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The Cover Letter is the Sponsor’s perfect opportunity to capture the POWSAF’s attention. Unlike the rest of the Funding Proposal, the Cover Letter can be less formal and directly address the Trustees.

The key objective of the Cover Letter is to compel the Trustees to prioritize your proposal. Therefore the letter should seek to distinguish your Project Proposal from the others as much as possible.

Here are some dos and don’ts when it comes to cover letters:

This is essentially a brief synopsis of the entire Project Proposal.  It introduces the Sponsor, the need that will be addressed, how the Project will meet the need, and the funding request.

It should have sufficient detail and specifics; get to the point quickly and be pragmatic and factual.

So, here are some questions that a good proposal writer will answer in their executive summary:

1. What is your mission and history? What do you do?
2. What is your project’s name and who is it supposed to help?
3. What problem are you solving and why should it matter?
4. What is your end goal and how will you measure whether you achieved it?
5. How much money do you need and how do you plan to finance the project going forward?
6. Do you have other funding sources?

Now that you’ve set the stage for the entire proposal, you can start with the individual or business/organization sponsoring the Project. Share as much relevant information as you can about your history, mission, experience, business infrastructure, etc.

Here you include a biography of key staff, your business track record (success stories), company goals, and philosophy; essentially, highlight your expertise. Recommendations, letters of thanks, feedback from customers and the general public are must-have things to include within a funding proposal.

You will need to show that the individual or organization has the capacity and the ability to meet all deliverables from both an execution perspective and all legal, safety, and quality obligations. You may need to provide solvency statements to prove that you can meet your financial commitments to your staff and contractors.

One of the most critical parts of the Project Proposal structure is the problem statement. Also known as the “needs statement” or “statement of need,” this is the place where you explain why your school stakeholder group has a problem and how you can provide the solution.
You may need to do extensive research on the history of the underlying problem, previous solutions that were implemented and potentially failed, and explain why your solution will make a difference. The problem statement will heavily rely on quantitative data and display how your organization answers a need in a successful funding proposal.

Another important part of the funding proposal process is clearly stating your goals and objectives. It is likely that your proposal will not be successful if you do not articulate your goal and objectives. Write details about the desired outcome and how success will be measured. This section is key to providing information on the benefits that POWSAF, the school, community, government, or end user will see for their investment.

And although they sound similar, separate your Goals and Objectives. Think of Goals as broad statements that you will aim for in the long term and Objectives as more specific statements of intention with measurable outcomes within a specified time frame.

Here is an example of well-formulated goals and objectives.

Goal: Improve the literacy and overall expression ability of children from Prince of Wales School.

Objective: By the end of the 2023 school year, improve the results of BECCE by at least 20% compared to current results (55/100, on average).

Notice how the goal is more optimistic and abstract while the objective is more measurable and to the point.

Now that POWSAF knows your goals, it’s time to tell them how you plan on achieving them. Provide a detailed description of all parts of the Project. List the new hires and skills, additional facilities, transport, and support services you need to deliver the Project and achieve the defined measures for success.

Good project management discipline and methodologies with detailed requirements specified and individual tasks articulated (project schedule) will keep a good focus on tasks, deliverables and results.

This section covers process evaluation — how will you track your project’s progress? It also includes the timeframe needed for evaluation and who will do the evaluation including the specific skills or products required and the cost of the evaluation phase of the project.

This is one of the most important steps to writing this Project Proposal, as POWSAF will look for evaluations as they will need to know if the project they invested in is making a difference. Once again, solid project management discipline and methodologies will focus on evaluation tasks and results.

One of the most important Project Proposal topics is budgeting. This is the moment when you go into detail about exactly how you’ll be using the resources from an operational standpoint.

Provide full justification for all expenses, including a table of services and/or products that can be used to specify the nature and costs of the services clearly and accurately and/or products.

Remember that the project budget section is the real meat of your Project Proposal. Overcharging or having a high quote can lose your funding and even be seen as profiteering. Underquoting might win you the funding, but you may not deliver on your proposal, which could adversely impact your standing with POWSAF. Many Sponsors underquote in the hope of “hooking” in POWSAF and then looking for additional funding at a later stage. This is a dangerous game to play and could affect your individual or company’s reputation and ability to re-approach POWSAF.

POWSAF won’t like the idea of investing in a short-term project that has no perspective. They’ll be much more willing to recognize a long-term winner and reward a promising project that can run on a larger scale. That’s why you need to show how you can make this happen.

This section of your Project Proposal is for funding requirements beyond the project’s total cost of ownership, including ongoing maintenance, daily business, and operational support. This may require you to articulate the projected ongoing costs (if any) for at least five years. An accurate cost model needs to include all factors, including inflation, specialist skills, ongoing training, potential future growth, and decommissioning expenses when the project or the product reaches the end of its life cycle.