Creating a Proposal Team: Identifying Who You'll Need
January 1, 2017
Once you've identified an opportunity to respond to and started to assemble your materials, you'll need to recruit a team to work on the proposal. If you've been anticipating the release of an opportunity, you may already have your team in place. If this is the case, you can go directly to assembling your proposal binders and scheduling the initial proposal planning meeting.
If this is a new or unanticipated opportunity, you'll need to identify the expertise you need and who can provide it.
A proposal requires input from many people. While you may opt to have a single writer in an attempt to maintain a consistent narrative voice throughout the proposal, you'll still need to recruit reviewers. Additionally, unless the writer is very familiar with the organization's history and the details of the proposed work, additional staff will be needed to provide background information. You'll also need to find someone to develop the proposal's budget.
The steps to form a proposal team begin with deciding the proposal development strategy and determining the expertise you'll need. Once you know what you need, you can identify who on your team can fill those roles.
STEP #1: CREATING A PROPOSAL RESPONSE STRATEGY
Before you can decide who you'll need on your proposal team, you'll need to decide how the proposal process will work. Do you want one writer and a handful of reviewers? Do you want several writers and two reviewers for each draft? Do you plan on using an external grant writer? Or, will staff members write the proposal, and consultants with industry knowledge serve as your reviewers?
Your approach will affect the team you need and the development of your proposal calendar. The more writers you have, the more time it will take to stitch the sections together and create a final draft with a uniform narrative voice. If you intend to rely on consultants for any part of the proposal's development, there will be repercussions not only for your proposal calendar but also for the cost associated with developing the proposal.
After you have an idea of your process, you can start filling in deadlines in your proposal calendar for the proposal drafts. With some dates and a process at least tentatively mapped out, you'll have an idea of which dates you'll need each of your writers, reviewers, and finance staff to work on the proposal. This information will be very helpful to have on hand when you begin to recruit team members.
STEP #2: DETERMINING THE EXPERTISE YOU'LL NEED
Once your strategy is in place, review the opportunity announcement and identify the expertise and knowledge required to prepare the proposal. You'll almost certainly need someone who can draft language on the organization's history, experience, and accomplishments. If the proposal is a request for continued funding for a current project, you'll need someone on the team who can speak to the project's goals, accomplishments, and challenges. Responding to the request for applications (RFA) may also require specialized knowledge of a technical or geographic area, or both.
In addition to the more technical or substantive aspects of a proposal, your proposal team will also need individuals with administrative, financial, and management skills. Administrative team members include a proposal manager who will oversee the proposal process and support staff to assist with copyediting, formatting, and final assembly of the proposal. Identify all roles and responsibilities, including who will photocopy and package the proposal, so you can reserve staff time accordingly.
STEP #3: IDENTIFYING WHO YOU'LL NEED ON YOUR TEAM
After you've identified the expertise you need and a rough outline of the proposal schedule, proceed to the third stage: identifying the individuals with the required knowledge and experience.
To identify individuals, you might begin by reviewing your organization's staff list (with their resumes nearby) to determine where the proposal's needs and staff experience intersect. This step should not take long if you've defined the proposal team roles carefully. You may have already completed this step when you first identified the opportunity and evaluated it during the go/no-go meeting.
If the proposal focuses on a new area of work for the organization, you'll need to determine whether you have someone on staff with the requisite knowledge and experience. If you do not, you'll need to recruit someone who does. If your organization intends to partner with other organizations, you'll have the advantage of tapping your partners' staff to fill any knowledge gaps.
To help determine who you'll need, review the opportunity announcement and the proposal requirements with "who, what, when" in mind, as in:
Who do we need to address for each part of the proposal
What do we need them to do (write, review, support, etc)
When do we need them in the process (i.e., which weeks or days)?
Having answers to these questions will help you evaluate potential proposal team members. Since you'll know the proposal schedule, obviously, anyone who won't be around during the time you need them will be eliminated from consideration, and anyone with the time--who also has experience performing whatever role you need them to fill (reviewer, writer)--will be prioritized
BRINGING THE TEAM TOGETHER FOR THE KICK-OFF MEETING
Once you decide to pursue an opportunity, schedule a kickoff meeting promptly. Who you invite to the kick-off meeting depends in part on your proposal strategy. You may want to limit participants to those doing the hands-on work of preparing the proposal narrative and budget. Alternatively, you may prefer a larger group that includes representatives from all partners involved in the proposed project. You could also opt for two sets of meetings. One with senior leaders for high-level discussions about the proposal's strategic direction and staffing decisions, and another set with the proposal managers and writers who will prepare the proposal.
For smaller organizations, all staff may be involved in deciding what to propose, and everyone may play a role in the proposal's development and, ultimately, the proposed project. For larger organizations, the group working on the proposal may be a subset of those who will work on the project if it is funded.
Speaking of project staff, let them know that they are being included in the proposal (i.e., their names will appear in the attached proposal for a specific role). If the proposal results in an award, staff decisions can be revisited, but as a matter of courtesy, it is always a good idea to let staff know that their names will be included before you request their resumes. Otherwise, it can be disconcerting and anxiety-producing for staff to hear that they've been added to a proposal, especially if they already have a full workload!
WHAT'S NEXT
Now that you've assembled your team, the next step is to finalize the first couple of weeks of the proposal calendar and produce your first draft.
Most grant writers have been asked at some point to “massage” unfavorable facts into preferred ones, or have seen their fact-based prose reworked by others into something that has the essence of truth but is not strictly true, or is at least less transparent. To some, this may sound like business as usual and what you need to do to win a grant. However, these little acts of truth-stretching, which can take the form of exaggerations, omissions, and misrepresentations, can exact a cost.