Project Design, Proposals and Outside Resources;
Designing a Project and Getting Resources for It
by
Phil Bartle, PhD

Training Handout

 When helping the community to decide on the details of their chosen
 project, you must
 balance the tendency to get too many outside resources, thus
 encouraging
 dependency and sustaining poverty, in contrast to depending upon
 internal
 resources (difficult), thus becoming more empowered and self reliant

 Remember that your job is to fight dependency, where community
 members come to rely on outside assistance for community
 improvements. Your emphasis should be on community self reliance
 (where the community relies mainly on its own resources). If the
 community chooses an expensive project, and cannot expect to raise
 enough money, you must caution them to be more realistic (not to
 depend upon outside charity).

 A proposal is a request for funds from a potential donor. The
 best proposal is designed like a project design, which serves to
 justify to the donor why it should donate funds. The same project
 action plan should be the basis for submitting to higher levels of
 Government to access ceded funds.

 Do not do the work of the committee, however tempted you are. The
 executive must learn by doing. Illiterates on the committee must be
 fully involved in its preparation, verbally, line by line.
 A project design can be used as a proposal for obtaining outside
 funds. It must be used for getting the approval of the whole
 community for undertaking the project. In that sense it is still a
 kind of proposal. It might be required by district authorities; it
 surely is advisable to give them a copy.

 The essence of the project design, like the brainstorm, is to
 systematically answer The Four Key Questions, (what do we want, what
 do we have, how can we use what we have to get what we want, and
 what will happen if we do). It is your duty, as mobilizer, to go
 through these four key questions in detail with the executive,
 putting them into the relevant context, and systematise the answers
 into an appropriate document to be written by the executive.

 When discussing resources, you will often hear executive members
 saying that the community does not have enough funds. There is a
 tendency to rely on one outside donor only. Relying on only one
 source increases vulnerability, thus decreases the strength of the
 community. With some effort, community members can pull in resources
 from many and varied sources. See Resource Acquisition.
 The mobilizer does not dictate to the community that all these
 must be provided by the community. Instead, you can mention all of
 these, and ask the community members to identify those which the
 community can provide.

 Sources of support can include:

 Donations: cash, land, buildings, supplies and equipment, donated
 by individuals who want to support their community. (Acknowledged
 and thanked in public meetings);

 Commercial: gifts from firms and businesses that want to advertise
 their good will and support of the community. (Acknowledged and
 thanked in public meetings);

 Communal Labour: time and labour donated by community members,
 some unskilled (clearing grass, laying bricks), some skilled
 (carpentry, masonry), meetings, planning, supervision;

 Agricultural: farmers may donate food for the project:
 to communal workers who are working on the project, or
 to the executive committee to sell to raise cash for the
 project;

 Food: people who donate the preparing of food and refreshments to
 the community members on communal working days;

 Contributions and fees: for credit club and similar financial
 projects, contributions from all members; service fees, such as
 for obtaining water;

 Governmental: partial funding from central, district or local
 governmental sources. Sources may include district development
 committee participation;

 Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs): local community based
 organizations, churches, outside NGOs working locally; and

 Anonymous Donors: benefactors who remain unknown.

 This list is not complete. Seek suggestions in brain storming
 sessions with community members (not only leaders). See Funds for
 more details about obtaining
 resources for community projects.

If you copy any text from this site, please link it back to
 http://www.scn.org/cmp/.

Updated: 2003 March 23