Sell Me On Your Idea
I want to change how we fund grants for technology projects. Typically, when you apply for grant funds you write a long proposal outlining your concept, implementation plan, relevant outcomes, and budget. Sometimes they are short, sometimes they are massive. Proposals are, in my experience, full of buzz words and very broad concepts. Also the budgets are bloated (cough, per-diem) and unrealistic.
What if we pitched had to our projects like startups do? At Development Innovations I see proposals from a very diverse group of people. Most are NGOs, some are individuals, and some are private business. But I love it when startups come to me and pitch. It's a breath of fresh air. They usually come with a nice pitch deck and often a prototype of their app or idea.
Startups know from experience that they have a very small window to sell an investor on their idea. That small window creates a constraint that makes them be very efficient with their pitch. Usually, if I don't have grasp on their idea in the first three slides, they've lost me. The same focus isn't happening with the proposals I see from NGOs and nonprofits.
Civil society groups have traditionally spent too much time pitching bloated and vague proposals. The problem is that technology is changing how we do things, and we are looking at new ways to find good ideas. Our goal is to make things more efficient and cheaper using technology. The point of technology is to use it to do something quicker, faster, more agile.
If I had my way, I'd have NGOs pitch the same way startups do. Five slides, show me your prototype and damnit, sell me on your idea.