After the executive summary, the next section in most proposals covers the context of the issue the proposed project will address. The name of this section varies from proposal to proposal. Donors will refer to it as the background section, context analysis, problem analysis, problem statement, situational analysis, or needs statement or analysis. Regardless of the name, the purpose of the section is the same: It describes the context in which the proposed project will occur, the central issues it will address, and helps position the proposed work as the best way to resolve those issues.

Regarding the structure or flow of this section, there’s no single formula that will always work. However, there are some standard building blocks for this section, which include the following:

- Describe the history of the problem. The history of the problem gets at its cause, which may relate to one or more political, geographic, social, environmental, financial, or cultural factors. The history of the problem could include the build-up to a current crisis. It could also cover past and current efforts to address or stem the problem, and how those efforts have succeeded or failed, which helps identify the gaps your project can fill. The history of the problem is also where you can introduce the individuals affected by this problem.

- Describe the scope or magnitude of the problem. It’s not enough to describe the problem as “big” or that it has experienced a “dramatic rise.” Everything you are putting forward should be supported by evidence. Instead of saying the problem has grown over time, you need to provide numbers from reputable sources that show that growth. Anything you can quantify will be more compelling than qualitative information. For example, saying, “According to researchers at X university, 75% of participants in the drug treatment program experienced homelessness in the last 12 months” is going to be more impactful than saying, “In recent interviews, program leaders said a high number of participants have experienced homelessness in the last year.”

- Describe the significance of the problem. The significance section should describe the problem's effects. How are people, the environment, the community—whatever is the focus of the project—affected by the problem? This is a section where details matter, including not only the direct effects of a problem but also its indirect ones. If your project's focus is on a subset of individuals within a community, you can use this section to also describe how not serving this group affects the community as a whole.

Often, the solicitation includes a detailed description of the problem. When this happens, you can look at the background section in the solicitation for ideas on how to structure and pace your own background and context section. While you don’t want to copy what is in the solicitation, you can take cues from the solicitation regarding relevant sources of data and preferred terminology.

One final tip for this section concerns framing. When you are presenting the problem, it’s important to keep your proposed solution and your organization’s limitations in mind. The problem you present and the way you present it should align with the solution you are about to propose and with your organization's capabilities.

Lesson Summary