The Reason Why You Need a Grant Writing Team

Over the past 11 years, I've written and read hundreds of project proposals submitted to donors. Although I used to finish a full proposal with its budget in just two days, I had two different experiences in 2014, which made me realize that great successes cannot be achieved with the efforts of one individual, no matter how experienced and skilled this individual is, and whatever opportunities and circumstances were created for him.

The two experiences can be summarized in my meeting with my most important donors, who were the most sustainable in funding. In these meetings, I was asked to write proposals to be funded. Due to the fact that my organization’s team fully counted on me to write and our organization had signed two outstanding projects, I was busy with the details of the management and employment of the new staff; therefore, I couldn’t submit these proposals and we lost two funding opportunities and new partnerships that were hard to compensate for, after many years.

Over the past ten years, I have seen so many difficult experiences that organizations have gone through, due to the total dependence on one person to write proposals. So I have employed the most efficient young men and women proficient in English writing and who have experienced different development sectors and finance. We trained them for many months and involved them in writing proposals and working together. Within a year, the organization had 12 people writing proposals and preparing budgets at a competitive level with the biggest international organizations in the country. Therefore, the number of projects the organization won increased from 5 in 2014 to 12 projects in 2015 and more in the following years.