Instructions for Business Grant Submissions

Please find eligibility requirements for the business grant here

The purpose of the business plan proposal is to allow foundation officers to assess the current status of the applicant’s businesses and to understand how the grant may be effective in increasing the business’s prosperity. Successful grant applicants will be those who submit business proposals containing adequate detail and supporting evidence. Applications will be rejected when proposals lack essential information, or when it is unclear how grant funds will be used to further the business.

Applicants are not being judged exclusively on any single factor, but on the quality and potential of the entire proposal. No business should fear that it is either too successful or not successful enough to win a grant, but all businesses must know that they are required to prove the same case: that the grant will meaningfully increase the possible prosperity of the enterprise.

To apply for a Kponee-Shovein Business Grant Award,  please fill out  the Kponee-Shovein Business Grant Application Form. Additionally, please send together the form and the following documents to kponeeshoveinfoundation@gmail.com

1. Application Form Kponee-Shovein Business Grant Application Form
2. Business proposal  Kponee-Shovein_Business Plan Proposal Guide
3. Two professional letters of recommendation from community leaders (chiefs, pastors, mentors, etc.). Letters of Recommendations must be sent by the recommender directly to kponeeshoveinfoundation@gmail.com

Instructions for Business Proposal Submissions

All business proposal elements should be collected into a single Microsoft Word or PDF document.

Business proposals should include the following elements in the order described below:

1. An executive summary not longer than one page: this summary highlights the conclusions of the other sections, serving as an introduction to the proposal and as a reference guide to its most vital points.
2. Business description and structure: this section describes in detail what the business does and how it does it. This section should answer the following questions:

• What are your current revenue, costs, and margin of profit?
• Does the business own or otherwise use any capital assets, such as buildings, tools or vehicles?
• Is your business currently growing, shrinking, or staying the same size?
• What strategies is the business pursuing to expand sales or increase productivity?
• Where do you want the business to be in one, three, or five years, and what will be necessary to achieve that?

3. Personnel: This section should give detail of who is involved in your business, including yourself and any employees. It should also explain why these personnel are qualified for their roles.
4. Market research and sales strategy: Who are your current customers and who may be potential new customers? This section should include your strategies for acquiring customers and promoting the business, including any advertising, personal networking, or similar. Strong applications will also include justification of the business’s price point strategy: such as an analysis proving that the current pricing strategy of the business is extracting the highest possible profit from the available consumer demand.
5. Grant purpose: In this section, you will describe with the greatest possible specificity how the grant will be used for investment in the business. This section should bridge the content of sections 2 and 4: you must show us how the money will be spent to improve operations (2) and thus increase the business’s sales, efficiency, or profitability (4). If a larger grant than ₦100,000 has a greater potential to improve your business, this section is where you can ask for more. However be prepared that with increased amounts come much harsher scrutiny, and such proposals must be well-supported by rigorous analysis and data-driven math.
6. Financial projections: This section will make an estimated comparison of two scenarios, in which the grant is awarded or not awarded. In either case, what do you expect will happen to the business in the next year?

All business proposal elements should be collected into a single Microsoft Word or PDF document and emailed to: kponeeshoveinfoundation@gmail.com

After your submission

Please allow an appropriate amount of time for the foundation to assess your proposal. Once we have done so, we will contact you with an initial response. If rejected, proposals may be amended to address relevant concerns and resubmitted with edits. If provisionally accepted, we will coordinate your engagement with our local representative in Rivers State to perform due diligence and to transfer grant funds.