How to write a grant proposal that gets funded

A grant proposal is not a bid. In a tender you offer to deliver someone else’s defined scope at a price; in a grant application you ask a funder to back your plan to achieve their mission. That difference changes what you write and the order you write it in — and it is why organisations experienced at tendering often write weak grant applications.

1. Read the call properly before writing anything

Funders publish their priorities, eligibility rules and scoring criteria, and reviewers score against exactly those. Before drafting, extract:

• Eligibility — organisation type, country, registration age, audited accounts, co-funding requirement.
• Thematic fit — the outcomes the funder names, in the funder’s own words.
• Scoring criteria and weights — if published, they are your section headings.
• Budget ceiling and eligible costs — especially whether overheads and staff time qualify.

If you are not eligible, stop. Ineligibility is screened before any reviewer reads your idea, and there is no partial credit.

2. Lead with the problem, evidenced

Reviewers see many applications describing an organisation. The strong ones describe a problem: who is affected, how many, where, and what the evidence is. Prefer data about your specific geography over national statistics, then state what changes if the grant is made — concretely, in numbers.

3. Make the logic explicit

Most funders expect a logframe or theory of change. Reduced to its core it is a chain the reviewer must follow without you present:

1. Inputs — what the money buys.
2. Activities — what you do with it.
3. Outputs — what those activities directly produce (people trained, clinics equipped).
4. Outcomes — the change in behaviour or condition that follows.
5. Impact — the longer-term effect the funder cares about.

The frequent failure is a missing link between outputs and outcomes — 500 people trained does not by itself raise incomes, and a reviewer will notice the leap. State the assumption that connects them, and how you will know if it does not hold.

4. Build a budget that defends itself

• Every line traceable to an activity in the workplan.
• Show the unit basis — 12 workshops × 30 participants × cost per participant, not a lump sum.
• Check eligibility: many funders cap or exclude overheads, capital purchases or salaries.
• If co-funding is required, evidence it. “To be confirmed” reads as “not secured”.
• Do not pad. One inflated line invites scrutiny of every other line.

5. Answer what reviewers are actually asking

Beyond the merits of the idea, most rubrics test four things: can this organisation deliver (track record, systems, audited accounts); is the plan realistic (timeline, staffing, assumptions); is it good value (cost per beneficiary against comparable work); and will it last (what happens when the grant ends). Sustainability is the one applicants most often leave as an afterthought, and it is frequently weighted.

6. Monitoring and evaluation

Say how you will measure each outcome, with a baseline, a target and a data source. A funder reads this as a proxy for how you will manage the money. Vague indicators (“improved awareness”) signal that you will not be able to report against them either.

Common reasons good applications fail

• Writing about the organisation instead of the problem. The funder is buying change, not a profile.
• Ignoring the stated criteria. If the call weights innovation at 25%, one paragraph on it is a scoring choice you have made.
• Budget and narrative disagreeing. An activity in the text with no line in the budget suggests neither was checked.
• Over-claiming. Promising national impact from a district-level grant reads as inexperience.
• Late submission. Grant deadlines are hard, and portals queue at the end.

Where to find open calls

Funding opportunities are listed separately from tenders on FreeTender — see grants and funding opportunities for open calls from foundations, development agencies and government schemes, or browse by funder if you already know whose priorities you fit.