Development organizations may implement various strategies to diversify their financing sources and boost their competitiveness in a tight market, but they still won’t be able to gain funding for their projects if they cannot submit “winning” proposals.
Apart from convincing the donor that your organization is worth the risk and the project is worth financing, proposals define the project’s framework and the criteria against which its success or failure will be measured. As such, some smaller nonprofits hire professionals to write project proposals for them, as a way to boost their chances of winning donor money.
But it is not enough to have a well-written proposal with all the necessary sections: table of contents, executive summary, body or content, conclusion and budget summary, and appendices and list of references. These proposals can still be rejected for a number of reasons, ranging from factual and typographical errors to a lack of synergy between your project’s goals and objectives and the donor’s geographic or sectoral priorities.