1. BACKGROUND ANALYSIS

Make sure you thoroughly analysed:

• Problem and its context: scope, frequency, impact

• Causes & effects

• Potential synergies

• Justification: why you selected this problem, why you are going to work in this environment, why you have decided to work with these partners/people, why it is the best moment to do it?

You may also use:

• references to strategic documents, international & national: reports, white & green papers, development plans

• quotations from publications, surveys

• best practices & inspirations

2. ORGANIZATION DESCRIPTION

While preparing your organization description, don’t forget about explaining:

• Who you are? What are your roots/your mandate to act?

• What is the organizational structure, scope & scale of your work (number of employees, sources of funding)

• How big is your track records (level of expertise, know-how, successes)

• What are the most important target groups you have been working with & long-term impact?

• How broad is your net of contacts?

3. QUALITY OF PARTNERSHIP/CONSORTIUM OF PARTNERS

If you want to convince the experts about the good potential for cooperation in the consortium, please concentrate on the following facts:

• How did you find your partners and fall in love (due to community of values, priorities or common aim, different resources)?

• What was the process of idea elaboration & preparation (contacts, participation of all partners)?

• Will you really be able to prolong the project independently? Thanks to what?

4. MANAGEMENT

Good management is a one of the crucial elements both for successful application and smooth implementation of project. When you are drafting this part, please remember about:

• People in charge, their functions and mutual relations and hierarchy with regard to decision making process

• Communication and coordination in team: tools, frequency of meetings

• Planning & implementation settlements in terms of tasks & responsibilities division

• Legal & financial procedures: cashflow and required documents

• Monitoring: checking the consistency with the application form, budget and timetable

5. DISSEMINATION

The results of project and its impact should be properly and efficiently presented to the world. Dissemination part, including the element of promotion and (quite often) some elements of sustainability should encompass:

• Purpose of dissemination and targeted audience

• Analysis of target groups/stakeholders/audiences (behaviour, habits, tastes, skills, prestige)

• Selection of promotion channels; tools and actions desired for each selected audience

• Consistent message both at visual and idea level

• Potential of project results multiplication

6. IMPLEMENTATION

After a long and difficult road we finally get to the point where we could describe what we actually want to do in the project. Pay attention to clearly present two approaches

Methodology description:what kind of strategy you have chosen and why?

And its relation to stakeholders roles (who is involved and why?)

• Specific context, assumptions and risks included

• Resources needed (human, technical)

Activities description:

• What will be done (forms of events/activities) and their content?

• How and by whom? (organizers, experts)

• Who will attend and be directly/indirectly involved?

• Where will it take place?

• What is the time period or preparation/organization/sum-up/evaluation of events?

SOME HINTS ABOUT THE BUDGET & TIMETABLES:

1. Always check in the particular proposal guidelines:

• what costs are eligible and what is the period of funding (starting-ending date)

• are any limits for particular chapter (e.g. for management, promotion etc.)

• what is the budget flexibility (what is the percentage of costs you can move from one chapter to another without asking for permission the relevant agency/call operator)

• what kind of details you need to provide (very often the budget credibility is estimated on the basis of given details and the level of expenditures)

2. Try to estimate realistically the workload of people assuring the quality of project in the following categories:

• Managers

• Other specialists

• Secretaries

• Accountants

• Lawyers

• Auditors

• IT maintenance

• PR managers

3. Check the average rates on the market in reference to the above mentioned categories. Very often you will be asked to provide a justification for them (relation: value for money).

4. Even if you know a good cheap accommodation/travel option, always have some backup for these kind of costs. You may negotiate some fees with the experts, but flight tickets will be unlikely to cost less.

5. It’s good to secure 2-3 months of project for preparation only:

• if you don’t have a good experienced team - you will be able to find and pick the most reliable people and enable them to get used to each other

• if your project is quite big and needs a special procedure (e.g. official tender) in case of subcontractors/services procedure – you will be able to plan it carefully and double check whether everything works well

• If you are working with some international partners – you will be able to sign the contract specifying your mutual duties and organize a kick-off meeting where you discuss all the legal differences and potential obstacles in terms of project realization

6. It’s equally important to plan 2-3 months for the project summary:

• You will be able to draw the conclusions and present them to the wider audience (your project final evaluation will be higher)

• You will be able to go through all the documents again and check whether everything is in order. If there are some corrections needed, it’ll be simply too late to do it after the official end of project.