Hi Folks,
It seems my life is never ending grant proposals these days. After having submitted another batch today, it reminds me of my first reflections on the proposal process. It is really very interesting when you think about it.
I’m certain it varies a great deal from sector to sector, but overall many types of businesses and organizations function in parallel ways.
My experiences in proposal development (grants, agreements, contracts) has been something like this. You spend anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months preparing a proposal, sometimes with a small team, sometimes with a large. You ask for a bunch of money, sometimes a couple of million, sometimes twenty; I’ve never gotten up to past eight digits, but they are certainly out there.
At the end of the day, the twenty to forty pages that are submitted can be worth a whole lot more than a suitcase of cash; though sometimes those same pages are destined for the recycle bin.
You win some, you loose some. I guess that is just part of the game.
Right now my portfolio is around $20 Million, with all possible outstanding proposals in the near future it could be in excess of $40 Million, though its likely to settled somewhere in the middle.
At the end of the day, those millions were gained by crafting ideas and concepts. While it works differently in most of our personal lives, I still think it is interesting to reflect on how money flows. Most of us would love to trade a ream of paper for a few million. It may not go into my pocket, but I’m happy to have it facilitate helping people who are very much in need.
Wish me luck on a least a few wins coming up.
Cheers,
Miel
No Comments yet!