I am often asked to review or assess organisations’ funding proposals, application forms and concept notes, and provide feedback. Having looked at over 50 proposals in the last six months, I find that I have flagged one point in almost every proposal: the problem, issue or crisis is not clearly explained.

Non-profits respond to problems in society and develop projects to address these (and hopefully do so as part of their clearly thought-out theories of change. Organisations don't exist to employ their founders or staff (or they should not!). They exist to serve people, animals or the environment. And they do so via their project activities, which will have been developed and tailored in response to an identified problem.

When donors have application forms (often due to the poor quality of the proposals they receive), outlining a problem should be simple. Many get this right, but an alarming number of people briefly outline a problem and dive straight into their solution. These two separate points – problem and solution – should not be conflated.

It is sad to see proposals and other documents developed by exemplary NPOs’ staff neglecting to explain the key reason for the project!

Although fundraising is recognised as an art rather than a science, proposals should follow a flow or outline of explaining to a potential donor (most of whom will never have heard of the organisation):

• This is us (a brief paragraph or two focused on information on the organisation as a whole and establishing credibility in the mind of the reader)
• This is the problem that we address
• In this manner
• And this is how we monitor and evaluate our work (paid for with donors’ money).

By skimming over the problem statement (as it’s formally called) in a proposal, readers (potential donors) are left wondering why a project is even necessary and can result in the request being declined. All corporate and trust donors globally receive more requests than they can fund. Understandably, when sifting through the deluge of concept notes, application forms and proposals that they constantly receive, they will reject those that don’t make a strong enough case for support by barely or superficially touching on the very crisis that their project addresses.

It is sad to see proposals and other documents developed by exemplary NPOs’ staff neglecting to explain the key reason for the project!

Image credit: Credit: Pix4Free.org.

This article is an excerpt from Fundraising from UK donors – a global guide to raising money in the UK , by Jill Ritchie, available from Papillon Press.