Volunteers of the Association for India’s Development (AID) use this Project Proposal Form to get to know about you and your work. Please complete this form in as much detail as possible, attaching any pamphlets, photos, etc. which you think would help us. Also, fill in the accompanying Project Summary Form. After looking this over, we will write to you with any further questions and also arrange for one of our volunteers to visit you. After we feel that we understand your work we will meet to decide what, if any assistance we can offer. We currently offer two types of assistance, financial and personnel. You may propose a project involving either one or both. We meet 2-5 times each month and discuss each proposal we receive with great interest. We are very eager to work with you, especially if you have not written a proposal of this kind before. No formal training in writing a proposal is required to work with AID. If you have any questions or require assistance in filling this form, please write to:

K. Ravi, C-7 Banganga Housing Society, Govandi Station Road, Mumbai, 400 088.

The general body of the Association for India’s Development (AID) would like a description of your organization, your ideas and the work for which you would like support. Please answer all questions, providing any additional documents, photos, or audio recordings where applicable. Detail in every respect is appreciated, as it will help us understand the possibilities for working with you and also expedite our processing. If any of these questions is not relevant to your work, let us know. Examples used don’t cover all kinds of projects that AID supports. Please send your proposal and all supporting materials to:

Association for India's Development (AID)
PO Box "F"
College Park, MD 20741-3005 USA

Type of support requested (check Monetary/Non-Nonetary or both)

• ___ Monetary. Check payable to: _______________________________________.
  • Is your group a registered NGO? _______.
    If so, please provide copies of registration documents.
    If not, please tell us how you are organized.
  • Do you have FCRA clearance? ______.
    If, not we suggest that you consider applying soon.
  • Please send us your annual report and audited accounts, if available.
• ___ Non-monetary (incl. volunteers/interns for a period of time, information, material goods like awareness videos, etc.)
  Type(s) of non-monetary support requested: ______________________________
  • Have you received similar support from other organizations in the past? If yes, please provide details.
  • Have people from outside your locality or from abroad ever worked for you?
  • What skills and qualifications would you require or prefer?
  • What languages are spoken in the area in which you work?
  • Is housing available for volunteer staff?

General information about your group

• When and how did your group start? What are your goals and your vision?
• How has your organization grown since its founding, and what is its current size (in terms of number of people or villages reached, funding, number of people working for the organization, etc.)? How many of your workers are paid and how many volunteer? How is your group organized in terms of leadership and decision-making?Please include background information or resume of the important people in the group.
• Please describe the conditions in the area you work (in terms of literacy, education level, status of women, health, and other factors), with numbers wherever available. What are your current activities and how do you fund these? How do you evaluate the effectiveness and achievements of your projects?
• Of the people you serve, how many are also on the staff or volunteer for your group? For example, if you are running a school in a village, how many of your staff come from that village or that school? If you work for women, how many of your staff are local women? Also, are there any nearby sources where you can attract more volunteers - like universities/colleges/schools, local youth/women clubs, NSS/NCC groups?

The Proposed Project

Please describe your project in detail, with the following questions in mind. If you are requesting support for one part of a bigger project, then please describe in detail that part of the project.

1. Why? (The basis of the project)

What is the motivation and need for this project? If it is based on local needs and demand, how did you identify these? If you did a survey, can you give us the results of your survey, and how you did it? What are the current local conditions in the area, relating to this project? (for example, if this is a health-care project, what is the current state of health and health-related problems?) If you can send us related photographs, letters from residents, newspaper clippings, etc., it will greatly benefit our understanding.

What are the goals of the entire project? Whom will the project affect, what is the expected change in the conditions, and over what duration of time? How many people/families directly benefit from it?

What is the basic philosophy or idea of the project, and what is the over-all strategy in brief? (for example, The philosophy could be that basic health-care should be provided without a doctor, and the strategy could be to train local people in a community-based health-care approach.)

2. How? When? Who? (Implementation of the project)

• We would like to get a detailed picture of the project implementation, including answers to the following questions. (if this is part of a bigger project, please also describe the bigger project)
• Please describe how the project is going to develop, the different stages of the project (if applicable), and the time-line. We’d like to get a clear idea of what will happen in the first month, after first 3 months, etc.
• Please describe the functioning of the project in detail. (For example, if it is a school, where the classes are held, how many grades are going to be taught, what are the subjects taught, in what syllabus, any special measures to ensure students don’t drop out, etc.) Also, explain how many people are going to benefit.
• What regular activities are involved and when do they take place? For example, an evening school may take place on alternate days, with monthly meetings, or each women’s savings group might meet every two weeks to collect savings and decide on loans, and all groups might meet together every 3 months.
• Who will carry out this project? These could be teachers, health workers, project coordinators, village guides, etc. What is the nature of work of each of these people? Please describe their typical day’s work, with number of hours and schedule. If already identified, please give their names, background, qualifications; else state how you are going to select them. How many will be from the local village/slum?
• Please give details of who is going to benefit from the project. If you are going to select them (say, to train them in a vocation, or to fund their education), then what are the selection criteria? If the number is small, please provide their names and information; otherwise, please give statistics.

3. Details of support requested:

• If you are requesting financial support, please provide a detailed budget listing all expenses for the portion of your project you would like AID to support, apart from a brief over-all budget (if applicable). Provide item-wise split-up to as much extent as possible - e.g., if you are purchasing "educational material", please describe the different items under that category.
• If the budget includes substantial amounts for equipment, machinery, or construction work, please provide 2 independent quotations for these costs.
• If you are requesting non-monetary support, please attach a description.

4. Evaluation and Follow-up:

Do you have a plan to evaluate the effect of this project? Please provide details.

How is this project going to be followed up once it is complete? For example, if it involves vocational training, are the trainees going to form a cooperative, market their products, etc.? If it is a primary school up to fifth grade, what are the children going to do after they pass that grade?

Thanks for answering all our questions. We are looking forward to receiving your proposal and visiting you.