High Competitive Points in your Application!

Key personnel and roles

Some RFAs may require you to submit a list of key contributors, potentially along with their resumes or CVs. Even if there is no explicit requirement, consider showcasing some of your staff, as they may give your organization and project legitimacy. Designating key roles, even without specifying individuals, will also demonstrate sound planning, and is necessary for budgeting anyway. Below are a few useful tips related to key personnel and roles:

• Depending on the size of the project, referencing one to five roles and/or individuals should suffice.
• Unless your organization is a very large entity with hundreds of staff, you should almost always include the chief editor or chief executive.
• Consider individuals with relevant experience, include them in the project, and add their CVs to the proposal to enhance legitimacy. Sometimes a funder will be prescriptive and let you know which roles are key for the proposed project and will request you name candidates to fill those key positions. It is especially important to include the CV for a candidate for those key personnel roles. Including CVs is also important if your organization is young and lacks the necessary track record; your staff’s experience can compensate for this.
• Make the reviewer’s life easier; CVs should be clear, concise and uniform. Consider using a free CV-building service like EuroPass.
• Do not overly concern yourself with staff changes; the proposal focuses on estimating personnel and availability.

Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (J.E.D.I)

An increasing number of funders explicitly ask for policies around justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (J.E.D.I); diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); or gender balance, inclusion and diversity (GID). Larger media organizations will likely have these policies in place, but smaller, younger organizations may have to create these strategies for the application. Some useful advice for this area when preparing proposals:

• Including a diverse set of perspectives is beneficial for any organization and project, regardless of administrative requirements.
• JEDI, DEI and similar concepts may mean very different things in different contexts. You need to figure out how diversity, equity and inclusion is meaningful in your society, community and organization and propose policies relevant to you. Examining? organizations operating in different countries and environments and attempting to impose their standards is typically ineffective.
• If a grant application requires you to develop such strategies and you currently lack them, consider it a valuable opportunity. It is a chance for a funder to support the growth and development of your organization in these crucial areas. Make sure to allocate sufficient time and resources for developing these strategies.
• Third-party experts on these topics exist in many countries; consider enlisting their help if you are uncertain.
• Policies and protocols can apply to your organization, your project or both. In the context of most RFAs, you will be expected to create a project level JEDI/DEI/GID policy or protocol, rather than one for your entire organization.

Letters of support

Including letters of support may be a requirement. Though some RFAs will explicitly list it as a mandatory annex, other RFAs will maintain the option for the applicant to attach if they wish to do so. This document serves as testimony from a third party, typically sectoral experts, researchers or policymakers, confirming your previous experience and success and validating your strengths and skills. This gives credibility to your organization and legitimacy to your application. Like with CVs of your key personnel, a small, young organization will typically need more or stronger letters of support than a larger, more mature counterpart. The latter has executed a number of projects already and has results to speak for their expertise and capacity.

Risk assessment

Some RFAs may require you to list potential risks —both external and internal— to your project, indicate their severity, the likelihood of them occurring and propose mitigation strategies.

There are NO risk-free projects and funders are NOT looking for organizations that cannot? realistically assess the risks of their proposed project or are downplaying them. A risky project that has been realistically assessed with good mitigation strategies is more likely to get funding than a proposal that only lists low risks.

Bandwidth

Be strategic about applying for grants, as it will likely mean extra work for your staff. Consider the internal dynamics of the team and who the decision makers and individuals are that will be responsible for the execution of tasks in the grant agreement.

Roles to be assigned include:

• A coordinator responsible for ensuring adherence to the grant requirements, once awarded. Ensuring that all deliverables and reporting are done on-time and using the correct templates, formats, etc.
• A technical manager: someone who is ensuring that the technical work is conducted at a high quality.
• Financial manager: someone who oversees adherence to the budget and/or does financial reporting.
• Supporting staff: people who execute different activities and those who support them (e.g., graphic designers, marketing, monitoring and evaluation, IT staff, etc.)

Depending on the size and structure of your organization, some of these roles may be part-time or one person may execute more than one role.

The more you involve your team during the project development the easier the implementation is going to be (but more people involved could mean slower project development). Whether your team was part of the application process or most of them only learn about the project after the positive funding decision, it is beneficial to include them when adjusting workflows and roles.