Securing funding from international donors such as UNDP, IOM, and UNICEF is a vital part of the growth and impact of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), humanitarian actors, and development consultancies. Yet, despite thousands of calls for proposals being published each year, not every organization is successful. The competition is fierce, the technical requirements are complex, and donor expectations continue to evolve.
While every donor has its own procedures, templates, and thematic preferences, there are nevertheless core elements that distinguish winning proposals across the board. This guide highlights six of these drawn from experience, evaluation reports, and real-world examples. We also show how to leverage DevelopmentAid’s tools and databases to gather intelligence, plan budgets, and improve your competitive edge.
1. Understand the donor and align with their priorities
A common mistake in the preparation of funding proposals is to treat them like universal templates. Winning proposals are those that are tailored, not recycled. They reflect a clear understanding of who the donor is, what they’ve funded before, and what kind of change they want to effect.
What to do:
- Study the donor’s mission statement, strategic frameworks, and annual reports.
- Carefully analyze the call for proposals and comprehend the explicit and implicit priorities.
- Highlight how your project can contribute to their agenda – be it climate resilience, local governance, gender equality, or inclusive education.
Use DevelopmentAid:
DevelopmentAid has a robust searchable database of awarded grants and tenders. For example, if you’re applying to UNICEF for a child protection project in East Africa, you can:
- Search for similar past awards in the region
- Identify the types of partners previously funded
- Examine what kinds of approaches and budgets were successful
This insight helps to ensure your proposal aligns with the donor’s real-world funding behavior, not just their strategic language.
2. Define a clear problem statement and needs assessment (for grant proposals)
Donors fund solutions to problems – but only if those problems are clearly defined, evidence-based, and relevant to their mission. A vague or overly general problem statement weakens your case, even if the rest of the proposal is technically strong.
What to do:
- Use local data, surveys, and situational assessments to paint a concise picture of the issue.
- Provide specificity: What’s the scope? Who is affected? What are the consequences?
- Connect the problem directly to the donor’s own interests (e.g., SDGs, humanitarian priorities, child rights).
Example:
Instead of stating:
“Children in Region X lack access to education,”
Say:
“In Region X, 43% of girls aged 10-14 are not enrolled in school due to unsafe routes, early marriage, and a lack of female teachers – issues identified in both national reports and UNICEF’s 2022 assessment.”
This makes the problem tangible, urgent, and strategically aligned.
Pro Tip:
When possible, include testimonials or community voices – brief quotes or field evidence that reinforce the human reality of the problem.
Use DevelopmentAid:
DevelopmentAid has an impressive database of editorials, reports, and world news focused on the development sector. Use the “Advanced Search” feature to navigate the news repository and find the data needed for your assessment.
3. Describe a compelling and feasible solution
This is the heart of your proposal. Donors want to see not only that you understand the problem but that you have a well-thought-out plan to address it. Your project description must balance vision with feasibility.
What to do:
- Outline a concise but structured solution featuring objectives, key activities, timelines, and outputs.
- Ensure your approach reflects local ownership and adapts to the sociocultural and political context.
- Emphasize what makes your project unique – either in innovation, cost-efficiency, local partnership, or sustainability.
Here is a real winning proposal example:
In a proposal to IOM to support displaced populations, a successful applicant emphasized:
- Collaboration with local civil society and health authorities for last-mile delivery, echoing IOM’s mobile clinic work in Puntland
- The use of mobile health units to reach remote settlements, reflecting IOM’s active deployment of clinics in displacement settings
- Integration with national digital health strategies, drawing inspiration from the Re‑Health e‑PHR project that aligned with Ministry of Health reforms across several EU countries
This showed not only feasibility but strategic alignment and added value.
Use DevelopmentAid:
You can research previously funded solutions by the same donor and avoid duplicating failed approaches. If the donor recently funded a digital solution in one context, referencing lessons from that can boost credibility and show awareness.
4. Demonstrate measurable impact and sustainability
Donors are increasingly results-driven. This means it is not enough to simply deliver a list of activities – your proposal must demonstrate how success will be measured, and what long-term value the project will bring, especially once donor funding ends.
What to do:
- Set clear indicators (quantitative and qualitative) aligned with the project goals.
- Include a Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) plan – how will data be collected, analyzed, and used for learning?
- Outline baseline assessment plans (if needed) and explain how data will support adaptive management.
- Address sustainability: What will continue once funding ends? Will communities, governments, or other actors carry it forward?
Example indicators:
- Number of children enrolled in school (baseline vs. endline)
- Increased % of women accessing gender-based violence services
- Number of health facilities upgraded to WHO standards
Pro Tip:
Be realistic. Overpromising on impact, especially without a clear pathway or resources, undermines your credibility.
Use DevelopmentAid:
Remember – on DevelopmentAid.org you can access an extensive knowledge database of webinars, podcasts, articles and reports on a myriad of development-related topics. When it comes to monitoring, you can review a recent webinar on MEL or read an article on monitoring and evaluation.
5. Present a realistic budget and show organizational capacity
A well-tailored budget tells a story. It’s not just about numbers – it reflects how well you understand costs, operations, and donor expectations. A well-structured budget signals transparency, professionalism, and value-for-money.
What to do:
- Break down your costs into activity-based line items (staff, transport, training, materials, etc.).
- Justify major expenses – why is each item necessary?
- Indicate cost-sharing or in-kind contributions, if applicable.
- Be honest. Donors can identify inflated costs instantly.
Use DevelopmentAid’s Salary Trends:
One of the most valuable features is the Salary Trends Tool, which allows you to:
- Benchmark daily rates for experts by region, sector, and experience level.
- Avoid over- or under-pricing your personnel budget.
- Ensure you align with market norms and donor expectations, especially when working with international vs. national staff.
Organizational capacity:
In addition to your budget, you must demonstrate your ability to deliver:
- Highlight past projects with a similar scope or sector.
- Emphasize key staff or advisors with relevant expertise.
- Mention operational presence, partnerships, or institutional relationships in the target country.
- For larger multi-partner bids, clearly define the roles, lead responsibilities, and shared reporting structures to show cohesion and risk-sharing.
6. Show you understand the operating context
One element often overlooked in proposals – but highly valued by donors – is a clear grasp of the political, cultural, and operational realities on the ground.
A technically excellent project proposal can still fail if it misreads the local environment. In contrast, donors trust organizations that demonstrate contextual intelligence – not just in problem analysis, but in project design and implementation strategy.
What to include:
- Reference recent policy developments, humanitarian updates, or national strategies relevant to your proposal.
- Mention potential operational risks (e.g., access restrictions, local politics, workforce challenges) and how you’ll mitigate them.
- Highlight partnerships with local actors, authorities, or civil society that strengthen relevance and legitimacy.
Example:
In a health system strengthening proposal to UNDP in fragile settings, one NGO integrated the country’s decentralization reform timeline and built in flexibility to adjust technical support as subnational authorities assumed more control. This awareness helped to secure the award.
Expert insight:
Context is not a ‘background filler’ – it’s strategic positioning. Donors want to know:
“Can you actually operate here – and succeed?”
Additional tips for strong proposals
- Follow every single instruction in the call for proposals – formatting, length, attachments, and naming conventions matter.
- Avoid jargon: Write for a technically competent but possibly time-constrained reader.
- Engage early if allowed: Reach out to donor focal points with clarifying questions or to attend pre-submission webinars.
- Proofread and peer-review your submission to catch inconsistencies and typos.
- Plan your writing process to avoid last-minute submissions that can compromise quality.
Conclusion: Strategy – not just structure – wins proposals
Winning proposals are not accidents or lucky starts. They are the product of thoughtful research, deliberate planning, strategic alignment, and a deep understanding of both the donor’s vision and the operating context, all combined with the rational use of the available instruments.
In an increasingly competitive funding environment, donors are not just looking for technically sound projects – they are investing in partners who demonstrate credibility, insight, and the capacity to deliver real impact.
Tools like the features available on the DevelopmentAid platform provide a vital edge – allowing you to analyze past awards, benchmark expert salaries, and understand donor patterns across sectors and regions. Leveraging this data can help to transform your proposals from being simply compliant to being truly compelling.
Whether you’re a grassroots NGO applying for a US$10,000 grant or a consultancy leading a US$5 million technical assistance bid, success depends on six critical elements: alignment, clarity, feasibility, impact, capacity and contextual understanding.
Interested in improving your proposal development process?
Become a member and explore DevelopmentAid’s funding database and Salary Trends tool to get started with data-informed, donor-aligned bidding.
