Standard 5: Early engagement with donor to inform design.
Engage donor prior to and (as possible) during project design and proposal development to encourage a manageable and realistic project scope, budget and timeline in line with donor priorities.
Key Action 5: Respond to donor feedback and questions on the proposal promptly and professionally.
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Why
Pursuing a donor call for proposals is usually a highly competitive process that may extend beyond the submission of the proposal. The donor may ask for clarifications, or suggest or require revisions to the proposal. Proposals can be won or lost in the process of responding to donor feedback. CRS should treat this moment with the same seriousness as development of the proposal itself. Responding promptly, completely, and professionally to donor feedback and questions:
- Demonstrates CRS’ responsiveness and respect for the donor’s schedule.
- Highlights CRS’ capacity to manage in a professional and timely fashion.
- Enhances CRS’ competitiveness in the proposal process.
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Who
- Primary responsible: Proposal coordinator (or other individual identified by the country representative)
- The proposal coordinator (or other staff identified by the CRIf a country program has business development staff member, that person would typically be the proposal coordinator or could take on this role. If the proposal coordinator is no longer available and there is no country program BD staff, the CR would likely request the head of programming, regional business development staff (in consultation with the region), or the proposal transition manager to lead this process. [1], if the proposal coordinator is no longer available) leads the process of preparing CRS’ response to the donor.
- Others involved: Country representative (CR); country program business development (BD) staff; members of the proposal development team; country program senior management team (SMT); regional business development (BD) staff; IDEA staff as applicable; and technical advisors as necessary
- Members of the proposal development team provide inputs for responses on specific project components;
- SMT members, regional BD staff, and IDEA staff support in preparing and reviewing the response;
- Regional and HQ technical advisors provide inputs on specific questions, as needed.
Telescope [2] for multi-country or global opportunities: Adjust the list of individuals above and the “How” steps below to reflect the appropriate stakeholders and levels of involvement for a multi-country or global opportunity
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When
- Depending on the donor’s timeline
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How
Follow these steps to respond to donor feedback and questions on the proposal promptly and professionally:
- The individual who receives feedback from the donorFor competitive funding opportunities, donors will issue a formal letter detailing feedback and requesting revisions in order for the proposal to remain under consideration. For U.S. government funding opportunities, this is often called an “Issues Letter”. For other opportunities, donor feedback may be detailed in an e-mail. [1]—typically the CR for local submission, or IDEA staff, for centrally submitted proposals—shares it with the country program SMT and the proposal coordinator, if available, with a copy sent to regional BD and IDEA staff, as applicable.
- Where possible, gather intel on whether any competitors have also received formal donor feedback (e.g., an issues letterAn issues letter is a formal communication from a donor after a review of a proposal or application. An issues letter may also be called a “Request for Clarification and Application Revision” letter; a “Final Revised Application” letter; or a “Best and Final Offer” letter, etc. The letter includes donor questions and comments to which the applicant must respond in order to remain in consideration for award of the grant or contract. [1]).
- Staff involvement in preparing the CRS response will vary depending on the nature of the issues raised by the donor. Ideally, members of the proposal development team [3] will participate. In addition to the proposal decision makerSee the List of Proposal Development Team Roles/Responsibilities for more on the proposal decision-maker’s role.
[1], proposal development team members involved in responding to donor feedback are likely to include:
- Technical lead
- Budget lead
- MEAL lead
- All staff involved in preparing CRS’ response to the donor review the donor’s feedback.
- Pay close attention to donor feedback on scope and programming approaches, as changes to these can create domino effects for other parts of the technical and cost applications.
- Present responses carefully and strategically, providing only the information required to address the question—avoid raising new questions.
- Analyze the donor’s feedback for any project management “red flags,” i.e., revisions requested that are inconsistent with CRS’ project management standards, particularly in areas such as:
- Proper resourcing of project activities.
- Realistic project scope.
- Adequate time for responsible project start-up, scale-up, and close-out.
- Identify which suggested changes CRS can address, and which suggested changes require a different response – e.g., when the donor’s requested revisions would affect CRS’ ability to deliver quality results or to manage the project in a way consistent with CRS priorities. For such requested changes, further clarification and/or justification of the information in the proposal may be the best response.
Donor feedback “deal-breakers”: If the donor feedback is highly substantive, the CR convenes a meeting of key proposal development team members, regional growth and management staff including the regional director as needed, and any IDEA staff as appropriate (e.g., for opportunities that are high-value, otherwise strategic, or centrally managed) to discuss potential “deal-breaker” issues indicated by the donor’s feedback. Certain issues may be so significant that CRS may decide it is best to withdraw the proposal. In this case, the process ends with careful preparation of a response explaining CRS’ decision.
- The proposal coordinator (or other staff identified by the CR) leads the CRS team in developing a plan for responding completely, professionally, and promptly.
- The plan should include which CRS staff member is responsible for which part of the response, and the deadline for preparing the required portion of the response.
- The plan must factor in adequate time for review at country program, region (for high-value or otherwise strategic opportunities), and HQ level (for centrally managed donor relationships and high-value or otherwise strategic opportunities).
- The proposal coordinator compiles the draft responses prepared by colleagues, edits them for clarity, completeness, and responsiveness to donor guidelines, and sends for review as specified in the plan.
- Use the Checklist for High-Quality Communications and Submissions to Donors [4] to review the draft response.
- The proposal coordinator works with the team to address any review comments and sends the final response to the CR or IDEA staff for final review and submission to the donor.
- Note that in some cases, there will be additional feedback and questions from the donor and the response process may continue for several rounds.
Oral defense: When a donor requires an oral defense, think strategically about who should represent CRS and partners. Prepare talking points and presentations, and coach those participating.
- The proposal coordinator includes all relevant information collected in the donor feedback response process, including the formal response, in the proposal handover file [5].
- The proposal coordinator also posts the issues letter/response as a key document in the Gateway Opportunity RecordIf the donor does not approve CRS’ proposal, save the donor notification as well as any debrief letter or notes from debrief communication to the Gateway Opportunity Record, as well as the proposal handover file. [1].
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Partnership
- Donor feedback may affect a partner’s proposed scope of work (for instance, if the donor wishes to scale part of the project up or down). Review such feedback with the partner, and work with the partner to prepare the appropriate information and response by the donor’s deadline.
- Update partners on donor feedback, even if it does not directly affect a partner’s scope. When possible, engage partners in shaping the response to big-picture questions related to technical approach, targeting, etc.
When CRS is a sub-recipient- Respond promptly and completely to requests from the prime for input or feedback based on the issues letter or other donor feedback the prime receives.
- Request the prime to share the issues letter or equivalent. If they are unable to share the full issues letter, request excerpts relevant to CRS.
- Support the prime as appropriate to respond to bigger-picture questions and issues.
Emergency projects- Follow the same process in an emergency project, telescoping as needed to respond in shorter timeframes.
- Update and engage Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) staff when responding to donor questions.
Published on CRS Compass (https://compass.crs.org)
- Primary responsible: Proposal coordinator (or other individual identified by the country representative)