Executive Summary
• This is the last part to be written as it has to be a one-page summary of the key elements of your proposal, designed to catch the attention of the reader and to give them critical information about the project and its merits. It must contain no new information that is not in the body of the plan.
• Your aim should be to summarise in one page what the project is, why it will good for the business, what it will cost and why the organisation should provide the necessary seed funding to get it started. The executive summary needs to convince the reader that the project is credible and worthwhile for the organisation and make the reader want to look at the rest of the document to see the detail.
• A really good executive summary is critical for a winning proposal, as it gives the reader important early impression of the rest of the document, and thus will it carry high weighting in marks. The best executive summaries will carefully summarise the key selling points of their proposal and the financial projections and be credible enough to make the ‘business decision maker' feel confident with the content of the body of the report, before they even read it. That is why it has to be the very last thing you write when everything else is complete. It should be the most professional and the most convincing summary you can possibly make.