Are you tired of writing proposals that never get funded?

You spend days, sometimes weeks, researching, writing and revising. You submit before the deadline. Then the email arrives: “We regret to inform you that your application was unsuccessful.”

No feedback. No explanation. Just one question: what did I do wrong?

If you have felt that frustration, this guide was written for you.

The Winning Proposal Guide

A complete practical guide for African consultants, NGOs, researchers and development professionals who want to win grants, contracts and development funding.

It is built from frontline proposal practice in the African development sector, with Nigerian and African data, African examples, and the standards used by GIZ, UN agencies, the European Union, FCDO and the World Bank.

Who is this guide for?

NGO programme officers and grant writers
Independent consultants responding to RFPs, ToRs and calls for proposals
Resource mobilisation officers in civil society organisations
Researchers applying to development research funds
Training firms bidding for capacity development contracts
Government agencies seeking donor cofinancing
Social enterprises applying for grants and impact funding
Early career professionals who want to start the right way

What you will learn

How to decode a ToR, RFP or call for proposals and find every scoring signal in it
How to write a problem statement that makes evaluators feel the urgency
How to structure a methodology that scores 38 out of 40, not 18
How to build a budget evaluators trust, with a narrative for every line
How to write an executive summary that persuades on its own
How to write SMART objectives that are ambitious and measurable
How to apply the evaluation standards international donors use
How to map stakeholders and position your organisation as the logical choice
How to use stories so evaluators feel the human impact
How to handle negotiation, budget queries and scope changes after you submit
How to turn every rejection into lessons that win the next bid

What is inside

12 chapters covering:

The anatomy of a winning proposal
The five proposal types
Why proposals win and fail
Decoding the request
Stakeholder mapping
Executive summaries
Problem statements and objectives
Methodology and work plans
Budgets and narratives
Risk and sustainability
Storytelling and consortiums
The complete toolkit

What you get

The complete 12 chapter guide in PDF, readable on any device
50+ fill in the blank templates inside the guide
The Master Submission Checklist

Why this guide is different

Most proposal books are written for Western audiences, with Western examples and funders. This guide was written from inside the African development sector. It shows you what to write, how to write it and why it works, with templates you can use the same day.

Dev Pro