The project description for a proposal seeking GOS would technically include everything your agency does. If your charity does only one or two things, you may be able to use the process method to describe each of them in a GOS proposal. Otherwise, the outcomes method is your only practical choice. The project description for a GOS proposal will frequently read much like a report on the previous year’s activities. You can use a list of notable accomplishments from the previous year as a starting point for briefly describing how you will achieve similar outcomes in the current year. Here are some examples:

Information Services provided assistance to some 380,000 artists in all disciplines last year through publications, Internet resources, and a toll-free hotline. In the coming year, we expect the number of artists served to increase significantly through the introduction of a new database of opportunities for artists that we will promote nationally through announcements on public radio stations.

Public school students had the opportunity to work with artists in their classrooms through the Arts in Education program last year. Some 3,000 students were served through 20 residencies in 18 cities. We have modified this program for next year to allow the residencies to expand beyond the schools to involve members of the local community. By creating interactions among the students, community residents, and the artists, we seek to effect a more long-lasting change on how art and artists are perceived by members of the public.

Create a paragraph such as one of the preceding for each of your programs, add a strong introduction and closing, and you’ve got yourself a GOS proposal. This approach is a lot more interesting than operating support proposals I’ve seen that consist of an organization’s history with a few recent statistics sprinkled in. Don’t confuse your charity’s history with a GOS proposal. A GOS proposal is about the present and future, not the past.

Even if the GOS proposal seeks support for everything you do, you don’t have to describe every single program and activity with the same level of detail. Keep the proposal focused on what will be of interest to the funder. And just because it’s a GOS proposal doesn’t mean you won’t customize it for each funder. If the funder makes a lot of education grants and one of your programs involves education, move that section to the top. In some cases, you might expand on some sections to suit the funder’s primary area of interest or add statistics that correspond with the funder’s geographic target area.

One GOS funder I deal with has a three-county area as its primary service area, even though it provides funding much more widely. They ask for, and I give them, the numbers of people in their primary service area we’ve assisted at the end of each program’s description in the GOS proposal.