Project proposal templates give you a proven structure to work from, so you can spend more time focusing on the substance of your pitch. That’s why we’ve put together two simple, all-purpose project proposal templates that work in most situations:
- Full project proposal template
- Quickfire project proposal template.
We’ve also tracked down six more templates designed for specific scenarios where a generic structure doesn’t tick all the boxes:
- Microsoft Word proposal templates
- TemplateLab business proposal template
- Jotform project proposal templates
- Canva’s custom proposal templates
- Templates for proposals on PowerPoint
- Adobe’s editable proposal templates for projects, grants, and funding applications.
After exploring the templates, we’ll give you some guidance on the information to include in your proposals. Plus, we’ll show how Wrike helps gather and analyze the performance data that makes every proposal sharper and faster to write.
Examples of online project proposal templates
Let’s start with two project proposal templates created by the team at Wrike.
To explore more or to use these templates, simply click on the link, make a copy of the document, and edit it to meet your needs.
Full project proposal template
Each of these templates includes everything a potential client will want to see on a standard project proposal — from the problem the project aims to solve, to the suggested approach, to the first information on proposed key performance indicators (KPIs), and the team members you want to bring on board. We’ve also included plenty of editable fields for the administrative information your client needs. This makes it as easy as possible for them to contact you to arrange a follow-up meeting.
Quickfire project proposal template
Our Quickfire proposal template is designed to give a potential client the headlines: the executive summary of the proposal, and a first sense of the overall project lifecycle through a description of the scope and phases. As many of these decisions come down to company finances, we’ve also included a section for you to describe the proposed budget and project costs. This will give the reader a first impression of whether the project is feasible and act as a starting point for a more detailed discussion or pitch meeting later.
6 more project proposal templates from elsewhere on the web
We’ve found the templates above cover the most common use cases, but every project has its own unique demands.
If the templates above don’t quite fit your needs, we’ve collected a wider range of templates – and even some template libraries – for you to research and compare. Take a look and see if frameworks can help you meet your project goals.
1. Microsoft Word business services proposal templates
Many of Word’s business services proposal templates include placeholder content to point you in the right direction. These templates can be easily adapted to fit your brand colors, and some help you work with the spreadsheets you keep in Excel to add an itemized list of costs to your proposal.
2. TemplateLab business proposals template
TemplateLab is an online library of downloadable, customizable business and legal templates, including a range of templates for business proposals. It offers a fillable form with detailed outlines, financial proposals, and a table to help you finalize your project schedule.
3. Jotform’s project proposal template
This project proposal template is heavier on graphic design elements than some of the other templates on this list, and it offers enough space to describe every one of your proposed project phases in detail. It’s set up to introduce a project, specify the team and their roles, break down the budget, and then cover the proposed terms and conditions in detail. Jotform also offers e-signature services, which can streamline the approval process if your proposal is accepted.
4. Canva’s project proposal templates
Canva’s templates (like this example for a proposal for social media management) focus on incorporating your branding and presenting your proposal beautifully. They can be condensed or expanded to include as much information as the person you’re pitching to requires, and Canva’s design features give you everything you need to convey the potential of your unique product or business idea.
5. PowerPoint’s proposal presentation templates
These slide templates are set up for project proposal pitches in person or online. If you have a longer, written proposal document, transferring the key data to PowerPoint can give you a solid framework for a project pitch deck and help bring the project deliverables to life.
6. Adobe’s editable project proposal templates
Adobe currently offers 11 free templates that can be edited in Adobe Express. Its offering includes grant and funding proposal templates alongside standard project proposal templates that could be used for new products, services, or upgrades.
We hope you find a template on this list that meets your needs and becomes the first piece of a successful project.
In the rest of this post, you’ll find more details on how to populate these skeleton proposal documents to show your new project in the best light — including details on what to include and how to gather compelling, up-to-date data that proves the feasibility of your ideas.
What to include in a project proposal
The way the fields in your proposal are named and arranged can make all the difference to its success – especially for a major project that requires a lot of information gathering before you can pitch.
The structure below will help categorize your information, organize your ideas, and guide the reader to the information they want to see. As a bonus, the methodical process of filling in each field means you won’t leave out important details when you’re writing your proposal outline.
When your proposal lands on your reader’s desk, these are the headings they expect to see:
Cover page
The cover page should include:
- The title of your proposal
- The name or names of the people it was prepared for (i.e., your contact at the organization you’re pitching to)
- The name or names of the people it was prepared by (i.e., you and/or your team)
- The date you submitted your proposal.
Top tip: From the very first page, make it as easy as possible for the people considering your proposal to accept it. Include your full contact details on the cover page so the reader can easily follow up if they have a question.
Executive summary
Think of the executive summary as a complete, concise overview of your proposal. This is the first thing a reader will consult — and it’s sometimes the only thing they look at, especially if they’re expecting a large number of speculative proposals.
Don’t be concerned about “spoilers” here: This is your chance to sum up the significance of your project, the objectives, the definition of project success, and the resources you need from them in one or two pages of text.
Top tip: Your executive summary should leave the reader with a top-level overview of:
- The problem you’re going to solve
- The solution you propose
- The value you offer
- The importance and time sensitivity of the work
After the executive summary, you can include a table of contents to help your reader navigate the rest of the proposal document.
Introduction
Your introduction is the first section of the actual proposal.
The goal here is to provide context and background. You’re clarifying the opportunity your project would capitalize on or the problem you want to solve, and setting yourself up to explain your approach in the next section.
Top tip: While your executive summary has to cover a lot of ground and explain your whole project in a nutshell, the goal of the introduction is to hook the reader. Show that you empathize with the situation you want to improve and give a first glimpse of the angle you’ll take, without describing your entire plan in detail.
Objectives
In the objectives section of your proposal, you’ll explain your goals. Alongside a simple list of objectives, it’s important to explain how you’ll monitor your progress, keep yourself on track, and measure your success.
Top tip: Choose SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). These clearly defined objectives will be more appealing to the person reading your proposal because they suggest you’ve got a clear and actionable project plan.
Project scope
Alongside the objectives section, you should include a heading on the project scope to further define your plan.
The scope section is there to draw the boundaries around your project and set clear expectations. It explains the work you’re taking on, the deliverables and outcomes you’re aiming for, and – perhaps even more importantly – the questions or challenges your project won’t take on.
Top tip: Don’t gloss over the elements you don’t have the time or resources to address in your project. Including the things that are beyond your current scope shows you have a good understanding of the wider context you’re working in and hints at potential areas to develop your work in the future. Both of these can make your proposal more attractive to the reader.
Methodology
In the methodology section, you can describe the project management process in more detail. Tell the reader how you’ll approach, develop, and complete the work defined in the previous sections. To show the project you’ve planned is achievable with the resources you’ve secured (or hope to secure with the proposal), include very specific details about:
- A project roadmap or project timeline, which is particularly important if you’re planning to use Agile project management strategies to complete the work iteratively
- The key milestones in your project
- The KPIs you’ll use to evaluate your work
- An overview of the people on your team and their skill set.
Top tip: Your reader is likely focused on their return on investment (ROI) as they read about your methods. Try to anticipate their questions as you write this section, ready to expand on your plans to mitigate risks under the next heading.
Risk assessment
While you’ve probably been writing your project proposal with the potential problems in mind, it’s helpful to include a separate heading that describes them explicitly. Focus on the unknowns that could impact your timeline, budget, or the deliverables you described above.
The risk assessment section may feel disheartening, but it shows you’re aware of the pitfalls, making it easier to get your proposal accepted. It tells readers you’ve thought about your work from different angles and puts you in a good position to pivot if necessary.
Top tip: Don’t just list the risks in this section; detail your strategies for monitoring and mitigating them. This is the best way to reassure the stakeholders reviewing your proposal.
Budget
It’s important to include a clear and organized section on the finances for your proposed project. Here, you’ll break down and itemize the costs. This section needs to cover everything from equipment and server space, to staffing and training costs, to rent and utilities.
It’s also important to describe where the money is coming from.
If you’re proposing a project to someone in another department of your company, note the percentage of the annual budget the project would represent. If you’re sending a proposal elsewhere, be sure to list the funding you’ve secured and any other opportunities you have, while making it absolutely clear which funds are locked in and which are TBC.
Top tip: Set out your budget line by line and try to avoid vague entries where possible. If some of your equipment or training is very technical, add a note to explain why it’s necessary for the outcome of the project.
Conclusion
In the closing section of your proposal, you have a chance to restate your key points and leave your reader with a sense of:
- Why your project is important
- Why this is the right time to undertake it
- Why you’re the person or team to take on the responsibility
Top tip: Including a time-sensitive call to action in the concluding paragraphs of your proposal and making the next steps clear to the reader will encourage them to reach out with follow-up questions if they’re open to the idea of your project.
Appendices
Not all project proposals need an appendix. However, it’s not uncommon to have graphs and data tables that support your argument, but would break the flow if you placed them in the main part of your proposal.
These supporting materials belong in the appendices, where they should each have a clearly numbered title. Then, you can refer the reader to, for example, “Appendix 1: SWOT Analysis Table,” without losing the thread of your argument.
Write better project proposals with Wrike
The project proposal structure we’ve described so far is widely recognized, which means it’s a solid strategy for making your documents accessible to all the people who need to analyze them. The templates and the list of sections give you a starting point that can help you convey your ideas clearly and professionally, and act as a safety net so you don’t miss any of the information your potential partners want to see.
But there’s one crucial fact to bear in mind here: The proposal template you choose is only as good as the data you can put into it.
When you have information from a work management tool at your fingertips, it’s easier to quantify the value you can offer, present your argument to potential partners, and create successful proposal documents whenever you need them.
Wrike is a work management platform that creates a central source of truth for your current and future projects.
Every time you create, track, and complete a task in Wrike, the granular details of your work are filed and stored. This means you can pull statistics, generate reports, and analyze that data whenever you need to.
When you need to write a project proposal, this system changes the game.
- When you lay out your project methodologies and objectives, you can reinforce your plan with an exhaustive map of your process, schedule your tasks, and mark your milestones according to your team’s capacity and the task dependencies inherent to your project.
- When you report on your budget, you can access detailed information about time tracking, billable hours, and upcoming costs to give a more accurate estimate.
- When you assess the threats to your project, you can add powerful risk management reports to mitigate issues and anticipate problems, like bottlenecks, before they derail it.
Let’s look at the features of Wrike in more detail.
Watertight information gathering with project proposal forms
When it’s time to write a new proposal, try starting with one of Wrike’s dynamic request forms.
Imagine a potential client asks you to pitch a new package to them. In this case, you can set up a form to gather the details on:
- Their budget
- Their preferred timeline
- The objectives they want to achieve
- Their current setup and the things they want to change.
All this information can help you write a more informative proposal that’s better tailored to their needs.
Plus, request forms make the proposal process easier for your team.
When a potential client returns the form, you can use the information to kick off a custom task type in your team’s workspace. This task can include distinct fields and a fixed workflow for your team to follow. You can even configure Wrike to assign the writing task automatically and notify the relevant members of your team so they can start developing the proposal straight away.
Detailed project tracking for accurate evaluations
Working in Wrike means you can monitor your workflows and track your project’s progress in exact detail. This helps you learn about your existing processes, refine your approach, and develop stronger methodologies for your future projects.
If your company regularly takes on new projects or works with a wide range of clients, workflow management software can help you create a streamlined system and clarify your approach during your pitches and proposals.
Accurate filters to tailor your proposal data to your reader
Every time you update a task in Wrike – whether that’s adding a brief to a shared project, requesting an edit, or sending a round of deliverables to your client – we save and store that data so you can access it later.
We also offer customizable filters for when you need to view the details in a way that informs your approach to your projects. In addition to supporting your team when work begins, you can use these filters to tailor your project proposals to your clients.
For example, imagine your team develops and implements a certain software solution that’s useful for clients in a range of industries. Some clients will be more interested in rapid implementation, while others may know that onboarding a large team will be time-consuming, and they’ll be more focused on your capacity to scale up your current process.
By creating custom reports on your past projects, you’ll be able to show each type of client the statistics that matter most to them and provide a direct answer about what your company can offer.
Personalized proposals like these are far more likely to grab attention, and viewing your past and present projects from multiple angles is the easiest way to zero in on the arguments that will really convince potential partners.
Professional graphics to supplement your proposal
It can be helpful to include graphs, tables, and diagrams in your proposal to hook your reader and clarify the information, especially when visualizing your proposed timeline.
With Wrike, you can create clear, professional visuals to include in your proposal document. From Gantt charts that represent the interconnected phases of your project to charts showing a client’s return on investment, Wrike gives you the tools to transform your latest project data into a user-friendly visual with minimum effort.
Collaborative editing to write proposals together
Wrike informs the decisions you make about your proposal’s content — and helps you turn it into prose. With our document editing feature, you can work on a shared document without leaving the platform where you’re communicating, planning, and tracking your work.
The Wrike editor turns proposal writing into a collaborative process, with live editing, tagged comments, and discussion summaries to bring everyone up to speed. In contrast to long chains of email feedback, Wrike’s process eliminates issues with version control, reduces delays, and helps you create better proposals together.
Content generation to speed up proposal writing
Finally, Wrike’s generative AI features can help you write great proposals that reflect your brand’s voice with far less manual effort.
For example, with Wrike’s new Work Intelligence® features, you can transform rough notes into an initial draft of your proposal for your team to polish together. Or, if you’re struggling with a particular section of your proposal, like your conclusion or your executive summary, try generating a draft with Wrike’s AI to get you started.
You can also tailor the style of your writing to your brand’s voice, change the tone of the proposal to make it feel more or less formal, and even translate your proposals into one of 11 languages — all within Wrike.
Bonus: Wrike project templates for a smoother work experience
Once your proposal is approved, you can set yourself up for success with a custom Wrike workspace for your project team. Here, they can track the status of their tasks, discuss and edit their work, and visualize their progress in a way that keeps everyone in the loop.
We also include a range of project templates to help you build a space that meets your team’s unique needs.
Check out some of our most popular project management templates:
- Adaptive project management template: Creates a flexible, collaborative space for your team and your stakeholders, and adapts to Agile, hybrid, or Waterfall methodologies
- Project schedule template: Breaks larger projects into actionable items, helps assign due dates, and tracks team progress when work begins
- OKR template: Simplifies your strategic planning and connects individual tasks to your shared goals
- Sprint retrospective template: Helps improve the efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness of your future sprints by applying the lessons you’ve learned in the past
These templates can help you increase productivity, meet the goals you set out in your original proposal, and put you in a better position to respond to any changes to the project plan as they arise.
Write compelling proposals every time, with Wrike
Earlier in this post, we showed you a range of different project proposal templates. When you combine these clear frameworks with an exhaustive overview of your previous work, you’ll be in the best position to write the type of project proposals your readers want to see.
From sparking relationships with potential clients to starting new internal initiatives, Wrike has helped over 20,000 organizations track their work and analyze the data in a way that informs their decisions, boosts collaboration, and powers innovation.
Try our project proposal templates, and sign up for Wrike to change the way you approach your projects today.
