Work Plan 

When you apply for funding, you will typically need to attach a work plan or a projection description to your application. These guidelines have been written with grant applications in mind, but the tips may be helpful also when applying for such opportunities as residencies, masterclasses or festivals. 

Most grant-awarding bodies have their own guidelines, which you should read and follow carefully when preparing your application. Always take into account the funder’s priorities and specific areas of interest. See also the general guidelines for the grant application process on this website (hyperlink.) A work plan is a specific type of text. You can excel at writing work plans with a little practice. 

• The purpose of the work plan or project description is to tell the funding body or other gatekeepers about your plans or proposals in a detailed but relatively concise manner. 

• The cornerstone of these texts is a distinct idea for a project. When you know exactly what you will be doing, you can write a strong application that conveys your intentions accurately to others. 

• Work plans and project descriptions are factual texts, but they can also contain elements of fiction or diary-style writing if that is the best way to introduce the project. 

This set of questions may help you to draft the work plan or project description. Skip the questions that are not applicable to your project and consider the order in which to present the information in your text.   

• What are you going to do? When and where? With whom?  
  A summary of basic facts.  

• What exactly will be done? Elaborate on the execution of the project. 
  • How will you prepare? Which working methods will you use? Where and for how long?  
  • Have you already convened the working group? If not, how will you do that?  
    What kind of roles will each of you have?  
  • Will the project have an outcome that you will share with the public?  
    Who is the outcome targeted at?  

• Why is the project worth doing?
  • Why is the project valuable, for example, for you professionally or personally, for the field, for a specific community or society?
  • If the grant provider has stated objectives that it endorses, you should relate your project to them. For example, if the funder wants to support greater inclusion in the arts or sustainability in the arts, explain how your project contributes to this objective. 

• What is inspiring, fascinating, or important about the project? 

• What are the qualifications you or your team have that will help to carry out the project successfully?
  • What skills and competences do the team members have? Please describe your own and your team’s previous experience that will guarantee the success of your project. 
    
    When you apply for grant as a student, bring forward your professionalism and experience.

• What is the artistic, ideological, or social context of the work?
  • Whose footsteps are you following? What tradition are you drawing on? Do you have a longer history of doing similar work?
  • Add links to your previous work or references to work that inspires you.  

• How will the project reach its audience or live on after the funding ends?
  • If the project produces an output that can be shared, how will it reach its audience?
  • What kind of post-production will the project involve? For example, will you need to communicate with a certain community after the project is over?
  • Will you need to collect feedback? How will that be done? What might be the future of the project? 

• How does the project promote sustainable development and well-being?  
  • Does the project consider cultural, ecological, economic, and social sustainability? For example, are the outputs or materials of the project reusable or recyclable?
  • Is the well-being of the artists at work taken into consideration?
  • Is the output accessible to everybody? 

• What other values or principles underpin the work? 

• What is funding needed for? 
  • Money is often needed for things like artists’ work, equipment or space rental, hiring a producer or other outside talent, material purchases, travel, and so on.
  • Remember to mention who is leading the project and apply for money for that work, too.
  • Be specific about the details. Find out the exacts costs of accommodation, rentals, and travel to make your application credible.  

• What other resources does the project require?
  • List the resources that are already available, e.g., equipment, partners. premises or staff. 

• Which partners or organisations will you work with?
  • Where will the exhibition take place? Who will publish your book or release your album? Where will your work be shown?
  • Which communities will be involved?
  • Specify what kind of collaboration you have planned with each of them and at which stage of the process. Have you been in contact with them and started negotiations already? Have you already agreed on the collaboration if funding is secured, or is the collaboration something you dream about? 

• What are the stages of the project? What is the exact timeline?
  • How will the project proceed? Which phase are you at right now? What will happen next?

These guidelines suggest one way of structuring the work plan or project description. Other structures are possible, too, of course.  

1. Start with a summary of the content of the project. Grant reviewers read hundreds of applications. They want to find a simple statement of the purpose of the grant at the beginning of the application. For example: 
   • ”I am applying for a grant for six months to work on my upcoming exhibition.”  
   • ”We are applying for a €10.000 grant for a working group of four people to organise a church concert tour. The grant will finance our artistic work and cover the project costs.” 
   • “The CCC Collective is applying for a grant of €5.000 for the preliminary planning and preparation of its next project.” 
2. How will the project be executed? You can place this section also below the presentation of the importance of the project.  
3. Longer argumentation: feasibility and importance of the project and more information about the participants. 
4. List of possible partners or sponsors and links to their websites. 
5. Schedule and the necessary funding and resources: write this section in full paragraphs or in bullet points (costs to be covered, other sources of funding, anticipated box office revenue, etc.) 

• Write in a factual style but try to convey the passion and drive to do things.  

• Let your own personal voice be heard. Don’t obscure yourself and your thinking.  However, it is not necessary to disclose your entire personal history unless it is an integral part of the project at hand.  

• You can also write about your work through embodiment, instead of just listing “dry” facts. 

• Use terms that are easy to understand for most readers. 

• Don’t assume that the reader knows you or your work. 
  • Even if you are a well-known artist, include the necessary facts about your previous work in the application.  

• Explain why you are the best person to carry out this project. What kind of competence, experience, and insights do you have to complete this project?   

• Avoid conditionals. Instead, write as if the project is certainly happening. 
  Don’t do this: “We’d like to organize a tour if we only had the money.” 
  Do this: “The working group will organise a tour in five small towns in South Western Finland in the summer of 2024.