Grant Proposal Development, An Introductory Course

GRANT PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT –

AN INTRODUCTORY COURSE

SUDEEP UPRETY

JULY 20-27, 2015

WHAT IS A GRANT PROPOSAL AND WHAT’S ITS PURPOSE?

GRANT: Funds available by various institutions to help fund research and

development efforts made by individuals, universities and dev. organisations.

PROPOSAL: Plan or suggestion, especially formal or written one, put forward

for consideration by others.

GRANT PROPOSAL: Request for funding for a specific project. It generally

contains information about the organisation, its strengths, how it meets the

requirements, priorities and the expectations of the funding agency.

Purpose: To communicate an idea or a set of ideas by our organisation to the funding agency

Sudeep Uprety, July 2015

TWO SIDES – THE SUPPLIER AND THE RECEIVER

Getting to say,

“YES”


Success of a proposal depends upon demonstrating not your strengths but the “value” of your proposed idea

BUT HOW?

When you are not the

“ONLY

ONE”


WE NEED TO DO 6 THINGS SMARTLY

• SMART CHOICE

• SMART STRATEGY

• SMART TEAM

• SMART PLANNING

• SMART WRITING

• SMART PACKAGING

Doing so, we make our proposal CLEAR, CONCISE and COMPLETE

Being SMART makes you

the RIGHT candidate


WHERE DOES IT START FROM?

• Call for Proposal, Request for Proposal (RfP),

Request for Application (RfA), Call for Concept

Note, Call for Expression of Interest …

• Where – newspapers, websites, social media

sites, fund information management platforms

(Fund for NGOs) …


SAMPLE ANNOUNCEMENT

Introduction about the funder

What the call is about

Eligibility

Application Process


WHAT DOES CALL DOCUMENT CONTAIN? KEY ELEMENTS

• Background/Introduction – about the

programme

• Information about the project

• Rationale/Aim and Objectives of the project

• Expectations from the agency/Scope of Work

• Proposed Timeline of the project


KEY ELEMENTS CONTD …

• Proposed project design

• Budget limit

• Proposed key personnel

• Administrative details: technical and financial proposal templates, submission format (electronic or paper based), submission deadline, other essential documents required (registration, audit reports, past performance records) …


GENERALLY WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO SUBMIT?

• Expression of Interest/Letter of Intent

• Initial Concept Note (1-3 pages)

• Detailed Concept Note with indicative

budget figures

• Full technical and financial proposal


THINGS TO CONSIDER WHILE DEVELOPING PROPOSALS

• Do Research

about the funding agency – the sector they work on; their preferences, values, previous grantees and the nature of projects provided grants

about the call – the programme, the sector, nature of projects implemented

about the idea you are proposing – whether it is innovative or not

make sure that you are eligible to apply – read the eligibility criteria carefully


KEY THINGS TO CONSIDER CONTD …

• Assess your own strengths:

- experience and expertise relevant to the call

- organisational capabilities: internal human

resource, internal management on ongoing

projects, financial management (withholding

capacity for output based projects), logistics

management and short-term human resource

mobilisation, past performance records


‘FITNESS’ CHECKLIST – WHETHER CALL IS RELEVANT

Item Our Organisation

Proposed Project

Fitness (1 to 5)

Service/Programme

Target Group

Experience

Expertise

Budget

Community Location

Leverage/Alliances

Supporters

Sustainability


KEY THINGS TO CONSIDER CONTD …

• Devise your strategy:

- Develop a team of contributors relevant to the call

- Allocate roles and responsibilities based on their expertise

- Develop a timeline and request team members to strictly follow that


LETTER OF INTENT/EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

• Some agencies ask to fill up in standard templates –

some give flexibility to write on your own

template/style

• Content written on the EoI/LoI should be in line

with the expectations mentioned in the

advertisement.

It could be as simple as this based on our own

format

Could be based on a standard template:


DEVELOPING LOI/EOI

• Can one person develop the LoI, EoI entirely by himself/herself? – YES and NO

• YES because – it would not be a long document, so one person can write the LoI, EoI

• NO because – various range of information (technical, financial, administrative) is required which one person might not have all sorts of information

• So, coordination and team work is required


ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF LOI/EOI

In case of standard guideline requested by funders, we can simply follow that otherwise, an LoI, EoI should have:

Basic info about your organisation – short and precise (eg – we can just say HERD is a registered NGO, no need to give registration details; no need to mention mission, vision, goal and objectives of org)

Capabilities statement - experience, expertise in the sector, summary of past performance, list of clients, and ability to implement the project with backdrop of demonstrable experience

Expression of commitment to deliver the expectations of the funding agency within the given timeframe with quality products


DEVELOPING CONCEPT NOTES

• It’s more about putting forward the idea/concept

• When funding agencies ask for concept notes, they are

first of all looking for an idea that is innovative,

interesting and inspirational

• So, concept notes should clearly reflect our clarity and

depth of our understanding of the subject matter

• A concept note is a mini-proposal. So, certain elements

of the proposal should be there, while some need not

be.


CONCEPT NOTES CONTD …

• Things that need to be included: introduction and

rationale, conceptual framework, expertise and

experience, proposed team composition, indicative

budget (upper limit), indicative timeframe

• Things that need not be included: (unless specifically

asked by funding agencies): proposed key team

members, detailed budget, detailed activities and

timeframe


CONCEPT NOTES CONTD …

• So, concept note speaks more about the “concept”

and less about the organisation and the expertise

and experience of the organisation


IN A NUTSHELL

- Success Grant Proposals are result of good

strategies and good plans

- With the call announcement, we need to do

good research and assess your own strengths

- You need to have a ‘fitness’ checklist to decide

whether to go for a call or not

- What are EOI/LOIs and Concept Notes/Papers

and how are they developed


TECHNICAL PROPOSAL CONTD …

• Components of Technical Proposal

- Cover Letter

- Executive Summary

- Introduction

- Understanding of Context

- Understanding of RFP/RFA/ToR

- Capabilities Statement

- Implementation Plan



• Team Composition and Governance Structure

• Quality Assurance Mechanism

• M&E Framework

• Sustainability Plan (Outputs, Outcomes, Impact)

• Potential Risks and Mitigation Strategies

• Appendices



Cover Letter

• Things to include: Information about how you

responded to the bid, title of the study, documents

attached in the bid, declaration that all information

stated in the bid is true

• Generally addressed to the address mentioned in

the RFP otherwise could be addressed to the

administration section



Cover Letter

• Should be signed by head of the organisation (ED,

OM or other authorised representative)

• Should be stamped and should be written as a

letter head

• Should not be very long – remember, it is mainly

used for administrative purpose and won’t be

judged as part of the bid evaluation


Executive Summary

• Is a summary of the entire proposal

• One page – about 400 to 600 words

• Should include: short description of the bidding organisation, understanding of RFP and expectations by funding agency, capabilities statement, proposed implementation modality

• Need to be written at the end after developing the first draft of TP so that there is clarity about what the bid document should contain



Executive Summary • Details need not be mentioned here such as name of

proposed key staff, sampling strategy, days required for training …

• Should be developed more in line with the aim of the project giving an impression to the funding agency that the bidder has good understanding of the purpose of the project

• Remember, it’s your face. First impression of the bid document is reflected through it. So, should be carefully written.



TECHNICAL PROPOSAL CONTD … Introduction/Background

• Includes how you have structured the proposal (about 200 words)

Eg: Health Research and Social Development Forum (HERD) in collaboration with HERD International is pleased to submit this ‘Technical Proposal’ to funding agency for the project, ‘Title of the project’. The outline presented in this proposal is guided by our good practice in design and implementation and our ‘hands-on’ organisational experience in implementing monitoring and evaluation studies. The proposal is structured as follows: Sections 2 and 3 provide our understanding of the context, RFP and expected responsibilities/tasks to be delivered by the implementation agency – HERD (in this proposal). Section 4 sets out our explanation in meeting the requirements (our relevant experience); Sections 5, 6 and 7 presents our proposed approaches in conducting the study while Section 8 presents our proposed team composition and structure for this study. Our technical proposal is supplemented by a number of annexes: list of major studies; our detailed implementation plan, pool of proposed field monitors and our current resources (human, financial and logistics) to conduct this study.



Understanding of the Context

• Includes our understanding of the subject matter

• Should be based on an evidence review

• Need not be very rigorous but a general synthesis of the issue

• Need not be very academic or scientific but basic

referencing/citation should be there

• More specific to the aim of the call to give an impression to

the funding agency about our good understanding on the

subject matter that the call is centered around



Understanding of RFP/RFA/ToR

• Includes information regarding what the call is about

• We present what we understood about the aim,

objectives and our Scope of Work

• We also present about our observations on the RFP

• A conceptual framework looks nice – to give a clear

picture of what we deduced from the call



Understanding of RFP/RFA/ToR

• Generally, some funding agencies allow us to send

queries regarding the call but in case of no such

provision or something noticed later, we could keep

them as our observations. But, we need to choose

our words wisely while writing our observations.



Capabilities Statement

• It is about demonstrating our strengths but only relevant

strengths

• Depending upon the nature of the call, we should highlight

specific skills but the general things to be included are: Project

Management Practice, Sectoral Experience and Expertise,

Planning and M&E, Coordination, Data Management, HR

Mobilisation, Training, Documentation, Report Writing

• This statement should be more practical and based on

demonstrable experience



Implementation Plan

• Should be specific, robust and detailed

• Should be in line with the aims and objectives of the study

• Answers to who does what and how should be clearly

mentioned

• Make sure that your implementation plan offers something new

but not entirely different from what the funding agency expects

• Implementation Plan should clearly demonstrate the strength

and experience of the organisation conducting similar projects



Team Composition and Governance Structure • Should be relevant to the call – so the RFP should be read

carefully as generally RFPs prescribe what sorts of HR and qualities are sought in the team

• If RFPs mention about specific positions, we need to fulfill that. But, if we think some more individuals are required, always better to propose but with good justification

• We should clearly mention the added value of the proposed team members and how they will contribute to the implementation of the project

• Governance Structure displays how roles and responsibilities are divided and organised



Quality Assurance Mechanism • Should answer the question – how do we ensure quality while

meeting our deliverables

• Should convince the funding agency that the organisation maintains high degree of professionalism

• Should give a glimpse of cost effectiveness in its proposed activities and proposed resources (human and other resources)

• Better to be as detailed as possible

• Sometimes we think that these minute details are irrelevant or less important but actually they become very important as they display our degree of professionalism



Quality Assurance Mechanism

• Remember, Quality Assurance is not Quality Control so, it’s

more about precision than accuracy

• It also highlights professional ethics and standards that the

organisation has in place – so it is better to highlight if we have

any guidelines and how are they implemented

• Do not overstate or understate while claiming how you ensure

quality



Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

• Demonstrates how the ‘implementation’ component

of the project would be handled

• Sometimes part of the QA mechanism but some

funding agencies specifically ask for specific M&E

framework

• Better to frame it in a Question and Answer format.

• Sometimes, also better to assess against a ‘Theory of

Change’ approach



Potential Risks and Mitigation Strategies

• Demonstrates how well the applicant organisation

has conducted similar studies

• Should reflect previous experiences and how we

were able to cope with such problems

• Shows your ability to foresee any challenges/risks

and also demonstrates how well prepared an

organisation is in terms of good planning, team work

and coordination to mitigate those risks



Potential Risks and Mitigation Strategies

• While identifying the risks, we should be careful not

to mention those conditions where we our capacity is

questioned. For eg: when we say, ‘not being able to

find qualified field researchers’, though that may be a

risk, it could give negative impression about the

organisation



Appendices

• List of studies

• Gantt Chart

• CVs of Key Team members

• Office Infrastructure

• Pool of field researchers

• Client Profile

• Others as required and relevant


DEVELOPING A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

• Let’s review an RFP

How do we develop a conceptual framework for

this call?

Remember, you first need to identify the key issues

from the call and then think how to fit them into a

structure

This is basically mind mapping. So, let’s try it out.


PRACTICAL SESSIONS

• Scheming through a ToR and identify key elements from

the proposal

• Developing Conceptual Framework – different models

• Developing Methodology Matrix

• Developing Implementation Flowchart

• Developing Deliverable and Responsibility Table

• Making note of possible changes in our proposed design,

team composition, timeline and justifying them

effectively


FINANCIAL PROPOSAL – THE BASICS

• It’s about the budget – cost estimation of our

proposed activities

• Remember, it is an estimation, forecasting the costs

but the costs should be realistic

• Being realistic, the estimation should be of upper

limit

• Generally FP holds less weightage than TP; depends

upon the evaluation criteria of funding agency


FINANCIAL PROPOSAL – THE BASICS

• Format – some suggested in the RFP; some not

• Should be limited to budget ceiling if it is given –

generally strict in this sort of guideline so better not

to exceed that as it may lead to our disqualification

• Should provide justification of the estimated costs

• Should also include other financial information

(taxation, insurance, operational/administrative

charges)


FINANCIAL PROPOSAL – BASIC COMPONENTS

• Budget

Summary Budget

Detailed Budget (of activities)

HR Costs (days and per day rates or salary per

month basis)

Annex (Detailed breakdown costs of activities such

as workshops; field implementation days)

Developed in MS EXCEL


FINANCIAL PROPOSAL – BASIC COMPONENTS

• Budget Narrative

Total Figure

Financial Management System

VAT

Human Resource

DSA and Accommodation

Transportation

Other indirect costs

Financial Information


DEVELOPING CONCEPT NOTES

• Is written in two ways, either responding to a call for application or just

proposing an idea

• Responding to a call, we need to follow the suggested guideline

• Nature of calls for concept notes are slightly different than the RFA/RFP. It

explains more about the concept and also expects the applicant

organisations to first understand the concept clearly

• So, greater understanding, time engagement and mind mapping is required

to develop a concept note as while developing concept note, we will not

only claim that we will be able to implement any project already designed

but we will be proposing an idea, therefore we will be designing our project

ourselves.


DEVELOPING CONCEPT NOTES CONTD ...

• It could be a simple one-pager about what you

want to do

• So, there is no definite template. It depends

upon how you put forward your ideas and

concepts


PACKAGING BID DOCUMENTS

• Once we are done with finalising the technical and financial proposal, we need to review it once thoroughly

• Review entails review of language, structure, content, coherence in technical proposal

• In financial proposal, it entails review of line items, figures in line with technical proposal. The justification part in FP also needs to be thoroughly reviewed



• Better to get reviewed from all team members

at least a day beforehand so that any

comments/suggestions can be incorporated

• Better to develop a checklist of things to submit

before submitting the final bid

• Should not forget to mention organisational

details – phone, email address, contact person

if the funding agency wants to contact



• Filenaming is also important. Do not submit with the filename like: koicaproposal-sudeep-July 25. We could first write initials of the project say: CDA Mugu_Technical Proposal_HERD_July 25 and follow the same pattern in financial proposal, CDA Mugu_Financial Proposal_HERD_July 25

• In case of online submissions, read the submission guideline clearly. Sometimes, agencies also prefer definite email subject line such as: CDA Mugu-Nepal Bid


PACKAGING OUR BID DOCUMENTS

• Also important to note suggested file formats, WORD, EXCEL, PDF...and in case of online submissions, if file size is large (eg greater than 25 MB), if we would like to use any other online sharing options such as Google Drive, we need to mention that clearly in our email body or we could use two emails to send the bid documents as part 1 and 2

• In case of hard copy submissions, we need to arrange our bid documents properly. Some RFPs mention suggested arrangements such as two envelopes of TP and FP under one cover envelope with a cover address.

• Hard copy submissions should be signed and stamped in all pages of the TP and FP by authorised signatories

• Don’t be late. Late submissions will be disqualified straight away.


POST SUBMISSION

• Sometimes upon electronic submission when you are not sure about whether the agency has received your email, better to email them forwarding the sent email requesting for their receipt of the email

• Wait patiently – do not ask the funding agencies what happened before the evaluation period is over

• Remember, any form of influence/gifts/bribes results in disqualification and bad reputation of the organisation

• If you do not receive any message even 2-3 months later, contact them requesting the status of the bid evaluation


POST SUBMISSION

• It is necessary to discuss among group members to reflect

the proposal development process, what went wrong and

what could have been better. The reflection should be

purely objective and a way forward should be outlined for

further improvement.

• Generally, funding agencies do not award straight away.

They might call you for post-bid meetings. At that time, we

need to be confident about what we have proposed.

Remember, it is a cross-check of your ability to implement

what you have proposed on paper.


IN A NUTSHELL

• So, proposal development is an art– requires complex skill set:

- ability to comprehend what the call is about and assess its

relevance to the organisation;

- ability to find appropriate team members;

- ability to understand the interests and expectations of

funding agency and shape the proposal accordingly

- ability to design and plan the activities properly

- ability to communicate well through effective writing

- ability to be efficient keeping in mind the submission date


IN A NUTSHELL

• So, it is a team work. It is “proposal development” and not

just “proposal writing”

BIG THANK YOU for your patience, active participation

and commitment to attend a week-long course

Hope you gained something from it.

Feedback please. Please fill up this form.


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