The Unmet Need
I spoke recently with a foundation director who returned from a visit to India, where he spent time at several locations, visiting with a variety of missionaries. One can only imagine that his head was/is spinning, but not from the noise and crush of people in India. Rather, it was the enormous number and variety of project needs that were voiced to him that was at once encouraging and discouraging: encouraging to see all the good work being proposed, discouraging to know that his foundation could only fund a small fraction of the total number of projects.
What to do? How to decide as a grant maker? How to distinguish yourself as a grant seeker?
“The Unmet Need”
What is important to establish in your proposals is the idea not only that your project is meaningful, but that it also essential. Tell how your project addresses a need that is currently unmet by any other pastoral or human-development initiatives. Further, if you know it to be true, indicate that unless your project proposal is funded, this need will NOT ever be addressed.
For a foundation or a donor to know that but for their support a group of people will NOT be assisted is a compelling proposition.
Who among us would choose to give food to a hungry person who we know will eventually be fed versus someone whose only meal will come from our hands?