The Virtual Foundation - Your Donation Makes it Happen
Proposal Guidelines for The Virtual Foundation
General Requirements
- Projects submitted to The Virtual Foundation must be in one of the
following categories:
- Environment;
- Human Health;
- Community Building and Sustainable Economic Activity;
- Increasing the Capacity of Grassroots Organizations.
We will not accept human health proposals before this
date.
<
- Projects should have a concrete outcome.
- Research proposals, such as investigative studies or projects to
simply document existing problems are not acceptable.
Funding Levels
The purpose of the Virtual Foundation is to promote international
philanthropy focused upon small scale projects. Making donations through
an Internet website is a new idea, and it has become clear that most
Internet donors want to start with a donation in the 500-1500 USD range.
CONSEQUENTLY PROPOSALS WITH BUDGETS UNDER 2,000 USD ARE MOST LIKELY TO BE
FUNDED. The Virtual Foundation will accept and review proposals up to
5,000 USD, but proposals in the 2-5,000 dollar range must be unusually
strong, extremely well written, and documented with highly appealing
visuals. Organizations submitting proposals with larger budgets should be
prepared to work with Virtual Foundation staff to make several revisions.
Virtual Foundation Proposal Format
The proposal text must be no longer than 2 pages (or 500 words) including
information and narrative sections.
General Information Section
This section should include all of the following information:
- project name;
- name of local organization submitting the proposal;
- address of local organization submitting the proposal;
- name of individual project director;
- name of Virtual Foundation Consortium Member supervising the project;
Narrative Section
The narrative section of your Virtual Foundation proposal should be
written in a clear descriptive style. Whenever possible, write in the
first person. For example:
I/We will replant trees on mountains near our village.
or
I/We breathe polluted air from a factory in our neighborhood and we need
the ability to test the air
While it is important to have a scientifically and technically strong
project, on the Internet, your project is competing for attention with
thousands of other sources of information. If you can describe your
project as a good story, appealing to universal human values, you are much
more likely to attract donors.
Specific Requirements for the Narrative Section:
- a brief description of the project need;
- a brief description of the project goals;
- a total budget figure in USD (major budget items described
separately);
- a brief description of the methods of implementing the project goals;
- a statement of the expected outcomes;
- project duration (avoid specific dates when a start up date is
flexible);
- visual materials (2-3 photos, drawings, maps etc.) illustrating the
project idea should be attatched to the proposal and sent by regular mail
or e-mail to the Grants' Office.
A note on editing proposals:
In order to make proposals more readable and appealing on the Internet,
ECOLOGIA staff prepare a brief (50-75 word) summary for every project.
Potential donors read the summary first and then, if they are interested,
go on to the longer proposals. In writing summaries, we make every effort
to use wording from the original proposal. But for reasons of clarity
and in order to attract donors, we reserve the right to make changes,
including changes in the project title.
Additional Recommendations for writing a
proposal, which will be appealing to donors on the internet.