process of securing letters of support, many
grantwriters and development officers have developed a
procedure designed to aid those individuals and
organizations from whom you want such letters. Many
elected officials and agency executives are continually asked
for such letters of support, and will gladly provide them, but
it speeds up tlie process if they can see an example of the type
of letter desired.
It is a good idea to draft letters of support and share them
with potential signees. This will ensure that you do not
receive a glowing endorsement for your program "to provide
a shelter for homeless immigrant families" when you are
actually seeking support for “establishing a source of food
and shelter for migrating birds.” Telephone discussions
which summarize project ideas often do not get heard exactly
as you think you’ve transmitted them.
If you plan to include “motherhood letters” along with
your proposal, i.e. “As a mother in Centerville with six
children, I have nothing but praise for the Headstart program
and urge you to continue funding it," try to keep such
endorsements to a minimum—no more than two such letters
per proposal!
10.
Resumes
Whenever possible, rcsumes/curriculum vitaeof key staff
should be updated periodically so that you are notsubmitting
the exact resume which was placed in the agency’s file ten
years ago when the person was hired.
Also, it helps the ease of reading if different resumes are
written in the same format, so when updating resumes you
mightconsiderdeveloping a similar format foreach. With the
exclusion of academic and medical personnel, they need be
no longer than 2-3 pages.
11.
Job Descriptions
While in some instances it is important to create a capsule
rcsumeforinclusion in the body of theproposal, in most cases
the description of positions ought to be an Appendix item.
This reprint is available from The Grantsmanship
Center. Fora free copy ofThe Grantsmanship
Center's Whole Nonprofit Catalog, which includes a
reprint price list and order form, as well as a current
schedule of Grantsmanship Center Training
Programs, write to: The Grantsmanship Center, Dept.
DD, 650 S. Spring St., Suite 507, P.O. Box 6210, Los
Angeles, CA 90014.
KM G1O - I % -V'}—
About FORCES
Forum for Creche and Child Care Services
(FORCES) is an informal and growing
network of more than 58 organizations, six
regional networks (each with their own
membership) and individual members.
Founded in 1989, to act as a pressure group,
the network is committed to the survival
and development of young children,
particularly of women working in the
informal sector.
The Issue
Recognizing that all underprivileged women are
workers and carry the triple responsibility of
bearing children, household tasks and earning,
FORCES identifies the lack of Child Care
support as a critical factor which impacts
the health and development of children and
increases the poverty and hardship of
families.
Convictions:
□ FORCES believes that a strong intervention is
required during the special vulnerable period of
pregnancy, birth, and early childcaring when
ti^needs and rights of women and young
children are closely intertwined and continue to
be so through early Childhood. Maternity and
Child Care support is seen as a major strategy to
break the cycle of poverty.
Distinctive Features of
the FORCES Network:
® Child Survival and development
* Focus on the young child under
° Women’s health
six
• School entry and retention especially for the
^^irl child
"
5.5- 6.5 crore children under six
years of age are in need of Child Care services
53% of all children under 5 years of age
are malnourished
88 % of all women are anemic
15,000 creches are run under government
schemes while the need is for 8 lakh creches
adequate health care systems is
required. It also requires a law to
protect the rights of Maternity and
Early Childhood backed by a holistic
National Policy and adequate
resource allocation.
■ Daycare and Creches have implications for:
o Increased economic productivity and
women’s empowerment
Some facts
12-15 crore women work in the
unorganized sector
MATERNITY AND CHILDCARE SUPPORT IS A
MAJOR STRATEGY TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF
POVERTY
• Prevention of child labour, child prostitution
and child abuse
• All strategies for equitable development,
poverty prevention and alleviation.
* Membership comprising Child
Care organizations, trade unions
(particularly , women's wings of
trade unions), training and
research organizations,
academic institutions and
women's groups.
* The wide geographical spread
■ FORCES believes that tinkering with
programmes will not bring about any
fundamental charge in the situation for women
and children. A holistic approach with a multi
pronged strategy is necessary that inckides
daycare services, food security, maternity
entitlements, social security, education and
of its partners.
* Activities that include
grassroots mobilization,
campaigns, policy interventions
and research.
Key Demands
♦
Inclusion of Child Care services in the
Minimum Needs Programme
♦
Allocation of a fixed percentage of the GDP
(1%) for Child Care support
♦
Strengthening of ICDS and universalization
of Childcare services
♦
Recognition of importance of the Child
Care worker in the protection, survival and
development of young children. Provision
of adequate remuneration for their skills,
and the responsibilities they carry
♦
Decentralization of Child Care services
*
Flexibility of models of Child Care
♦
Inclusion of Child Care as a part of all
programmes for women and development
♦
Reviving of the primary health care systems
♦
Maternity Entitlements for all women
o
Recognition of Early Child Care and
Development as a vital component of
Education
«
Quality in, and regulation of pre-school
education.
List of Organisations
^fetional Members
Action for Child Care and Education Services, Chennai
All India Trade Union Congress (Women’s Wing), New Delhi
All India Women's Conference, New Delhi
Avinashlingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education
for Women, Coimbatore
* Bharatiya Adim Jati Sewak Sangh, New Delhi
* Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi
* Child-in-Need Institute, 24 Paraganas (West Bengal)
* Co-ordination Committee of Working Women (CITU),
New Delhi
* Department of Human Development and Family Studies,
M.S. University, Vadodara
* Family Planning Association of India, New Delhi
* Indian Council of Child Welfare, New Delhi and Council in
Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Punjab etc.
* Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur
* Mobile Creches, New Delhi
*
*
*
*
* Nari Samata Manch, Delhi
* Palmyrah Workers’ Development Society, Martandan, Tamilnadu
* PREPARE India Rural Reconstruction and Disaster Response
Service, Chennai
* Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Ahemdabad
* Sewa Bharat, Delhi
* SNDT Women's University, Mumbai
* Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
* Voluntary Health Association of India, New Delhi
* YWCA of India
* Anjuman Child Development Society, Uttar Pradesh
* BAIF Development Research Foundation, Pune
* Centre for Learning Resources, Pune
* Chetna, Ahemdabad
* Christian Children’s Fund, New Delhi
* Delhi Council of Child Welfare, New Delhi
* Foster Parents Plan International, New Delhi
* Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow
* Indian Institute of Rural Management, Jaipur
W'
* Mahila Samakhya Society, Vadodara
* SOS Children’s Villages of India, New Delhi
* Vihan Society for Child Development and Education in
Rajasthan, Jaipur
* Women’s Studies Research Centre, M.S. University of Vadodara
* Youth Charitable Organisation, Andhra Pradesh
* Call for Communication, New Delhi
* Loyola College, Department of Social Work, Chennai
* Committee for Legal Aid to Poor (CLAP), Cuttack
* Lady Irwin College, New Delhi
* National Federation of Indian Women, New Delhi
* Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat Sangh, New Delhi
* Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India, New Delhi
Regional Chapters and Other groups
*
*
*
*
*
*
Tamil Nadu- FORCES, Convenor, Loyola College, Chennai
Rajasthan FORCES, Convenor, Vihaan and Chetna
Gujarat FORCES, Convenor, SEWA
Maharashtra FORCES, Convenor, TISS
Orissa FORCES, Convenor CLAP
A
Delhi - Neenv (Dilli Basti Bal Vikas Samooh)
W
Individual Members
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Ms. Jaya Srivastava
Ms. Kamini Kapadia
Dr. Shanti Ghosh
Ms. Hamida Habibullah
Dr. Janaki Rajan
Dr. Archana Prasad
Ms. Runu Chakraborty
FORCES
c.'r> VVVC4 of India
10 SansadMatq. New Delhi-110001
Phone. 3346547 33b1o61
Forum for Creche and Child Care Services
c/o Mobile Cm^W
D.I.Z. Area, Sector IV, Rajj^Ksaar, Near Gole Market,
110001
• Fax:3347281
Email: forces@del6.vsnl.nfit.in'
forces @vsnl.com
Designed tv H. Simran Singh
WHO/EDUC/87.187
ORICINAL/English
DISTR. : LIMITED
PROJECT
FORMULATION
& PROPOSAL
WRfflNG
by Dr Katja Janovsky
oo5.r
J 33
(||||
i
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
The Catholic Ht
SECUNDCR*:-A?--: ' 3.
OC^'1
A Guide for National Project Managers in the
Interregional Health Learning Materials Programme
This document is not issued to the general public, and
: all rights are reserved by the World Health Organization
i (WHO). The document may not be reviewed, abstracted,
quoted, reproduced or translated, in part or in whole,
without the prior written permission of WHO. No part
of this document may be stored in a retrieval system or
i transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic,
mechanical or other without the prior written permission
of WHO.
Ce document n'est pas destine a etre distribue au grand public
et tous les droits y afferents sont reserves par I'Organisation
mondiale de la Sante (OMS) .line peut etre commente, resume,
cite, reproduit ou traduit, partiellement ou en totalite, sans
une autorisation prealable ecrite de I'OMS. Aucune partie
ne doit etre chargee dans un systeme de recherche documentaire ou diffusee sous quelque forme ou par quelque moyen
que ce soit ■ electronique, mecanique, ou autre - sans une auto
risation prealable ecrite de I'OMS.
The views expressed in documents by named authors are
solely the responsibility of those authors.
Les opinions exprimees dans les documents par des auteurs
cites nommement n'engagent que lesdits auteurs.
PROJECT FORMULATION AND PROPOSAL WRITING
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1:
THE PROCESS
Stage One;
Formulation
Formulating the Idea
Preparing a Preliminary Project Paper
Stage two;
Circulation and Feedback
Circulating the preliminary Project Paper
Gaining Approval and support from Bosses and
Central Agencies
Generating support from colleagues and Related
Agencies
Stage Three; Communication with Donors
Identifying and Courting Potential Donors
Stage Four;
Writing and Submission
Writing the comprehensive proposal
Presenting and submitting the Proposal
CHAPTER 2:
THE CONTENTS
section,one:
Eigtit Modules
Summary
problem Statement
Goals and Objectives
Strategy
Implementation Plan
Monitoring and Evaluation
Budget
Profile of the Applicant
Section Two:
Project Design Frameworks
Logical Framework
Basic Project Elements Framework
CONCLUSION
R 787
The Cc'holfr: E
AsscciMion of lodit
SECUN1L.3ABAD-500 003.
INTRODUCTION
All of us involved in developing and managing projects
have had to learn sooner or later that money does not
necessarily flow just because we have a good idea.
Although numerous organizations are in the business of
granting or lending money for development, these agencies
need to be provided with well written convincing documents
presenting our case. They require proposals that show
that what we have in mind is a priority, is feasible, is
cost effective, fits with national plans, does not
duplicate anything already being done, and so forth.
Project managers are usually good at identifying
problems and developing relevant solutions and new
interventions, but they often lack the time and the skills
to present these ideas in the form required by the
potential financiers and partners.
This is true of many of the managers in the Health
Learning Materials (HLM) Network where good will and good
ideas abound but money does not. The HLM clearinghouse at
0 has attempted to provide advice and assistance,
wherever possible. But it is essential that national dLM
projects become more independent and self-reliant in
writing proposals and approaching donors. Towards this
end, the a LM clearinghouse has produced these guidelines
for project formulation and proposal writing.
Although developed specifically for HLM Network
Managers, this document can also serve other middle and
senior level health managers in government and
non-governmental agencies in the Third World.
It draws on
materials from international and non-governmental
organizations and, in particular, on the experience of the
African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), a
Kenya-£>ased regional non-governmental organization
involved in designing, implementing and evaluating a wide
variety of health development projects.
The guidelines deal with the process of formulating
ideas, soliciting feedback, developing support, writing
and submitting project proposals, as well as with the
contents of proposals.
Chapter One takes you through the main stages that
make up the process of project formulation and proposal
writing. For each of the four stages that have been
identified, there is a description of what usually happens
and a few points on how to proceed and what to watch out
for.
in its first section, chapter two presents eight
modules tnat can be used to produce preliminary project
papers and full project proposals, a second section
describes techniques for charting essential project
information in summary tables.
process and contents are inextricably linked in
project formulation and proposal writing. By covering
both, we hope that these guidelines will point the way and
help you get over all the hurdles you will encounter as
you formulate your idea and produce a proposal that
attracts the support and resources you need.
P h o to : WHO/UN/SEWA
You have recognized a problem, an unmet need.
It is now time to sit down and
put your analysis and your propositions on paper
CHAPTER 1:
Stage One;
THE PROCESS
Formulation
*
Formulating the idea.
*
Preparing a Preliminary project Paper.
The initial process of formulating a project idea
varies enormously, depending on the temperament, training
and opportunities of the concerned individual, it spans
tne period in time from becoming aware of a particular
problem to the moment when you have settled on a
particular strategy to approach that problem.
Whether you have arrived by leaps and bounds or stepby step is not important. Nor does it matter whether or
not the idea has come to you in what planners would regard
as a logical sequence, no matter how you got there,
unless you are independently wealthy and run your own
one-man or one-woman organization, you must now get ready
to present your project idea to those whose assistance,
support, approval and money you need for its realization.
you have recognized a problem, an unmet need, a
condition that requires a change in the present course of
action or inaction. You have thought of a solution. It
is now time to sit down and put your analysis and your
propositions on paper, and to critically review your own
ideas.
It is both unnecessary and unwise to start by
preparing a comprehensive detailed project proposal.
It
is unnecessary because the bare bones of your project idea
are sufficient for a first review by your colleagues, your
bosses and by potential donors, it is unwise because
writing a full proposal is a great deal of work which may
turn gut to be a waste of time if your basic idea is not
acceptable to your organization or to the donors.
Produce a preliminary project paper of no more than
five pages. The paper should cover a statement of the
need, the goals and objectives, your proposed strategy and
an indication of the type, size and value of resources
required. Writing the paper will provide a mechanism for:
thinking systematically about your project,
reviewing and clarifying the connection between
the need, goals and strategy;
identifying gaps and inconsistencies you may not
have noticed before;
considering the scope of the proposed
intervention and the feasibility of implementing
it under the prevailing economic conditions and
within the limitations of your organization;
making a rough calculation of the resources
required from external sources;
developing a solid basis for soliciting feedback
and development support among peers and decision
makers within your own institution, from other
relevant organizations and from potential donor
agencies.
- 2 -
Stage two;
Circulation and Feedback
Circulating the preliminary project Paper.
Gaining Approval and support from Bosses and
Central Agencies.
Generating Support and cooperation from
Colleagues and Related Agencies.
You have completed your preliminary project paper.
The purpose of doing this has been to clarify your own
thinking and to produce a brief document describing the
essential elements of the project, you can now use this
document as a basis for discussion and as a tool of
persuasion.
At this stage, you need feedback from your superiors
and your colleagues about the merit of your idea, do they
agree with your needs assessment; problem formulation;
tne objectives you have set and the strategy you have
selected? What about feasibility? do they consider the
technical solution as appropriate and implementable? What
about the projected resource requirements - is the
proposed solution affordable?
Circulate your paper to a well selected group
including possible adversaries. Observe carefully whether
your ideas are understood in the way you meant them. How
well have you communicated your analysis, your visions?
Be sure to consider the process of obtaining feedback
not just in technical terms. The reactions you receive
will help you review not only tne technical contents of
the proposal, but equally importantly, assess the
feasibility of its adoption in terms of organizational and
political support.
Although rationality and logic are stressed in guiding
you through the process of formulating your ideas and
writing proposals, we all know that these standards of
rationality often do not apply in the real world.
projects may be perfectly logical and needs assessments
objective and valid. Yet, a project does not get adopted
Decause it does not coincide with the interests and
values of an important decision maker in your
organization. The need may be considered a priority
within your organization or sector but the central
treasury, dealing with the allocation of scarce resources'
between different sectors, may not agree with your
assessment. Your objectives and strategy may be perceived
to be competing or conflicting with someone else's pet
project and rejected for this reason.
Discussions of the preliminary proposal can be
skilfully used to develop interest and support for the
project idea. This is the time to lobby, to bargain and
to form coalitions that will assure not only the adoption
of the proposal but also develop solid support for its
successful implementation. Consider all the forces that
affect your project and see how you can acquire allies at
all levels.
P h o to : Aga Khan F o u n d a tio n /K . P f itz e r
Donors usually insist on identifying ways for measuring the
success or failure of the project.
The development of
systems for monitoring and evaluation are, therefore, of
special importance
6
Stage Three;
*
Communication with Donors
identifying and Courting Potential Donors.
Donors have their own priorities and values.
This is
not only true of the major donors whose operations are
largely determined by macro political and economic
considerations. it is equally true of most other donors
wno usually have geographical and sector priorities as
well as preferred strategies within sectors. If one were
to caricature the donor situation, one might say that
Africa is 'in', community participation is 'in', the
district is 'in', hospitals are 'out', and so forth.
These 'ins' and 'outs' tend to change every few years, to
be sure, they are usually based on careful considerations
of needs and experiences in the field. In any case, it is
important to be well informed on what current trends in
donor thinking are and to use appropriate terminology as a
tool to market tne project proposal, without compromising
vital principles of your basic idea.
You should develop and keep up-to-date an inventory
that contains profiles of all potential donors, including
the following information:
- geographical priorities
- sector priorities
- size of projects funded (range)
- maximum project duration
- preferred health strategies
- proposal format
- channels for project submission
- reporting and evaluation requirements
To obtain this information, contact as many embassies
and internationai delegations as possible in your capital
city and ask for a list of development and aid agencies in
their country or region. if they cannot provide it
tnemselves, they will give you the name and address of an
institution in their country that can help. There are
also directories of international foundations issued
periodically by different organizations, such as
Organization for Economic cooperation and Development
(OECD) and the united Nations Development programme
(UNDP). See whether you can find these through the office
of the UNDP representative, or in the library of your
national development institute.
Finally, there are two particular concerns of donors
tnat you will need to carefully consider and address in
your discussions and negotiations. Firstly, donors are
inevitably concerned with the economic feasibility and
institutional capability for continuing the project after
external funding ceases. They wish to see project
strategies that explicitly address the development of
institutions and that promote self-reliance.
Secondly, donors understandably aim to fund activities
that will produce tangible results. They usually insist
on identifying ways for measuring the success or failure
of the project they are helping to finance. The
development of systems for monitoring and evaluation are,
therefore, of special importance.
Stage Four:
*
*
Writing and Submission
Writing the Comprehensive Proposal.
Presenting and Submitting the Proposal.
In writing the final proposal you will carefully
scrutinize all the feedback information you have
received. It will not be possible to please everyone and
to incorporate all comments. if you do, chances are that
your proposal will become confused and inconsistent. When
you make changes in one of the key sections of the
proposal, be sure to review whether the logical link
between objectives, strategies and inputs remains intact
or whether other sections also n-^ed to be altered.
The preliminary project paper is usually produced with
scanty information. completeness and validity of
information are important when you write the full proposal
and will probably require additional work.
The interactions you have had with colleagues, bosses
and donors have helped you define the strategic space
within which you must now develop your full proposal.
Whereas at the idea stage, organizational and political
realities may have been remote, you will need to take full
account of these in producing the final document.
9
Once you have completed the proposal, you usually need
to submit it through the formal channels. This will
involve central ministries, such as the Ministry of
Economic Planning, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs or the Office of the President, in
some unfortunate situations, it involves not just one but
all of these, proposals to non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) do not always have to follow this route, dowever,
they often require a supporting letter from the head of
your institution. To minimize delays, it helps to draft
such a letter for the signature of the relevant person
rather than wait for it to be done by usually very busy
top officials.
Going through official channels need not prevent you
from informally submitting an advance copy to the donor,
provided it has been approved within your own organization.
Cost Sharing
Do not necessarily expect to find a single donor who
will finance your entire project. There are donors who
are willing to provide seed money for operational research
to further investigate problems and to carry out detailed
project design work. Many donors favour co-financing
arrangements whereby two or more donors participate in
funding a project. Keep donors informed of your
approaches to other agencies, if you have convinced some
donor agencies of the value of your undertaking, they may
even help identify and approach additional donors.
10
Follow-up With Agencies and Rewriting
Once you have submitted the documents, perseverance
becomes the name of the game. Project submissions may get
stuck at each point on the way to the donor, you will
need to check regularly whether the proposal is moving in
tne right direction. Be prepared to spend time and effort
to see that the proposal arrives at its destination.
Technical officers often consider their labours over, once
a proposal has been completed and accepted by their
superiors. It is difficult to overemphasize the
importance of making an effort to see that the proposal
arrives in the right hands and to show yourself willing to
rewrite and re-edit sections, if necessary and appropriate.
Alterations in propsals at the request of central agencies
and donors are not unusual. in fact, donors' requests for
revisions are a positive sign; at least they have not
rejected the proposal.
Although you need to ascertain that the proposal
remains technically sound and organizationally feasible,
your work has not been completed until a mutually
satisfactory version of the proposal has found its way to
the final decision makers.
CHAPTER 2:
THE CONTENTS
Section One:
Eight Modules
Section Two:
project Design Frameworks
information requirements and formats for proposals
vary a great deal from donor to donor, some donor
agencies insist that applicants adhere to their format,
others simply offer guidelines to assist the applicant and
to ensure that major points are adequately covered.
It is noteworthy and comforting, however, that the
same key sections tend to appear in almost all standard
formats of the major donors, smaller donors frequently
leave tne questions of the format to the applicant,
provided that specified essential information is included.
You will find more variation in the words used to
denote the most important components. For example, what
some donors refer to as objective is called purpose by
others. Donors are usually after one and the same thing
when they ask you about the approach of your project, the
method of intervention, the technical plan or the project
strategy.
13
Keep in mind that what these sections contain is more
important than how they are named. Your proposal needs to
be internally consistent and easily comprehensible to a
wide spectrum of reviewers. Be sure that the logic of
your presentation is clear in your own mind and well'
understood by those you have asked for comments and
feedback in the first round.
In the next section, you will find eight modules which
allow you to present all essential information about your
proposed project. These modules can be used for both the
preliminary project paper and the full project proposal.
The eight modules together will produce a
comprehensive project proposal. If your donor requires
less detail, you may want to omit some modules. For the
preliminary project paper, you need only three modules (2,
3 and 4) and one section of a fourth module (5), covering
the problem statement, goals and objectives, strategy and
resource inputs.
Each module begins with the key question to be
addressed in the relevant chapter of your proposal,
followed by definitions and a discussion of what the
chapter should contain. Examples and questions are added
where required to illustrate these points.
Section two of this chapter deals with project design
frameworks for presenting all essential project
information in tables.
14
SECTION ONE;
EIGHT MODULES FOR PROJECT PROPOSAL
WRITING
OVERVIEW
Module 1
SUMMARY
.
What is It ?kll About?
Module 2'
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Where Are We> NOW?
Background
Needs Analysis
Module 3
GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Where do We Want to Go?
Goals
Objectives
Module 4
STRATEGY
Which Route Will We Take?
Components
Assumptions
Methods
Outputs
Feasibility
Module 5
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
How Will We Travel There?
Resource Inputs
Workplan
Organization
Module 6
MONITORING AND
EVALUATION
How Will We Know When
We Arrive?
Monitoring
Evaluation
Module 7
BUDGET
How Much Will It Cost?
Capital cost
Recurrent cost
And Who Are We?
Organization
Record of
Achievements
Module 8
ANNEX
PROFILE OF THE
APPLICANT
Module 1;
Summary
What is it All About?
The summary is perhaps the most critical section of
your proposal, you may wonder why it is so important to
write a summary. Remember that decision makers are very
busy people, in addition to attending many meetings, they
review large numbers of documents and propositions every
day. They often do not have the time to carefully read an
entire document. Only a limited number of the proposals
that come across their desks can be considered.
You need to provide them with a short and concise, but
interesting summary of your project. That summary must
convince the decision makers that your project is relevant
to their'particular concerns and to the needs of the
country, and that it is well thought out. Although short,
it must cover the essential points of the full proposal.
Be sure that you state the objectives and the overall
strategy of the project clearly and succinctly. Explain
how the project will solve or significantly contribute to
the solution of an urgent problem, or to addressing an
important unmet need, outline the shortcomings of the
preent situation and then put forward a picture of the
future reflecting the changes that will result from the
proposed project interventions.
16
The total project cost is an essential part of the
summary. it allows the decision maker to relate costs to
anticipated outcomes and to assess the economic
feasibility of sustaining the project activities in the
longer term.
Although in the proposal the summary comes first, this
section should be written after you have completed all the
others.
17
P h o to : W HO/Hackett
Your analysis of the unmet need will explain the importance of the problem, its
relevance to the policies and priorities of your organization
18
Module 2;
Problem Statement
Background
Needs Assessment
Where Are We Now?
This part of the proposal should cover the general
background as well as an analysis of the need to be
addressed and alleviated by the project interventions.
The background section should be short and confined to
aspects of the general situation that are relevant to the
problem and to the interventions you are about to
propose. Explain how you (your organization) came to be
involved in identifying and addressing the situation.
This should be followed by your analysis of the unmet
need, diagnosing and further defining the nature of the
problem to be addressed. You will explain the importance
of the problem, commenting on its magnitude, its relevance
to the policies and priorities of your organization and
your government and its importance to the delivery of
effective and efficient health services. as you present
your needs analysis, keep in mind that the objectives and
strategies, which you will put forward in subsequent
sections, need to be clearly traceable to this part of the
proposal.
-
19
Tne following is the first paragraph of a problem
statement introducing a proposal for the rehabilitation of
referral health facilities and services. It illustrates
how to use the background section to set the scene for
discussing specific needs and for proposing a strategy to
address the situation.
"As a result of the political and economic
disturbances of the 1970s, the national health
referral system has deteriorated to the point that it
no longer provides adequate backup support for the
delivery of basic health care services. Minimum
repair of facilities would include restoration of
electricity, water, sanitation, basic equipment for
primary health care, and limited inpatient and staff
housing, in addition, health facilities have
continued to decline because of insufficient funds for
maintenance, and purchase of essential equipment and
supplies for basic referral functions. An important
factor in the deterioration of physical plant and
equipment has been the attrition of skilled technical
staff who are required to maintain, operate and
administer the health facilities. An additional
factor has been the inadequate level of support for
recurrent operating costs".
20
Module 3;
Goals and objectives
Goals
Objectives
Where do We Want To Go?
Goals are broad statements of what is ultimately to be
accomplished. Objectives are more specific aims which the
project is to achieve with its own resources and
activities and within the time frame specified in your
proposal.
Statements of goals and objectives form the basis for
the consideration of different strategies for their
attainment. Be sure that your statement explains the
purpose of the activities to be performed and establishes
a logical link between the problem stated in the preceding
section and the strategy you are proposing in the next
section.
Because most of the problems we try to address are
complex, you will find that there is a hierarchy of goals
and objectives pertaining to your project. This can be
confusing. Concentrate on the status you want to achieve
by the end of the project as a result of your project
interventions (called EOPS = End of project status by some
donors).
your project objective is a statement of the
EOPS you are striving for. It will provide a standard
against which to assess the project's achievements.
22
Some questions
What has led to the identification of this
problem and to the decision to develop a project
to address it?
What is the general situation and how is the
problem developing? Will it grow rapidly, if
unchecked?
What has been done so far to address the problem
and with what effect?
What has been your (your organization's)
involvement?
lave there been any evaluations of previous
activities and what have been the findings?
What evidence is there of both need and demand
for a workable solution?
dow is addressing this need relevant to the
nation's stated priorities?
The Catholic Hcspital Association of India
SECUNDERABAD.500 003.
Your project goal is the impact on the bigger picture
in health manpower development, in the provision of health
services or in improving the health status of people, to
which your project should lead or contribute.
An example of a goal statement is 'control and
reduction of the incidence of malaria in Eastern
Africa' with the project objective 'to assist
participating governments in monitoring the
sensitivity of falciparum malaria to current and
candidate curative and suppressive drugs'.
Another project goal may be 'orientation of health
care towards the most prevalent health needs in the
population' with the project objectives 'to broaden
and improve the existing health information system'
and 'to produce population-based health information
through sampling in selected pilot areas'.
Some Questions
What is the overall goal of the sector or
programme which your project is part of?
What are the objectives to be achieved within
your project?
At the end of the project period, where do you
expect to be?
23
I n te r n a tio n a l L ab o u r O ffii
Explain what approach, what methods will be employed
24
Module 4;
Strategy
Components
Assumptions
Methods
Outputs
Feasibility
Which Route Will We Take?
Project strategy refers to the design for a set of
interventions that will meet your objectives and
contribute towards attainment of the larger developmental
goal.
The underlying assumption of a strategy is that its
successful implementation will eliminate, reduce or
control the stated problem and that it can be implemented
within the time frame of the project and with the
financial and organizational resources available to the
project, including those resources requested from the
donor. The project strategy is the core of your project
design.
A strategy may consist of a single intervention or a
number of simultaneous or sequential interventions. It is
useful to examine and describe your strategy both as a
whole and by means of its components. For example, the
strategy for a national continuing education programme
will comprise a large set of interventions, including
reorientation and training of trainers and facilitators;
refresher courses and learning surveys for rural health
workers; distance teaching; development and production
library development; and the
development of a system of supportive supervision.
of learning materials;
25
A number of assumptions are underlying your strategy
for continuing education, for example:
'if health workers
are better trained they will do a better job and, thus,
provide better care to the people'; and 'continuing
education provides a vehicle for more and better contact
between different levels in the health system'.
Explain what approach, what methods will be employed.
The next paragraph is an excerpt from a proposal,
illustrating how to present your approach.
"We will offer assistance and training in developing
country-specific Health Learning Materials (HLM)
production strategies along the following lines;
identification of priority needs for materials,
and of potential authors and potential
readership;
development of the materials through workshops,
editing and pre-testing to produce a relevant,
usable draft of any book;
conducting a workshop with potential teachers,
trainers, specialists and other interested
parties to ensure the correctness and
acceptability of the draft;
re-editing;
artwork;
typesetting;
printing;
paste-up and
distribution.
Throughout this process, research, testing and
evaluation of all aspects of need, relevance,
usability, design and layout for different readerships
and purposes should be carried out'.
26
Try to describe the outputs resulting directly from
each set of planned activities. Outputs are those
concrete and tangible products that are needed to achieve
the project objective and that will happen as a result of
specific activities, in the health learning materials
network, your outputs will be the establishment of
institutional units, e.g., a fully staffed and equipped
dLM unit; a number of trained staff; and, of course,
books and other teaching and learning materials. in an
immunization programme, your outputs will be vaccinated
children and mothers; in a rehabilitation programme,
outputs will include adequate staffing to allow full
functioning of the facility, management systems developed
and established to support and supervise activities, and
renovated buildings.
You will also need to comment on the feasibility of
your intervention strategy in technical, economic,
organizational and socio-cultural terms. For instance,
can your organization establish and maintain a printing
unit for hlm? Will your organization allocate the funds
required for the operation of the unit after external
funding expires? What are the constraints likely to be
encountered?
in order to arrive at a project strategy, a number of
options are usually considered and examined with regard to
their cost effectiveness and feasibility. Briefly outline
tne main options you have considered and explain why you
have selected your proposed strategy.
27
Some Questions
What are the key elements/components of your
strategy and what are the premises on which
these are based?
What are the methods used in this approach?
What are the expected outputs/results of each of
these components?
Is the technology proposed in your strategy
available and appropriate for the project area?
is there an existing infrastructure/organization
to which the project can be linked or does one
need to be established?
Will the implementing organization absorb the
additional recurrent costs implied by this
activity?
Can the implementing organization continue
project activities and sustain the benefits
beyond the expiration of external funds?
Are there any political or bureaucratic
obstacles to the adoption and/or successful
implementation of this project?
28
Module 5;
implementation Plan
Resource inputs
Workplan
Organization
low Will We Travel There?
This is a core section of the proposal, describing
what is actually going to be done. Having decided where
you want to go and what route to take, you are now
explaining the details of the journey.
Begin by specifying all the inputs required in terms
of manpower, facilities, equipment, supplies and operating
costs. include all inputs, not only those you are
requesting to be funded by an external donor agency. Also
describe what resources are already available and where
they will come from. For example, your organization may
provide office space tnat you already have, vehicles that
have been provided by other donors, and management support.
Next, you need to present a workplan outlining
activities, targets and schedules. In a large project,
you may want to divide your workplan into several specific
project components. These can also be referred to as
responsibility centres when different staff members head
these components.
29
Photo:
International Labour Office
The following table is an example of a workplan,
containing the essential elements that permit easy review
of achievements and constraints.
Page 32 shows an example of using this type of
workplan for a national health planning programme.
Another possibility for charting activities and their
timing is the Gantt chart, as illustrated below.
31
Yet another option is a time table in the following
format:
Under timing, note whether this is a continuous,
periodic or time-specific activity. If periodic, indicate
frequency. If time-specific, indicate estimated date of
start and completion, under target, indicate what will be
the direct result or output of the activity, if
successful.
Be sure that each result of output specified
can be related to an objective stated in the goals and
objectives section, under critical assumptions, state
essential conditions that need to be present for the
activity to take place and the target to be achieved.
Under indicator of achievement, describe the concrete
evidence or source of information required to demonstrate
that the activity has been completed and to indicate to
what extent its target has been achieved.
The workplan need not be overly detailed.
Refer to
the key activities and indicate by project quarter when
you expect the activity to start and to terminate.
32
Health Planning Programme
Workplan 1986 (Excerpt)
No.
ACTIVITY
Title
TIMING
OBJECTIVE/
TARGET
CRITICAL
ASSUMPTIONS
INDICATOR OF
ACHIEVEMENT
4.
HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS (HIS)
4.1
Produce the Health
Information
Quarterly for
national distrib
ution.
April
July
October
January
1987
To encourage
exchange of
information
activities,
etc. in
Uganda.
Quarterly
Articles sub
distributed
mitted,
on time.
adequate
editorial
resources,
printing
materials etc.
4.2
Continuous
monitoring of the
Health Information
Systems in two
districts.
April
until
August
To assess
the approp
riateness of
the system.
Field work
begun in
March 1986.
No restric
tions on
travel.
Final Report
on system
with recommen
dation for its
alteration,
adoption or
otherwise.
4.3
Organize
workshop on
Health Information
Systems
Augus t
for
three
days
To finalise
revision of
Health
Information
Systems.
Field trials
complete and
report pre
pared.
Proceedings.
4.4
Organize two
refresher courses
on Health
Information
Systems
November
January
(three
days)
To introduce
finalized
system to
two
districts.
Revised
Course
system
report.
accepted and
forms reviewed
and printed.
4.5
Depending on 4.3
the continuation
of the modified
system in two or
more districts.
September To collect
reliable
data on
morbidity,
mortality
and health
activity
from rep
resentative
districts.
33
An agreed
system is
confirmed;
necessary
modifications
introduced,
funds avail
able. No
restrictions
on travel.
Regular
statistical
output from
the system
on a national
level.
A very important ingredient in the success of a
project is the organizational framework within which
implementation is to take place. A description of the
project organization should be provided in this section.
This may include an organization chart, comment on
important linkages between the project and other
organizational units and external organizations. Lines of
authority and of communication should be clarified in this
section. Discuss organizational procedures for project
guidance and control, and for reporting activities and
expenditures.
Some Questions
What resources are required for the project to
function?
Which of these are already in place and can be
used by the project?
What are the activities to be carried out?
What is the timing of these activities?
What are the intended results of these
activities?
What are the major targets and milestones?
What are the conditions that must be present for
activities to be undertaken?
34
dow can implementation of activities and
achievement of targets be verified?
Who will be in charge of the project?
What staff will be assigned and/or recruited?
To which department/division will it be
responsible?
dow will it link up with other relevant
departments and organizations?
What reports will be made?
dow often?
To whom?
What are the communications channels?
Will there be a steering or advisory committee
to provide direction and advice?
What will be its membership?
reference?
35
Its terms of
Module 6;
Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring
Evaluation
How Will We Know When We Arrive?
Surprisingly often, systems to provide information
for management and for evaluation are not adequately set
up at the beginning of a project. At project midpoint,
when donors usually ask to evaluate achievements and
project managers start to think about applying for a
follow-on grant, panic sets in as it becomes clear that no
baseline data is available and information has not been
systematically collected to allow a clear assessment of a
project's achievements against its plans.
To avoid such situations and to assure continuous
review of tne effectiveness of your project strategy, it
is important to develop indicators of achievement and to
set up a system for monitoring and evaluation at the
design stage. Roles and responsibilities in this area
need to be clearly assigned. Be sure to emphasize the
learning objectives of these functions and to develop a
system which assures broad participation.
Monitoring refers to the process of systematically
reviewing progress against planned activities and
targets. Evaluation encompasses a more comprehensive
review and assessment not only of project results, but
also of the initial assumptions underlying the project
design, including the relevance' of the problem statement;
36
P h o to : WHO/J. Mohr
Monitoring refers to the process of systematically reviewing progress against
planned activities and targets
37
Module 7;
Budget
Capital Costs
Recurrent costs
dow Much Will It Cost?
in the project budget, you will systematically
enumerate the anticipated costs of planned inputs and
activities. Although estimates must be realistic, keep in
mind that a budget is a forecast rather than a definitive
statement of costs and prices.
Most organizations differentiate between capital
costs which occur only once during the life of a project,
and operating or recurrent costs which recur regularly.
An important characteristic of recurrent costs is that
they usually continue beyond the project period and after
external funding expires. Donors are generally wary of
financing recurrent costs unless these are projected to
drop substantially once a programme has been developed and
established.
It is important to keep good notes stating the
assumptions underlying your calculations. This is
particularly true for budget items which constitute
activities, such as workshops or evaluations. Although
shown as one amount, the cost of a workshop is composed of
several different types of expenditures, such as travel,
per diem, honoraria.
39
I n te r n a tio n a l L abour O ffic e
P h o to :
You will systematically enumerate the anticipated costs of planned inputs and
activities
40
However, most line items in a budget refer to inputs,
such as commodities (computers, cars) and supplies
(stationery), personnel costs are best broken down into
individual positions and their salaries and emoluments,
ratner than presented as a global figure.
Budgets should include a contingency for unforeseen
events and expenditures. Provision also needs to be made
for inflation.
Donor requirements vary widely with regard to the
currency in which the budget is to be presented: some
insist on dollar budgets and others on local currency
budgets. Yet others require that your budget estimates be
presented in two columns, one for local currency (LX) and
one for foreign currency (FX). You will need to consult
tne guidelines of your particular donors to be sure that
you present the budget in the required form.
It is quite possible that you will not be able to
find one donor to fund your entire project.
instead of
writing several proposals to cover different aspects of
tne same project, you may simply divide up the costs
between different donors. In this case, you can present a
comprehensive budget which indicates the amount of money
you are requesting from different donors as well as your
own organization's contribution, if your contributions
are in kind, e.g. premises, equipment, you should point
this out in the budget notes.
Regardless of specific donor requirements, budget
preparation can be quite easy if you use a comprehensive
checklist such as the one below, to guide you.
Budget Check List
Capital Expenditure
1.
construction
Office buildings;
staff housing;
training schools;
health units; other
construction.
2.
commodities
Equipment;
vehicles.
furniture;
Recurrent Expenditure
3.
Personnel
Technical staff;
support staff;
consultants; casual
labour.
4.
Training
Fellowships; study
travel; workshops;
refresher courses;
correspondence
courses; extension
courses; other courses.
5.
Travel Costs
Train/bus/air fares;
per diem, etc. for
personnel and training.
6.
supplies
Medical supplies;
training supplies;
vehicles; office
supplies; printing and
photocopying.
7.
Maintenance
Equipment;
buildings.
8.
vehicle Running
and Maintenance
Operation and
maintenance of vehicles.
9.
Other Costs
Utilities (electricity,
fuel, water, rent);
communications
(telephone, telex,
postage); licences and
permits.
10.
contingency
inflation
42
furniture;
Here is how a project budget might look;
PROJECT BUDGET (state currency)
Line Item
1.
PY1
Personnel
Medical Training Officer
Nurse Tutor
Secretary
Driver
2.
4.,
110
121
331
100
50
50
110
55
121
61
331
166
55
61
166
550
605
1000
1655
200
200
605
1655
1000
500
-
-
500
Supplies
Office Equipment
1000
■ Office supplies
Photocopies
1000
500
100
550
1000
-
-
1000
550
110
605
121
1655
331
500
550
605
1655
1000
6400
1100
3740
1210
4315
3310
14455
Vehicle Running and
Maintenance
(1000 km per year at .50)
6.
Total
100
Travel Costs
Support and supervisory
Visits
1 Vehicle
5.
PY3
Training
1 Fellowship
5 Refresher Courses p.a.
1 Regional Workshop
3.
PY2
Other Costs
Contingency
TOTAL
Budget Notes
1.
10% inflation per year included.
2.
Refresher course cost based on an average of 20
participants and one week duration.
facilitators' per diem
participants' room and board
learning materials
stationery
Total Cost Per Course
3.
40
40
10
10
100
office equipment includes;
1 computer
1 photocopier
4 filing cabinets
500
300
200
44
Module 8;
Annex/Profile of the Applicant
Organization
Record of Achievements
And Who Are We?
in this Annex, you belatedly introduce yourself.
This introduction should include a description of your
organization, if you have a brochure about your
institution or a suitable annual report, this may
suffice. If not, produce a short paper which provides
basic information about the nature of your organization,
its legal constitution, number of employees and proportion
of professional staff, the size of your budget, your major
funding sources, institutional goals and key areas of
operation, both technical and geographic.
In addition to tne above general information, you
should outline what your track record has been in relation
to the type of project you are now proposing to
implement, what has been your experience in planning,
managing, implementing and evaluating such interventions?
What have been your achievements in this area?
Finally, your proposal may be much enchanced if you
include short resumes of staff already on board, or to be
recruited, who will work on the proposed project.
SECTION TWO:
PROJECT DESIGN FRAMEWORKS
There is now widespread use of certain techniques for
presenting all essential project information in tables.
For some donors, these tables are a compulsory part of the
proposal, others will ask you to use them when you make a
preliminary submission.
The two most important ones are the Logical Framework
(Logframe), pioneered by the us Agency for international
Development, and now also used by German, Canadian and
other aid agencies, and the Basic Project Elements
Framework, developed and used by UNDP. in addition to
serving as concise analytic summaries of the proposed
project, these frameworks can be very useful for reviewing
and discussing project design in small groups.
Logical Framework
The Logframe states causal relationships between
goals, purpose, outputs and inputs, and the underlying
assumptions about the factors affecting them, it
encourages designers and planners to be specific, concrete
and realistic in describing the relationships between ends
and means. It also establishes a basis for project review
by providing indicators which allow comparisons of actual
and intended effects.
46
Basic Project Elements Framework
UNDP's Basic project Elements Framework is based on
the same principles as the Logframe but uses a different
vocabulary. It specifies immediate objectives, outputs
and inputs and reviews success criteria, verifiers and
external factors for each item.
All these terms have already been discussed in the
eight modules of the preceding section, should your
donors require a project design framework, you can ask
them or the UNDP office to provide you with the relevant
forms and instructions.
47
CONCLUSION
The chief purpose of this guide is to help develop
marketable proposals. We trust that the preceding pages
pfovide a useful overview of what needs to be’ done and how.
As with any other skill, you will only be able to
develop competence as a result of experience and a lot of
hard work, do not be discouraged if you are not
successful the first time. Perhaps you have not done
justice to your idea in the way you have presented it.
Perhaps you are courting the wrong donor or asking for too
much money or putting the case forward at the wrong moment
in time. After all, donors are business people and they
do not give their money away lightly.
We suggest that you follow the steps outlined in this
guide, using your own discretion depending on the subject
of the project and the preferences of the donor, once the
planning and selling have been done, the battle is far
from over.
Rather, it is only just beginning.
The accepted proposal constitutes a contract between
the donor and the implementers. However, there must be
built-in flexibility to be able to modify the project
design in response to experience gained during
implementation. A well thought-out project strategy, a
sound implementation plan and a good monitoring and
evaluation system will go a long way towards ensuring the
success of your project.
Position: 3926 (1 views)