Page 66 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

CHAPTER 4

Using a Measurable-

Results Orientation

et’s assume for a moment that you’re writing a proposal to a foundation.
LMore than likely, the foundation’s RFP (request for proposal) will ask you to
state quantifiable, measurable objectives. Because your objectives are the expres-
sion of your project’s intended results, the funding agency probably will also ask
you to include a plan for evaluating (i.e., measuring) the project’s outcome and
your performance. This is standard operating procedure for foundations as well
as for U.S. local and federal government agencies because, quite simply, they want
some measure of assurance that their money will be well spent and will generate
a return on their investment. For multiyear projects, they want to be able to mea-
sure the results of one year’s effort before funding the efforts of another year. If
you’re like me, you find these agencies’ desires reasonable and unobjectionable.
In many ways I, as a potential client, have the same desires, and you shouldn’t
object to them. For most of the work you do for me, I want change and I’m willing
to pay you to help me get it. So I might request some evidence, after your project is
completed, that change has occurred, and I might request some plan, included in
your proposal, for how you will determine whether change has, in fact, occurred.
Of course, I might not be or need to be so rigorous. I might be satisfied if the evi-
dence is anecdotal—that is, if some people in my organization tell me that they
believe change has taken place. Or I might be satisfied if the evidence is person-
al—that is, if I myself believe that change has occurred because things look and

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