Proposal Guidelines

for Emergency Relief Applications

Responses to the following topics should be included when submitting a proposal for
Emergency Relief funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Please either insert
your information directly into this template, or provide responses in a separate document
that follows the format and order below.

Your proposal should be no longer than five pages; this page limit does not include your
budget, which should provide a brief narrative description of each line item.

Please submit your proposal as an e-mail attachment to mitoa@gatesfoundation.org.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 Project title
 Project start and end dates (or project term, in months)
 Project budget, indicating amount requested from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation
 Geographical information: country, then region/province/districts if relevant
 Number of beneficiaries: break down by intervention, then give a total
 Brief summary of project (1-2 sentences)

SITUATIONAL OVERVIEW

1. Please provide a brief overview of the emergency.

2. What is the problem in the context of the current crisis? Which aspect of the problem
will the proposed project help to address? Please include a brief description of why
external/international assistance is needed.

3. Describe your activities in the context of those of other NGOs (international and
local) and UN agencies. We would like to know which NGOs and UN agencies are 1)
operating, and 2) collaborating. In other words, who will be doing what?

4. Will your organization be working in the areas most severely impacted? If not, why?

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

5. Please describe the project’s goals, objectives, key activities, and expected results.

6. What indicators will you use to measure the impact of your interventions?

7. Please provide an implementation plan for the proposed project.

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8. Please provide brief information about the partners you will work with and their
scopes of work.

9. If you will be working in more than one country, break down the project activities by
country.

FEASIBILITY and CAPACITY

10. Why is your organization uniquely qualified to conduct these interventions, and in this
geographic area? Was your organization working in this region prior to the current
emergency?

11. How does the political climate and logistical environment allow effective access to
those in need?

12. Describe factors that could inhibit the success of the proposed work and how these
would be overcome.

13. Are there possible ramifications of giving aid to these populations?

SUSTAINABILITY

14. Who are the major “institutional players” and, if they are not yet involved in
responding to this crisis, what is their anticipated contribution? When are they
expected to step in?

15. Will support from the foundation help leverage additional funding? Please describe.

16. Once funds from the foundation are expended, how will your organization / the local
community / the international aid community continue to address the specific
problems, discussed above? Explain how the activities will be sustained or
transitioned to other sources of support at the end of the proposed grant.

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

17. Your project budget should provide a brief narrative description of each line item.

18. Please provide your organization’s annual operating budget.

19. Please list other major donors to this project (anticipated or actual).

20. Has the foundation provided funding to your organization for other emergency relief
activities in the same region? If so, explain the relationship of this project to the
previous one(s), describe how they will build on one another, and explain why
additional funding is now needed.

OTHER

If the project will be carried out in remote areas that are difficult to pinpoint on
conventional maps, please include a map that indicates your target areas.

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