or major proposal.
Although the particular elements and the order of the elements in a formal
proposal may differ depending on the funding agency's preference, a full
proposal, such as you are preparing for the course may include:
- Front Matter
- Letter of Transmittal
- Title Page or Cover Sheet
- Abstract or Executive Summary
- Table of Contents and possibly List of Illustrations
- Conformance Checklist
- Body
- Introduction
- Statement of the Problem or Needs Statement
- Proposed Solution or Goal of Proposal
- Objectives
- Work Plan or Methodology
- Project Management Plans
- Evaluation
- Dissemination
- Budget and Budget Detail
- Qualifications (Organizational Capabilities, Key Personnel)
- Supplemental Material
- Bibliography
- Appendices - Additional Detail about any aspect of proposal
- Letters of Support
- Vitae (unless included as paragraph(s) in body of proposal)
Another way to characterize proposals is as either solicited or
unsolicited. For teaching convenience, we have focused on
developed unsolicited proposals in this class (although we flirted a bit
with funding sources during the second day of our beginning workshop). In
practice, however, much of
your future grant-writing may be undertaken in response to a Request for
Proposals (RFP), that is, a public call for proposals. RFPs specify the
need to be addressed and the problem to be solved, usually in general
terms. They specify who is eligible to submit a proposal, the form the
proposal should take (often the length), the due date, and usually the
scope (sometimes in dollar amounts, sometimes in person/years or other way
of suggesting a cost amount). They may also specify certain aspects of
the solution.
Solicited proposals have the advantage of being expected and desired but
the disadvantage of usually facing more competition than unsolicited ones.
The nature of the persuasive task will vary depending on whether the
proposal is solicited or unsolicited. If solicited, you may need to spend
more effort conveying to the funder that you and your organization have
the capability to solve the problem, that your approach can serve as a
model for others, that it is efficient and effective, but less effort on
convincing the funder that there is a need. In other words, you will put
more effort into methods, qualifications, and budget in a solicited
proposal, while in the unsolicited one, you will probably spend much more
effort in convincing the funder that the problem is real and urgent and
that it is in the funder's interest to support the request.
Yet another way to group proposals is whether they are internal
(that is, whether they remain within the writer's organization) or
external
(whether they are addressed to some outside agency). The tacit assumption
in this course
is that you are preparing your posposals for an external agency. In your
future proposal writing ventures, you will probably find that you will
produce as many proposals internally as you will externally.
For example, every time you request permission from a director, department
head, president or provost for funds to support a new service or
strengthen existing services, you will be making a proposal. The same
persuasive techniques we are discussing in this course are important for
internal proposal writing. Generally you will not need to describe your
organization or key personnel and you may not need to go into much detail
about your work plan and evaluation methods but you will, no doubt, have
to persuade the decision-maker(s) that:
- there is a need
- it is urgent
- (often)it is more urgent than other needs
- your
solution is both effective and efficient.
This means the budget for
internal proposals is
often scrutinized even more thoroughly than is true for external ones.
Another way to look at proposals is whether they are individual
proposals or team proposals. When one individual can undertake
the project and carry it out, then he/she often writes the grant proposal
with very little assistance. More frequently, however, the implementation
and
the after-results of a grant will involve and affect many people, in which
case, it is probably best to include representatives of these folks from
the outset in the grant-writing process.
When a project is complex and requires the skills of a
number
of specialists, most organizations assemble a proposal team,
with one member assigned coordination responsibilities.
It is probably good practice to plan at the beginning to involve other
people in the development of your future grant proposals, especially if
the grant is of any size.
