A project plan is going to include the following aspects:
1. Cover page
This is an easy part to overlook. There are many organizations that believe content is more important than form. In fact, the form can be a better representation of the content. In addition, the project plan is also a very important window to enable funding agencies to understand and recognize us, the performance of professional and rigorous, is absolutely can get extra points.
The cover page can simply contain the name of the project and the date, or it can include the following information: project name; applying (executing) organization; mailing address; telephone, fax, E-mail; contact (responsible) person;
Bank account, lawyer, auditor, etc. can also be listed on the cover page.
Also, it is a good idea to include a simple cover letter on the front if you are raising money from an organization. Since a project plan can be submitted to more than one funding agency, this requires a personalized cover letter that begins with "Someone at an agency" to show that you value and respect that agency.
2. Project Summary (General)
This is the most important part, and it's the first part read by the reader. It is important to realize that the Foundation's project managers receive a large number of requests every day, and they may not have enough time to 'read' all the project proposals. Therefore, the project 'summary' section will be the deciding factor in the outcome of the 'initial selection'; in the summary section, bring together all the information that you think is important. The summary should generally include: background information about the organization, its mission and purpose; the problem the project will address and how it will address it; the capabilities and past successes of the project applicant; and so on.
Special note: Although the project summary section comes in the first half of the proposal, it is actually written after all the proposals have been written.
3. Project Background, Problems and Needs
In this section, the problems and why you are designing the project to solve them need to be described in detail. To fully explain the severity and urgency of the problem, it is best to provide some data, so that not only can fully explain the problem, but also show that you understand the project. In addition, you can also use some real and typical cases in order to emotionally move the readers and then cause them to ****. It is important to explain the cause of the project, the logical cause and effect relationship, the beneficiary group and its connection with other social issues.
Generally, this section includes the following key information:
* Scope of the project (issues and events, beneficiaries);
* Macro-social context that led to the project;
* Rationale and justification for the project;
* Other long term and strategic significance;
4. Objectives and Outputs
This section is a good way to convince the funding agency that the project is a good one.
After convincing the funding agency that a "problem" exists, clearly state your solution. Inter-agency collaboration is encouraged. If you have other institutional partners, make that clear.
In this section you will describe in detail your project plan, the overall goals of the project, the milestones and tasks, and the criteria for evaluating each goal. The overall goal is a long-term, macro, conceptual, and more abstract description. From the overall goal can be broken down into a series of specific, measurable, achievable milestones with clear time markers. For example, "reduce illiteracy" is the overall goal, and "by October 2005, enable 200 rural women to reach a literacy level of 1,000 words" is a specific goal. The objectives must be stated very clearly. The most important thing is to set realistic goals. Don't promise what you can't deliver. Keep in mind that what funders want to see in the PCR is that the project actually achieved these stated goals.
5. Beneficiary Groups
In this section, you'll want to give a more detailed description of the project's beneficiary groups. If necessary, you can also categorize the benefit groups into direct and indirect benefit groups. For example, the direct beneficiary group of the capacity building project of the NPO Information and Consultation Center is the domestic NGOs and NGO practitioners, but the indirect beneficiary group is the clients of the NGOs. This is because through capacity building, the service capacity and efficiency of NGOs are improved, thus enabling them to provide better, more and better services to their service recipients. Another example is a service organization for the disabled, whose direct beneficiary group is the disabled group, and whose indirect beneficiary group is their families, or even the whole society.
Many funders want the beneficiaries to be involved in the program from start to finish. This is especially important during the design phase of a project. You can list the activities of the beneficiary groups in an annex, including the seminars organized for the beneficiary groups, the theme of the meeting, the time, the participants, etc.; at the same time, it also lets the funders know that your project is not only designed for the beneficiary groups, but also has their broad support and recognition.
6. Solutions and Implementation Methods
Through the above sections, you have clearly explained the problems and what you hope to accomplish. Now, it is necessary to describe how you are going to reach your goals, i.e., what methods and activities will be used to achieve them.
When describing the methodology, you need to make a point of explaining the superior characteristics of the method. You can also list other relevant methods and compare them, cite expert opinions and other failures or successes, and so on. In short, make it abundantly clear that the method you have chosen is the most scientific, effective and economical. At the same time, it is also important to show that there are certain risks and challenges for your organization in adopting this method.
In addition, mention all those conditions and resources that are needed in order to implement this solution, including: who? When? What kind of equipment to use? What kind of things to do? What kind of abilities and skills the people who do these things should have, etc. It is a good idea to attach a detailed description of the job requirements for the main jobs.
7, the project process plan (timetable)
In this section, to describe in detail the sequence of tasks and the starting time. This can be represented by a chart with time stamps, so that the reader can be told at a glance "what to do at what time", as well as the correlation and cause and effect relationship between the various activities.
8. Project Organizational Structure
In this section, describe what kind of executive team and management structure will be needed in order to achieve the above objectives. The executive team should include all project team members: volunteers, expert consultants, full-time staff, etc. Their work experience, professional background, and education related to this project are also very important. The experience and competence of the executive team often determines the success or failure of the project to a large extent, so this is a great concern for funders.
In addition, the management structure of the project should be clearly defined. It should clearly spell out the chief project manager, the financial manager and the managers of other sub-projects. If two or more agencies are working together on a project, the division of labor among the agencies should also be stated.
The workflow should also be very clear, to explain the sequence of work, logical relationship, etc..
9, costs, budgets and benefits
This section must provide more than just a cost of the budget table (of course, the budget table is also very important, you can put it in an annex), but to describe and analyze the data in the budget table, the total cost of the total cost and the cost of each sub-costs, including the cost of personnel, equipment, etc.. Among other things, the personnel funding category could include salaries, benefits, and costs of consulting experts; the non-personnel funding category could include travel, equipment and communication costs, etc. If a portion of the funding source is already available, that should also be noted. And, make it obvious what other financial support you will need in total.
While inputs are mentioned above, a very important part is the effectiveness of the outputs.
Often many NGOs do not talk about benefits in their project plans, mistakenly believing that NGO services are not about benefits. In fact, in addition to reasonable NGO fees, which are being promoted internationally, another major feature of NGO services is that they generate huge social benefits. Although it is difficult to quantify the social benefits, you can still try to find some data to analyze the social benefits, even if it is just an estimate.
For example, although a service organization for drug addicts provides free services to drug addicts without any income, it is still possible to estimate what aspects of social problems can be reduced by serving a drug addict, and you can estimate the costs related to medical expenses, unemployment, and crime of drug addicts. In short, the more clearly you can figure out the benefits that can be generated per unit cost of input, the more you can show the superiority of your methodology and the more you can get agreement from funders.
Also, the financial and auditing methods related to the project should be mentioned in this section.
10. Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring is a very important part of the project implementation process, and the monitoring organization and personnel (which can be the council, the funder or other third-party organizations), and the monitoring tasks should be written in the project plan. Related to this is the project team's self-assessment plan. The evaluation report during the project is more important than the evaluation at the end of the project. Evaluating at different stages of the project allows you to identify problems in time and address them as early as possible. At the same time, it will enable the funder to get the message that you have not only come up with a good plan, but that you can do a good job of realizing it. Please note that the method of implementation of the program is a very important factor for the funder to judge whether or not to grant funding.
There are two types of monitoring and evaluation available. One is to measure outcomes and the other is to analyze the process. Either or both may be applicable to your program. The approach you choose will depend on the nature and goals of the project. Regardless of the approach you choose, you will need to describe how you intend to collect evaluation information and analyze the data, and at what stages of the project you will conduct the phased evaluations. Evaluation activities and timing should also be included in the timeline of the project implementation plan.
Both the monitoring report and the evaluation report should include: the progress and completion of the project, a comparison of the original plan with the actual situation, and a projection of the likelihood of realizing the plan in the future.
In addition to the overall evaluation report, a number of sub-evaluation reports should be provided. For example, an audit report at the midpoint of the project, etc.
11. Annexes
Any document that you consider important or too long to be included in the main text can be included in the annexes, such as: introduction to the organization, annual reports, financial and audit reports, lists, data, graphs, etc.
You can also put those parts of the text that will disturb the reader or divert their interest from the subject in the annex, but do not forget to indicate in the text: For details, please see Annex ***.
In short, the purpose of the annex is to make the text compact and clean; at the same time, if the reader is interested in the details of certain issues, he can also find what he needs in the annex.
After you have written all the above sections, you can now come back to the very beginning of the project plan, the "Summary" section.
The outline must be highly summarized, concise, clear, and ideally about half a page long, but no longer than one page. When you first start writing a summary, you may think that any section is important and want to put it in the summary section. It's okay, if you have written a very long synopsis, you can shorten it bit by bit. Don't be afraid, what you leave at the end must be the most important. In addition, if you wish to submit your project plan to an international organization, it is difficult to translate a project plan all into English. At this point, an easy way to deal with it is to write only the summary and table of contents sections bilingually.
At this point, a complete and comprehensive project plan is complete. Although this is only the first step in your fundraising efforts, a good start will hopefully yield good results.
Good luck with your work!
Attachment: Example of a project proposal outline:
*Cover page: (date, project name, company name and contact information)
*Table of Contents
*Project Outline (General)
*Project Background: (Problems, status, data)
*Objectives and Outputs: (solutions to the "problem", division of the process)
*Objectives and outputs: (solutions to the "problem", division of the process, division of the process, division of the process) (solution to the "problem", division of the process, quantifiable milestones)
*Beneficiaries of the project: (target group, data, scope)
*Plan of project implementation: (inputs required, necessary internal and external resources, planned implementation procedures)
*Timetable: (start and end of each phase, each work)
*Project organization: (responsibilities, rights, workflow of the participants)
*Cost control: (cost budget, financial rules, audit system)
*Monitoring and evaluation: (how to detect problems and correct them in time)
*Attachments:
Documents
List
Budget list
Charts
References: