The Virtual Foundation - Your Donation Makes it Happen

Proposal Guidelines for The Virtual Foundation

Important Note:

Before you read any further: if you are considering submitting a proposal, be sure to check to see if your country is among the 29 we presently operate in. See the Consortium Members section for a complete list.

General Requirements

  1. Projects submitted to The Virtual Foundation must be in one of the following categories:
  2. Projects should have a concrete outcome.
  3. Exclusions: The Virtual Foundation does not accept proposals in these areas:
    • crisis relief (such as emergency food airlifts)
    • research proposals, such as investigative studies or projects to simply document existing problems.

Funding Levels

The purpose of the Virtual Foundation is to promote international philanthropy focused upon small scale projects. Many 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 QUICKLY. 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.