Project Proposal Design

Build consultancy-level skills to design winning proposals and mobilise funding for sustainable growth

Organisations across Europe and the Global South are under increasing pressure to secure sustainable financing as national budgets tighten and donor priorities evolve. Access to international funding now requires more than technical proposal writing skills: it demands strategic insight into the global funding landscape, strong partnerships, and institutional readiness.

This Short Executive Programme equips professionals from the private sector, public institutions, semi-public bodies, and development organisations with consultancy-level skills and practical frameworks to identify funding opportunities, design competitive project proposals, and institutionalise long-term fundraising systems.

An important dimension of the participant organisations is their contribution to socio-economic development. In different sectors, from agriculture to health, they might play a leading role in skills development, entrepreneurship, policy advise, or innovation. All areas that are critical for inclusive economic growth at regional and national levels. By building project proposal writing skills, participants can access funding and directly contribute to facilitating this in their own relevant contexts.

Throughout the programme, a real-life proposal format is used as a practical case study.. This allows participants to work with authentic funding templates and assessment criteria, gaining insight into how major international funders structure, evaluate, and prioritise project proposals.

In addition, the programme explores how artificial intelligence (AI) tools can be effectively integrated into the proposal design process to enhance creativity, analytical depth, and overall proposal quality, while maintaining strategic coherence and donor alignment.

Reasons to follow this course

The ability to secure development funding is now an essential skill for any organisation seeking to remain relevant and impactful. International donors are moving toward results-based, competitive funding models, often centred around specific themes.

This course prepares participants to meet that challenge. You will develop the ability to:

• Understand the consultancy process and learn to navigate international donor funding mechanisms.
• Translate local or sectoral development priorities, such as private sector competitiveness or green skills development, into the context of fundable proposals.
• Apply consultant-level methodologies to design, develop, and submit high-quality project proposals
• Strengthen organisational readiness for long-term, strategic fundraising

By the end of the programme, participants will not only be better equipped to submit successful funding proposals: they will also be positioned as strategic actors within their organisations, capable of shaping sustainable development initiatives and strengthening institutional impact over the long term.

Accreditation

Maastricht School of Management (MSM) is part of the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics (SBE). SBE has been awarded three prestigious accreditations, AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, resulting in what is known as the Triple Crown accreditation. Only 1% of business schools worldwide can boast this honour, many of which are SBE partner institutes.

Global recognition for MSM's Executive Education by Financial Times Read more