Proposal Writing, Grant Management, and Professional Report Writing – Online Course

Training Brief

The course trains organization staff in designing and delivering a consistently high level of expertly formulated, convincing, grant-winning proposals, subsequently managing the grant in complete conformity with donor guidelines while simultaneously increasing your ability to manage, analyze and document complex information into professional reports credible enough to not only get acted upon but equally support effective decision-making.

Overall Objective: To increase access to diverse sources of donor funds, improve grant management and reporting through the upgrade of key competencies in proposal writing, grant management, and report writing among key personnel in NGOs, INGOs, FBOs, State & National Governments, Universities, Colleges & Research Institutions and other professionals in the development sector.

This training has key outcomes and participants expand the following competencies:

• Demonstrate solid proficiency with expert masterly of content during grant start-up meetings, pre-solicitation preparations (concept notes/ presentations), proposal design, and other processes leading to grant award
• Improved skills to provide technical input in the design of convincing and innovative strategies for the production of high-quality grant-winning project proposals
• Skillfully respond to calls for proposals and demonstrate results!
• Design and facilitate institution-based “cascade project proposal development training” once back to work
• Staff working in large programs enhances skills to fashion strong, results-oriented bid teams and lead consortia inputs validation process professionally
• Improved ability to skillfully and professionally pitch for your project/strategy in donor/stakeholders’ forums related to the proposal
• Those in more senior roles improve their skills in evaluating proposal submissions
• Hone skills to provide valuable input in the development of proposal budgets for a range of donors- EU, GTZ, USAID, UN, DFID, GFATM, B & M, among others
• Improved grant management and reporting skills
• Reduce procrastination, and time wastage to design and deliver quality project reports on time
• Become an intentional and impactful writer of project reports
• Produce persuasive, convincing, actionable reports which support decision making

Course content 

• Proposal Development: Executive Summary, Organization Background, Problem Statement, Goal,
• Designing SMART objectives, Activities, Work plans, Outputs, Outcomes, Management,
• Monitoring and Evaluation, Risks Assumptions, Budgeting & Budget
• Designing Effective Fund-Raising Strategies & Online Fund Raising
• Donor/Stakeholder Meetings -Pitching for your Proposal Skillfully
• Skills for Evaluating Proposal Submissions
• Proposal Writing Training for country teams-How “cascade project proposal development training” works
• Overview of Grants Management Cycle
• Types of costs: Allowable & disallowed costs, Direct & Indirect costs, Cost Share/ Matching costs
• Grant Award Contract: Types and contents
• Award Review, Implementation, Donor Compliance
• Internal Controls & Grant Tracking Tools
• Office administration
• Procurement Procedures
• Programme/Activity Based Budgeting: Formulating of Activities, Determining cost drivers
• Financial Documentation in Grant Management
• Personnel &Staff Issues (ethics): Timesheets, Travel & per diem, Itinerary, Assets & Inventory Management
• Staff Motivation
• Contingencies, Partnerships & Consortia management, Co-Financing, Multi-Donor Funding, the
• Final Tranche, Grant Audit-Common pitfalls to avoid, Grant Close-Out Procedures
• Understanding Reports/Reporting- Principles of Professional Writing
• Data gathering and analysis for reports
• The Process of Writing ad delivering a professional report
• Developing Organization Reporting Strategies for Donor Relationships and Retention

Training Methodology

The 8 Week course, blends Live online sessions, Self-paced offline study, Practical, engaging, and job-related exercises, Competency assessment assignments with constant feedback, interactive- expert facilitated Q&A discussion sessions to reinforce learning, knowledge acquisition, and boost competency to facilitate change of perspectives, attitudes, and practices. This change will be observed in the workplace.