Project Planning
Are you ready for funding?
When planning your projects, it is important for your group to ask itself:
- Is the project really needed - will it meet a need and make a difference?
- Does it fit with your other activities and your original aims?
- Who is doing similar things - why will your project be different?
- Will it attract sufficient resources?
- Are the expected results realistic and worth the effort?
- What will you need to make it happen?
- Have you got the capacity to plan and manage this project? If not, can you get training / recruit new committee members / adjust your plans? The skills you need to have will change over time - the initial excitement, enthusiasm and 'push' will need to give way to efficient financial and human resource management.
What Groups tell us:
- "We have got a really good idea, and want to be sure that it will work well."
- "We spent a lot of time together as a group planning our project and it has made a big difference to its success."
What Funders tell us:
- "If we think it won't work, we won't waste our money on it."
- "Poor project planning is one of the commonest reasons why we turn applicants down."
Key Terms:
- Project: A piece of work your group is doing now or plans to do (often the same as an objective). e.g. Anytown Women's Health Collective has an advice line project; an information project; and a campaigning project.
- Outputs: The services and facilities your projects deliver. e.g. Phone calls answered; information sheets produced and circulated; campaigns joined.
- Targets: What you aim to achieve in terms of the level and quality of your outputs and outcomes.
- Outcomes: All the changes and effects that happen as a result of your work.
