Nonprofit Management All-in-One For Dummies

Chapter 12

Creating a Budget That Includes All the Funding You Need

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining the basics in your budget request

Eyeballing your budget from a funder’s perspective

Plotting expenses for multiple-year funding requests

Opting to use a fiscal sponsor

Many grant applicants create the budget section first, but it’s actually one of the last sections you should tackle. After all, you can’t develop an accurate budget for your grant request until you know all the costs involved in the funded project’s implementation. Where do these cost clues come from? The program design narrative (see Chapter 10 of this minibook for more about that).

It’s extremely beneficial if you can develop your budget information in tandem instead of tackling it when your proposal narrative is complete. If you’re working hand-in-hand with your finance staff, board treasurer, or program administrator, you can work together to create a budget during the narrative writing process. And, of course, budgeting plays an important part when you’re building a fundraising plan (as discussed in Book 2, Chapter 2 ...