8 Essential Promotional Documents for NGO Fundraising
Md. Humayun Kabir
NGOs need to develop a number of promotional documents for fundraising. Donor’s communication package comprises many documents that NGO needs to develop. The list of essential documents that should be included in the communication package are:
1. Organizational Profile
An organizational profile is a framework for understanding the internal and external factors that shape the operating environment of an organization.
An organizational profile may cover the following:
- Foundation History
- Legal status
- Vision
- Mission
- Values
- Principles
- An organizational governance structure with key functions and authority at all levels
- Strengths/specialization/Nish area
- Recognition/Affiliation
- Experiences and significant achievements.
- A brief on strategic plan and priorities
- Summary of programs and projects for each thematic areas ( Past and present)
- Geographical and population Coverage
- Partnership in the past and present
- Networks and memberships
- Staff Strengths and training
- Annual turnover for last 3 Years
- List of Policy and strategic Documents
- Research and Publications, if any
- Summary of office IT and automation
Once the generic profile is developed, it needs to be customized corresponding to donor expectations/compliance and program priorities so that the donor’s expectation to learn about your NGO can be well explained and utilized for marketing.
2. Annual Report
An annual report contains a year-end summary of your organization’s program and financial status. As an NGO, this will help you assess your organization’s financial decisions and expenses in the past year for you to properly allocate a designated budget for the following year.
An annual report may cover the following:
- Message From Chair
- Statement from CEO or Executive Director
- Mission and Vision.
- Key Program Activities and Accomplishments
- Stories of Change
- Financial Statements.
- Lesson Learnt
- Future Goals/Way Forward
3. Strategic Plan
The strategic plan is the key instrument to represent on program and institutional development strategy following its vision and mission and goal for certain period of time like three to five years.
A strategic plan may cover the following:
- Contextual analysis (external: Global and national;
- Contextual analysis internal: organization’s program, priorities and management.
- Strategic review of the past: Program, finance and management of NGO.
- Nish area of the organization
- Setting strategic objectives where key areas will be considered that include
- institutional development,
- program strategies for various thematic areas,
- financing strategies for different programs
- Sustainability at a) institutional level, b) program level and c) financing level
4. Project Summary
NGO must have completed a number of projects under different thematic areas like health, education, livelihood, environment, rights and empowerment, etc. Based on past experience as well as current projects, each NGO needs to prepare a matrix using the following information for ready reference for donors’ communication and presentation.
- Name of Project
- Key activities
- Location
- Duration/ Years
- Donor
- Budget
5. Project concept paper
NGOs need to develop/prepare concept papers in advance in consideration of their past experiences, lessons learned, identified program priorities in the country, donors’ priorities in the country, innovative ideas, and lessons learned. Each concept paper may need to be customized following its thematic nature and donor guideline.
A project concept paper may cover the following:
- Specific Issues with cause analysis in brief.
- Relevance/Rationales of the issues to your target areas/ target people
- Position and priorities of the issue in national context.
- Setting an overall objective of the proposed project specifying its thematic areas
- Identified key interventions for the project.
- Expected results to be achieved by end of the project
- Resource Implications like financial resource (an estimated lump sum figure) and other resource like human resources, logistic resources, infrastructure facilities, etc.
- Potentials for a consortium approach
- Own contribution in resources
6. Project Proposal
Writing a project proposal is an art of communication and a comprehensive presentation for seeking donors’ funds from any donor/development agency.
A project proposal may cover the following:
Technical
- Executive Summary
- Background and Justification
- Project relevance and rationales
- Situation/Problem analysis
- Issues, causes and effect
- Beneficiaries and project areas
- Log-frame/Theory of change
- Project goal, objectives, activities,
- Expected impact, outcomes, outputs with indicators
- Activities under each output and outcomes
- Approach, methodology, other implementation strategy and priorities.
- Stakeholders and roles
- Resource implications
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Documentation and Reporting
- Risk and mitigation
- Sustainability
- Budget (annex) (based on cost activities)
Financial
- Salary and benefits
- Consultant fees
- Transport and travel cost
- Maintenance cost
- Utility charges
- Training/workshop/seminar
- Meeting/consultation/
- Input support cost
- Equipment cost
- Stationary and supplies
- Printing
- Communication cost
7. Research/Study Paper
Research/ Study provides a clear understanding of the current situation, identifies gaps, and provides valuable insights that guide the development of appropriate interventions and the establishment of indicators to track progress towards achieving desired outcomes.
A research/study paper may cover the following:
- Executive summary
- Introduction
- Background
- Objectives and methodology
- Key findings (quantitative & qualitative)
- Observations and Findings (Detailed Narrative)
- Identified benchmarks by outcomes, outputs and indicators and compare with District and National data.
- Programming Opportunities/recommendation
- Limitations of the survey
- Recommendation
- Conclusion
8. Project Evaluation Report
A project evaluation is the study conducted after the end of that project. The results of the project evaluation are measured against some comparative data – ideally the baseline survey – often as part of an impact evaluation.
A project evaluation report may cover the following:
- Executive summary
- Introduction
- Project description
- Objectives of evaluation
- Methodology
- Relevance
- Impact
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Sustainability
- Lessons learned
- Recommendations
- Conclusions
The article was written by Md. Humayun Kabir, an Independent Consultant, and Director, Creative Services Limited. Email: humayun@cslbd71.com