Teach you how to write a project plan properly
1. Cover page
This is the part that is easily overlooked. 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 proposal is also a very important window for the funding agency to understand and know us, and it is definitely a plus to show professionalism and rigor.
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; phone, fax, e-mail; contact (responsible) person;
You can also list the bank account, attorney, auditor, and other information on the cover page.
It is also 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 starts with ? Someone from an organization? to show that you value and respect the organization.
2. Project Summary (General)
This is the most important part, and the first part that readers will read and skim. Keep in mind that the Foundation's program managers receive a large number of application requests every day, and they may not have enough time to? to read? through all the project proposals. Therefore, the project? Outline section will be the most important factor in influencing the The preliminary selection will be the deciding factor in the outcome of the project. outcome; in the summary section, bring together all the information 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.
It is important to note that although the summary is 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, which not only fully explains the problem, but also shows your understanding of 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, beneficiary groups);
* Macro and social environment that led to the project;
* Rationale and reasons for proposing the project;
* Other long-term and strategic implications;
4, Objectives and Outputs
In convincing the funding agency? Problem of the existence of the problem, clearly state your solution. Inter-agency collaboration is encouraged'. If you have other institutional partners, make that clear too.
In this section you 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, 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, ? By October 2005, 200 rural women will be able to read 1,000 words? is a specific goal. The objectives must be stated very clearly. Most importantly, set realistic goals. Don't promise what you can't do. Keep in mind that what funders want to see in the project completion report 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 beneficiary groups into direct and indirect beneficiary groups. For example, the direct beneficiary group of the NPO Information and Consultation Center's capacity building project is domestic NGOs and NGO practitioners, but the indirect beneficiary group is the NGO's service recipients. 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 people with disabilities, whose direct beneficiaries are people with disabilities, and whose indirect beneficiaries are their families, or even society as a whole.
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 you organized for them, the topics, times, and participants; and let the funders know that your project is not only designed for the beneficiaries, but also has their support and recognition.
6. Solutions and Implementation Methods
With the above sections, you have clearly explained the problems and what you hope to accomplish. Now, it is necessary to describe how you will 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 describing the superior characteristics of the methodology. You can also list other relevant methods and compare them, cite expert opinion 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 the conditions and resources that will be needed to implement this solution, including: who? Who? When? What equipment to use? What kind of things to do? What kind of abilities and skills should the people who do these things have. It would be useful to attach a detailed description of the key job requirements.
7, the project process plan
In this section, to describe in detail the sequence of tasks and the start time. This can be represented by a chart with time stamps so that, at a glance, you can tell the reader ? what to do at what time ? , and the correlation and causation between the activities.
8. Project Organization
In this section, describe what kind of executive team and management structure is needed to achieve the above goals. 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 overall project leader, the financial leader, and the leaders of other sub-projects. If two or more organizations are working together on a project, the division of labor between the organizations should also be stated.
The workflow should also be very clear, to explain the sequence of work, logical relationship.
9, costs, budgets and benefits
This section must provide more than just a cost budget table (of course, the budget table is also very important, you can put it in an annex), but rather to describe and analyze the data in the budget table, the total cost of the total cost and the cost of various sub-costs, including the cost of personnel, equipment and so on. The personnel funding category can include salaries, benefits, and costs of consulting experts; the non-personnel funding category can include travel, equipment, and communication costs. If a portion of the funding source is already available, that should also be noted. And, make it obvious how much more financial support you need in total.
The above mentioned are the inputs, there is a very important part of the benefits of the outputs.
Too often, many NGOs don't talk about benefits in their program 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 for 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 approach, and the more you can get agreement from funders.
Also, the F&A methodology associated with 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-evaluation 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 will enable you to identify problems in time and solve 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 way the program is implemented is a very important factor for funders to judge whether to grant funding.
There are two types of monitoring and evaluation that can be used. One is to measure outcomes and the other is to analyze processes. 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 reality, and a projection of the likelihood of achieving 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 mid-point of the project, etc.