Take a look at this list of typical proposal messages and the corresponding graphics that can best convey them. Readers remember concrete images better than they do abstract concepts. Graphics lure the reader to the page. Graphics bring the abstract and the concrete together. Readers expect to see graphics in proposals.
Graphics require less energy to understand than abstract ideas.
Graphics help you structure and present thoughts, ideas and concepts. Just about any sort of graphic you would put in other technical documents would work in a proposal. You need to remember, however, to make sure the graphic is relevant to the point you are making. We'll have more discussions of proposal graphics in future issues.