Writing a CSR proposal that gets read

A CSR proposal gets read when it answers, briefly and in order, the questions a company’s CSR team and committee must settle before they can approve a project: what problem, for whom and where; what you will do and what will change; what it costs and when the money will be used; why you; and how everyone will know it worked. Send a short concept note first, and write the full proposal when the company asks for it.

This guide is for NGO fundraisers and programme teams. It sets out what the company has to decide, the concept note, the full proposal section by section, the Schedule VII fit, length and tone, and the most common reasons proposals fail. Budgets have their own guide: budgeting a proposal.

What the company has to decide

A CSR proposal isn’t read like a letter to a donor. It is read by people who must turn it into a recommendation to the CSR committee and, through the committee, to the board. Each year the committee (in a smaller company, the board itself) draws up an annual action plan for the board to approve, and the plan has fixed contents.

So write for the plan. If your proposal states the Schedule VII area, who will carry out the work, how and when the money will be used, and how the work will be monitored and reported, the CSR team can lift your answers straight into its plan and its note to the committee.

Two more rules shape what a company asks for:

• Only money you use counts. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ FAQ 7.4 says money paid to an implementing agency doesn’t count as the company’s spending unless the agency uses it. A clear timeline of spending, year by year and quarter by quarter, matters as much as the total.
• Big companies must assess impact. A company whose average CSR obligation is ₹10 crore or more must have an independent agency assess each project of ₹1 crore or more, at least a year after it ends (Rule 8(3)). If your project may be one of them, plan the baseline data an assessor will need. See impact assessment under the CSR rules.

Start with a concept note

Most CSR teams prefer a short note before a full proposal: it costs them minutes to read and tells them whether to ask for more. Keep it to one or two pages.

Send the note with a one-page profile of your organisation, and offer to send your registrations and accounts. Don’t attach the whole document pack until you’re asked.

The full proposal, section by section

When a company asks for a full proposal, use its template if it has one, and answer every question it asks. Without a template, this order works:

1. Summary. The whole proposal in a paragraph: problem, project, people, place, duration, cost, outcomes.
2. The need, with evidence. Public data for the district or block (such as the National Family Health Survey for health and nutrition, or UDISE+ for schools), your own baseline survey, and what the community told you. See needs assessment.
3. The people and the place. Who will take part, how many, in which villages or wards, and how they will be chosen.
4. How change will happen. A simple theory of change: the activities, what they produce, the changes in people’s lives they should lead to, and the assumptions behind each step.
5. Activities and timeline. Phases, months and milestones, ideally in a table.
6. Outcomes and indicators. A few indicators, each with a baseline, a target and how you’ll measure it. Separate outputs (classes held) from outcomes (children reading at grade level). See choosing indicators.
7. Budget. A summary here, with the detailed budget attached.
8. Team. Who will lead the project, which key staff are in post and which you will hire.
9. Your organisation. Legal form, registrations (income-tax registration and approval, CSR registration number, NGO Darpan ID, FCRA status), track record and governance.
10. Monitoring, reporting and learning. What you will report, how often, and with what evidence, including utilisation certificates. See reporting to funders.
11. Risks and safeguarding. The main risks and how you will manage them, your safeguarding policy for any work with children or vulnerable adults, and how you will collect and protect personal data.
12. Sustainability and exit. How the benefits continue when the grant ends, and who will own and maintain anything built or bought.
13. Compliance fit. The Schedule VII item, whether this is an ongoing project, and confirmation that the work isn’t excluded.

Fitting the project to Schedule VII

Every rupee of CSR must go to an activity within Schedule VII of the Companies Act, so name the item, and quote its words. The MCA says the items should be “interpreted liberally”, and what matters is the project’s main purpose.

Then check the exclusions in the CSR Rules: work in the company’s normal course of business, work outside India, anything for political parties, activities mainly for the company’s own employees, sponsorship for marketing benefit, and work the company must do anyway under another law. See Schedule VII at a glance and what doesn’t count as CSR.

Multi-year work fits the rules well. An ongoing project is a multi-year project lasting up to three years after the year it starts, and unspent money for it can be carried in the company’s Unspent CSR Account. Say in your proposal which year the project starts and when it ends.

Length, tone and format

• Short beats long. A concept note is one or two pages; a full proposal should be as short as the company’s questions allow, with detail in annexures.
• Plain words. Write for a busy reader who doesn’t know your field. Explain any acronym once, and cut jargon such as “holistic interventions”.
• Specific numbers. “360 girls in 12 villages” beats “hundreds of girls across the region”. Give the source of every number.
• Honest claims. Don’t round up results or claim change you didn’t measure. CSR teams compare notes.
• Dignity. Describe people as taking part in change, not as objects of pity. Use photographs only with consent; see consent, photos and dignity.
• The company’s own words. Use the terms in its CSR policy, and its name, spelled correctly, everywhere.

Why proposals fail

1. No fit. The theme, place or size doesn’t match the company’s policy or budget.
2. The need isn’t shown. No data, or national data where district data exists.
3. Activities without outcomes. A list of workshops, with no change in people’s lives.
4. A budget that doesn’t match the plan. Costs with no activity behind them, or activities with no cost.
5. Eligibility gaps. No CSR registration number, lapsed tax registrations, or less than three years of similar work.
6. No plan for the money’s timing. A request for the whole amount up front, or spending that can’t happen before 31 March.
7. No monitoring or exit plan. The company can’t see how it will know the project worked, or what happens after.
8. Copy and paste. Another company’s name in the text, or a proposal that obviously went to everyone.

After you send it

Follow up once after a week or two, then answer questions quickly and completely. Expect due diligence: requests for documents, a call with your finance lead, references and a site visit. Be ready to adjust the scope, budget or tranches; a smaller first phase with a path to more is a common and sensible outcome. If the answer is no, ask what would make a future proposal stronger, and keep the company on your prospect list.