Guidelines on a Project Proposal

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So on the other post I was a bit tense on how to put on paper (or to that Microsoft Office Word document, for that matter) my idea for a radioshow. I used the guidelines that I wrote on that post and luckily, after some 5-6 hours of sitting, thinking, writing and rewriting, I finally finished it. It’s not that I developed a nice and new method of writing a project proposal, but I really think that someone might find it useful to follow this short guideline here for writing a project proposal. Also, while writing it, I understood how important is to actually write it down in details in order to be seriously taken into consideration for what you want to do, and to properly convey your idea for the project. Also, keep in mind that my project proposal is for a radio show, so keep it in mind while reading the guidelines below and think how you can adapt it in your own project.

    • On the very first page I wrote the title and a two sentence short explanation of the project, so the reader would know what he/she has in his/her hands;
    • Key people – short introduction of the people working on this project (can be written also by the second half of the document);
    • Inspiration – what actually inspired me for this project and the events that led to deciding to go on with it;
    • Description of the project – a few sentences description of the project in details. I also took care to have the steps how it will be realized and talked a bit about the content of the show as well. Take care not to prolong it too much with not needed details, so I would presume no more than half a page of A4;
    • The Problem – on this section I concentrated on the problems that would be taken care of through this radioshow and the benefits of the organization on whose name I will do this;
    • Objectives – here I wrote about the vision and objectives that are guiding and inspiring me to do this. I tried to answer questions like: Why I need it? What would I achieve with it? What would the end result be? I choose to do this as a bullet point list, but I think that this would be acceptable also as a paragraph;
    • Goals – I set up some goals for myself as the guy taking care of the project and it’s undergoing. I thought of what I want to do with it? What is something substantial I would like to see coming out from this? The same here, bullet point list;
    • Measurement of success – in any project, for sure there is the need for a measurement of success, to see how it is going and to know how to evaluate it. In a radioshow I thought that I can measure my success by the number of people tuned in my frequency and also I tried to connect it with my goals by converting them to numbers;
    • Steps of implementation – by this point, I had fallen in love with those lists. This one was a numbered list on each of the consequential steps I would follow for starting it and for the first stages;
    • Potential subjects for the show – here I listed 21 subjects of the first 21 shows and for each of them I wrote a 1 sentence explanation like an abstract, so the person reading this won’t be confused from only the title of the subject. I noticed that this was one of the most difficult points as it is pretty substantial, is the manifestation of the idea I want to make true, so it took me some time and effort to conclude this one;
    • Format of the show – for me this will also be decided in cooperation with the radio guys but I wrote my idea for the show, it’s length, how often per week, for how many weeks, etc.;
    • Budget – in every project proposal guidelines that I read, this was a very important point, as it will make people think there are enough financial resources to start with the project;
    • Expected results – as the titles goes, I wrote what would the radio and the organization profit from this project.

 

So, there was that. I hope is useful to you. If you found this article useful, I’d be grateful to share it with your friends, and for more such content, subscribe in the sidebar to the right.