Writing a Funding Proposal
POSSIBLE STRUCTURE OF A FUNDING PROPOSAL
Section Content Comments
Title page
Title of proposal.
Name of agency to whom proposal is
being submitted.
Name and address of your organisation,
if possible with a logo.
Name of the contact person who will best
be able to discuss the proposal.
Date.
The title should capture the essence of
the project in a short phrase or
sentence. It should not be very long.
Summary page
Summary of the proposal – about 300
words in length.
Capture the essence of the project by
briefly stating:
what the current context or situation
is
what your organisation feels would
be a way of addressing the
problems using its expertise
why this is a good way to go
what impact will be achieved
who the main beneficiaries will be
the time period envisaged
the overall cost.
Contents page
List the main headings and page numbers. This will help the reader find his/her
way around the proposal.
Proposal – body of the
proposal
Context (about a page)
Specific/relevant opportunities and/or
problems for organisation and for donor
(about half a page)
Objectives (about half a page - including
clarification of the beneficiaries)
Intended process (about three or four
pages)
Describe the context briefly, giving
relevant figures
Explain how you identified the
problem or opportunity of particular
concern to you
State what qualifies your
organisation to address such issues
State the general and specific
objectives of the project
Summarise the intended process.
You can refer to the appendices for
more detail. If there is a gender-
specific element, highlight it. If there
are risks involved in the project,
mention briefly how you will address
them, and what degree of flexibility will
be needed from the donor side.
Discuss sustainability of the project
and/or impact.
Conclusions and
budgeting
State briefly what you are requesting from
the agency and why. Include a brief budget
summary.
The detailed budget should be in the
appendices. Here just give main
budget items and totals over the whole
project period. This is also a good
place to summarise your financing plan
for the project e.g. who else are you
asking for money from?
Appendices Detailed technical description of project,
methods, timetable, detailed budget, annual
report, audited financial statements, and so
on.
This is where you can put detail
without making the body of the
proposal too long. If you plan using
LFA, this is where you would put the
matrix. (See Glossary of Terms and
the toolkit on Overview of Planning.)
Bibliography
/references
List any references you have used, in the
order in which you mention them in the text.
Mostly list sources which the donor will
recognise as credible e.g. United
Nations Development Programme
documents.