MODULE 7

Producing powerful proposals

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, I aim to:

  • Distinguish between a report and a proposal

  • Know about different ways of structuring a proposal

  • Carefully consider the purpose of proposals and the audience for whom they are written

  • Consider effective stylistic techniques for writing a proposal

  • Be aware of persuasive techniques I can employ in writing a proposal

  • Analyse an example of a proposal

  • Write my own example of a proposal

Business Proposals

Definition

A business proposal is a written document that offers a particular product or service to a potential buyer or client.

How a proposal differs from a report
  • Proposals have a similar structure to a report, except proposals usually include a covering letter in addition to the cover, contents page, foreword, executive summary, main body, glossary and appendices (if necessary) of a report.
  • The covering letter will, for example, commend the team and state the key message of the proposal.
  • The executive summary will deal with the client’s needs and the company’s response to those needs. It also spells out how the clients will benefit from the proposal.
Proposals may include sections such as
  • needs and responses.
  • your questions.
  • a brief biography of the main people (between 3-6) in the team so that the clients know who will be dealing with issues.
  • They often outline specifically what you are going to do, or what action you intend to take.
  • The style and tone of the proposal will be similar to that of a report, but technical terms will probably be replaced by simple explanations.
  • Remember that the tone is the way something sounds; the impression you get of the person who wrote the proposal; how that makes you feel about them and their opinions. When a client has finished reading a proposal, he or she should feel inspired to take action.
Before you write your business proposal
  • do your research.
  • put yourself in the client’s shoes.
  • highlight your talents, experience and qualifications.
Things to consider when writing your proposal
  • Instead of just using a normal heading, use a short, descriptive heading plus a theme statement. The theme statement should be the conclusion that you want the customer to reach after reading the section.
  • Start your proposal with a clear purpose.
  • Organise your points under sub-headings.
  • Be well-organised.
  • Be persuasive.
  • Keep your proposal short.
  • Use an appendix for supporting documentation.
Summary of how to write an effective business proposal
  • Have a clear sense of how the reader will use the proposal.
  • Identify realistic problems relevant to your reader’s needs.
  • Effectively convey problems and the need for a solution.
  • Use headings, white space, lists and professional looking font to make my proposal visually attractive and reader-friendly.
  • Incorporate well-researched facts and concrete details to support the problem.
  • Persuasively emphasise benefits of solving the problem according to the proposal.
  • Ensure that your language throughout incorporates goodwill.
  • Offer solutions that can be realistically implemented.
  • Keep your language clear and concise. Check for mechanical and other errors.
  • State how and why the proposal will work (the best choice).
  • Conclude your proposal with a summary of main benefits to readers and a call to action.
Some important points about business proposals
  • In your proposal, you should be able to answer all the client’s questions.
  • You should clearly articulate your story and message, trying to reflect what matters most to the customer.
  • It is also important to communicate to the client how you plan to implement your strategies.
  • A successful business proposal should describe the client’s needs in a plain and simple manner (the problem statement).
  • It should also offer a proposed solution.
  • You need to deal with the proposed solution in as much detail as you can; address every need you have discovered during your research.

An example of a proposed solution follows:

The solution that is recommended for Puffin Media Inc. is to deploy their company on all of the major social media channels; however, there is a major difference in creating social media platforms versus creating a brand you can promote on those platforms.

A marketing campaign must be created using these media channels and creating immediate engagement with your audience. Initially, acquire some fans, followers, subscribers, and connections and invite them to join you in a particular discussion or attend a specific event.

The purpose of this is not only to promote Puffin Media Inc, but also to solicit feedback from the target audience.

An outline of the proposal

Outlines should be driven by the customer’s instructions. Your outline begins with the RFP (Request for a Proposal). Demonstrate that your offering is the best one for the customer.

Outlines usually require:
  • an executive summary
  • a statement of work or technical approach
  • a management plan
  • your qualifications
  • a staffing plan
  • contracts and pricing
Executive summary
  • This outlines what you will provide to the customer.
  • It shows the customer how he will benefit from your proposal.
  • You should introduce your company and team mates; and make your case for why the customer should view your proposal in a favourable light in comparison to other alternatives.
Statement of work or technical approach
  • This explains your approach to the customer, outlining your implementation or delivery schedule and the specifications for any products or services.
  • If there are products involved, include product descriptions.
Management Plan
  • Reassure the customer about how you will organise and supervise work.
  • Include a schedule of major milestones and allocations of resources.
Qualifications
  • Demonstrate your capability.
  • Highlight relevant prior experience.
  • Mention any references.
Staffing Plan
  • Mention who will be staffing the project.
  • Provide resumes of the key people.
Contracts and Pricing
Provide business and contractual terms.

Detailed guidelines on writing a funding proposal

  • Check to see if the agency you have in mind has any specifications for the Title Page (often they have a required format).
  • Usually the Title/Cover Page includes signatures of key people in your organization (Department Head, Supervisor, Contracts Officer, etc.).
  • If your proposal is built on collaborating with other groups/organisations, it is usually a good idea to include their names on the Title/Cover Page.
  • Your cover should look professional and neat. However, do not waste time using fancy report covers, expensive binding, or other procedures that may send the wrong message to the potential funding agency. (You are trying to impress the potential funding agency with how you really need funding, not the message that you do things rather expensively).
  • The title should be clear and unambiguous. Think of your title as a mini-abstract. A good title should paint a quick picture for the reader of the key idea(s) of your project. The words you use in your title should clearly reflect the focus of your proposal.
  • Try to use only a single sentence for your title. If the sentence is getting too long try removing some words.
  • When all else fails try using a two-part title with the parts separated by a colon (use only as a last resort!). Do not attempt to use the title as an abstract of your entire proposal.
Project Overview
  • Think of the Project Overview as an Executive Summary. Be specific and concise.
    The Project Overview should “paint a picture” of your proposal in the minds of your readers. It should establish the framework so that the rest of the proposal has a frame of reference.
  • Use the Project Overview to begin to show your knowledge of the organisation from which you are requesting funds. Key concerns of the funding organisation can be briefly identified in relation to your proposed project.
  • If you are collaborating with other organisations, make sure some of their interests are also highlighted in the Project Overview. This can assist in strengthening the collaboration by recognising them at the very beginning of your proposal. You would like the person who is reviewing your proposal to be positive about what you have written. The Project Overview will form a strong impression in the mind of the reviewer.
  • Try to be careful in your use of language. Minimise the use of:
    • jargon
    • trendy or “in” words
    • abbreviations
    • colloquial expressions
    • redundant phrases
    • confusing language
  • Position your project in relation to other efforts and show how your project:
    • will extend the work that has been previously done.
    • will avoid the mistakes and/or errors that have been previously made.
    • will serve to develop stronger collaboration between existing initiatives.
    • is unique since it does not follow the same path as previously followed.
  • Use the statement of the problem to show that your proposed project is definitely needed and should be funded.
  • It is essential to include a well documented statement of the need/problem that is the basis for your project. What are the pressing problems that you want to address? How do you know these problems are important? What other sources/programmes similarly support these needs as major needs?
  • Check to see that the potential funding agency is committed to the same needs/problems that your proposal addresses. Clearly indicate how the problems that will be addressed in your project will help the potential funding agency in fulfilling their own goals and objectives. As you write, keep the funding agency in your mind as a “cooperating partner” committed to the same concerns that you are.
  • Is there a special reason why you and/or your organisation are uniquely suited to conduct the project? (Geographic location, language expertise, prior involvements in this area, close relationship to the project clientele, etc.)
  • This is an excellent section to have the reader begin to understand that an ongoing approach to the problem is essential (assuming that you are proposing a project that is ongoing in nature) and that short term responses may have negligible effects. This can begin to establish a rationale for why your project needs external funding – it seeks to provide a long term response.
Goals and Objectives
  • Try to differentiate between your goals and your objectives – and include both.
  • Goals are the large statements of what you hope to accomplish but usually are not measurable. They create the setting for what you are proposing.
  • Objectives are operational, tell specific things you will be accomplishing in your project, and are measurable. Your objectives will form the basis for the activities of your project and will also serve as the basis for the evaluation of your project.
  • Try to ensure that there is considerable overlap between the goals and objectives for your proposal and the goals and objectives of the funding organisation. If there is not a strong overlap of goals and objectives then it might be best to identify a different funding organisation.
  • Present measurable objectives for your project. If you are dealing with “things”, it is easier for them to be measured than if you are dealing with abstract ideas. Your proposal is easier for a prospective funding organisation to understand (and the outcomes are much clearer) if you describe your objectives in measurable ways.
Clientele
  • Include specific information about the population or clientele that your project is targeting.
  • Exactly who are the clientele? Who is included in the clientele group?
  • In what ways have you already had contact with the clientele group?
  • Can you show that you have the support of the clientele group to move ahead with the project?
  • In what ways have members of the clientele group been involved in the preparation of the proposal?
  • What other agencies are involved with this clientele group (and have these other agencies been included in your proposed project)?

Be sure to clarify why it is important for the funding organisation to be concerned about your clientele. Your proposal should clearly indicate how assisting your clientele is in the best interests of the funding organisation.

Methods
  • There should be a clear link between the methods you describe in this section and the objectives you have previously defined.
  • Be explicit in your writing and state exactly how the methods you have chosen will fulfil your project’s objectives and help deal with the needs/problems on which your proposal is focused.
  • The prospective funding agency will be looking at your methods to see what it is that you are proposing that will be new, unique or innovative.
  • Do not forget to include the collaborative relationships your project will be developing with other co-operating groups.
  • A good way to show collaboration is in the methods that you will be using. How will the methods for your project encourage groups to join together in dealing with the issues/concerns your project addresses?
  • Your Methods section should clearly indicate how the methods that will be used will allow the outcomes of your project to have value for others beyond your project.
Staff/Administration
  • Use this section to describe the roles of the different people associated with your project and the importance of each of them.
  • Make sure that you clarify how each of the roles is essential to the success of the project.
  • Include the name, title, experience, and qualifications of your key people. Include other information if you feel it is important to the success of your project.
  • The descriptions of your personnel should let the funding agency know that you have excellent people who are committed to the project.
  • Potential funding agencies are bound to be impressed if you can show that you are strongly rooted in your community. Letters from local resources supporting the project (included in the Appendix) are an excellent addition to the proposal.
Personnel

Refer back to your Staff/Administration section and identify those people who will actually be paid from the grant – these are the ones to be identified in this section.

Include short descriptions of each of the people who will be involved in your project and supported by the funding. The descriptions should clarify in the mind of the potential funding agency that these people are ideally suited to conduct the project. Make sure you notify people who you identify in your Personnel section and receive their approval before you send in your proposal.

Facilities
  • Consider describing existing facilities that will be used for the project.
  • Mention every resource, such as, free access to classrooms at a local school, meeting space at a shopping mall or a project room in a local office building.
  • It can be helpful to indicate how much additional money the prospective funding agency would have to provide if these facilities were not donated.
Equipment/Supplies/Communication
  • Be careful to list the equipment that will be needed for your project. Funding sources are usually much more willing to provide funds for the support of personnel than they are to support the purchase of equipment (that may or may not directly benefit the funded project).
  • Where possible, do your research to anticipate what they may or may not fund.
Budget
  • Make your budget realistic.
  • Carefully think through exactly what you will need from the funding agency to carry out the project and establish your budget around this amount.
  • Do you need a large amount of funding at the beginning of the project or will your project be “phased up” over a period of time?
  • Sometimes it’s not very realistic to expect a new project to be able to be up and operating (and spending large amounts of money) during the first six months or year of operation.
  • Check with the agency to see if they have suggested/required budget categories that they want you to use.
  • If the potential funding agency doesn’t have any suggested/required budget categories, organise your budget around a set of meaningful categories that work for the project you are proposing.
Evaluation Plan
  • Your project needs to be measurable in some way.
  • State how you will decide whether or not your project has been successful, achieved its objectives, etc.
  • The Evaluation Plan will tell the prospective funding agency how you will show them at the end of the project that their investment in you was a good one. If you plan to use a survey or questionnaire to evaluate the success of your project you may want to include a draft of what you are considering for the questionnaire/survey in the Appendices.
  • Make direct reference to your objectives in your evaluation plan. This creates a strong sense of integration/consistency within your proposal. The reader of your proposal will now be hearing the same message repeated in different sections of your proposal and will be reassured that these values will be integrated into the project.
  • A good evaluation plan should include some sense of concern for what goes on following the conclusion of the funding period. How will the initiatives that have been started under the project be sustained? Will new opportunities have arisen that will be continued in the future? How will other co-operating agencies assist in continuing the project after the conclusion of the funding period?
Appendices

Appendices should be devoted to those aspects of your project that are of secondary interest to the reader.

Practical exercise

  • A simulated funding proposal has been provided for you to view and download below.
  • Do a SWOT analysis of this document. In other words, analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the document.
  • In the light of the skills you have learnt about in this manual, how good are the writing skills of the person who put together the proposal?
A complete example of a proposal for funding
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