The one that everyone has heard about. There’s no getting away from it, this tool is mind-blowing and seems to get more powerful with each passing day, and it’s pretty much free.

Particularly when it comes to non-profit grant applications or international development where there is a reliance on a lot of descriptive text in a proposal, ChatGPT and other AI tools feel like a godsend. In this post I will briefly cover what I think the benefits of ChatGPT are, in relation to Proposal Writing/Management in particular.

Writer’s block no longer exists

Be as vague or as specific as you like and ChatGPT can generate a structure or even a first draft of a section or a document for you. It may occasionally be a bit of a word salad but at least it will give you a starting point to help your brain click in to gear.

Undertaking market research

Type in a summary of what the funder or client is hoping to achieve from the specific project you’re bidding for, add in their over-arching organisational goals, sprinkle some other relevant background information and then ask ChatGPT about what specific needs or pitfalls there may be. Suddenly you’ve got a list of things to target in your proposal that show that you’ve apparently given it a lot of thought. You will be able to show that you’ve considered the problems and can meet the needs. It should give you starting point to develop a very persuasive narrative.

Generating the content

With thoughtful guidance from a proposal expert, a reasonable first draft can be created section-by-section by asking it the right questions. ChatGPT may suggest some things that you instantly know won’t make the final cut but you can guarantee it will also produce points, seemingly from thin air, that you had not thought of.

Track record / case studies

Your company’s case studies of previous delivered projects are an excellent thing to include in your proposal to show your ability to deliver future projects. They can be used repeatedly so it’s worth spending the time to make them snappy, picking the right details to include to remain concise. ChatGPT has a great knack for this. Then project-to-project they can be tailored depending on the particular element that needs to be focused upon. Again, with the right direction, ChatGPT will help.

Drafting a cover letter

ChatGPT can create a structure for a cover letter and it can be asked to summarise your proposal and highlight key points.

Prepare biographies / resumes

ChatGPT is a great tool for taking long information-heavy pages and preparing a good first draft summary with a particular focus of your choosing. For example for summarising things.

If proposals will contain resumes of key project staff, ChatGPT can ensure they are consistent in tone, style and length.

Editing for continuity of tone of voice

ChatGPT is a powerful editing tool that comes into its own when you are bringing together content from a number of different sources with their different personal writing styles. Simultaneously it will pick up on and correct bad spelling and grammar.

So…

These are some of the features I’ve made most use of. In a later post I’ll try to go into more detail with specific examples of questions I might ask ChatGPT and also explain some of the pitfalls to watch out for.

ChatGPT is free to use, but upgrading to a ChatGPT ‘Plus’ subscription (currently at $20/month) guarantees access during busy times, faster response times and priority access to new features and improvements. If you have only heard about it in the news, I urge you to give it a try for yourself.

https://chat.openai.com/