Planning for Sustainable Action Projects inspired by the Earth Charter

Definition of a Project A project is a combination of inputs, managed in a certain way, to achieve one or more desired outputs, and ultimately one or more desired impacts.

Programs and Projects A program consists of several projects A project is more specific than a program A project has one or more objectives A project promises outputs within a given time

Donor Questions on First Looking at a Project What is new about this project? As a result of this project, who will be better off and in what way?

Selecting a Topic with Right Balance of Risk and Returns Donors are looking for projects that have low risks and high potential returns /impacts When considering a new project, estimate the size of the risk and of the potential returns. Reject topics that bear high risks with low returns

Topics that Attract Donor Support will: be sufficiently important to be worth doing be useful, and seen as priority by project beneficiaries be “manageable” i.e. have a reasonable chance of achieving results within a limited amount of time, with a reasonable quantity of available inputs show the right balance of risk and returns attract partners that have a comparative advantage to carry out the project

Writing to Inform – Writing to Persuade Write your project proposal… to convey information to persuade your reader to do something write it clearly and logically write with urgency and passion Appeal to the self-interest of your readers (= donor) → This means you need to know as much as you can about them! What are their priorities etc? You can find out these things from by researching donor sites.

Tips on Writing with Passion Use strong words like: urgent, vital, essential, new Avoid vague words like: possibly, under certain circumstances, ceteris paribus Use short and sharp sentences to push your message along Use arresting words or phrases Use the active voice as much as possible Put statements in a positive form Use definite, specific, and concrete language

Characteristics of Project Objectives Correspond to a core problem Achieve the objective to overcome the problem Contribute to the achievement of development goals

Core Problem - Objective Example: Core Problem:low maize yields Objective:increased maize yields Note: The objective is often a positive re-formulation of the core problem

How to prepare well-elaborated budgets for proposals Use a budget format that will be consistent for all proposals, except in those cases where the donor already has a prepared format Each budget position should have a foot note indicating the costs per unit Generally speaking, budgets should show figures that are rounded to the closest $000 The budget should be realistic Avoid calculating too low or too high Overheads are legitimate costs and must be included in all budgets Each budget should have a budget summary

Qualities of a well-elaborated budget A well elaborated budget should be clear, transparent and easy to read When looking at the budget anybody should be able to read and understand it without the necessity of your presence to explain it

Earth Charter – 1%CLUB Partnership 1%CLUB and Earth Charter partnership – read more through this link time---1CLUB-partnership/Page1.html link time---1CLUB-partnership/Page1.html Get funding for Earth Charter inspired projects Call for Earth Charter inspired Project Proposals here related-projects/Page1.htmlhere related-projects/Page1.html

Presentation is based on Professor Juergen Carl’s e-GLO 2 presentation.e-GLO 2 Read more about project planning and fundraising: Session 5: Planning for Sustainable Action Projects inspired by the Earth Charter Session 6: Fundraising for Sustainable Action Projects inspired by the Earth Charter