A Practical Guide for Civil Society Organisations in Lebanon towards Proposal Writing

This guide provides you with the tools needed to facilitate the proposal writing process and securing funds, by explaining the criteria upon which most donors base their decisions to provide funding, while taking into account the subtle differences between one donor and another. In the first section, we focus on defining the concept of funding grants, in addition to how to identify our funding needs, how to select funding partners for a said project, and how to target partners and persuade them of the proposed idea. In the second section, we present the phases needed to formulate a comprehensive proposal, and the main themes to tackle, the idea, objectives, and expected results formulation process, and finally how to develop financial budgets.

This guide seeks to help local CSOs answering the following questions: Does the organisation need funding? Is the required technical knowledge about transparent spending procedures available? To what extent is receiving this grant in agreement with the organisation’s values? How can we deal with differences between the values and objectives of the organisation and those of the donor? And, finally, how can we ensure the sustainability and continuity of work in the event of end or interruption of funding?