Help for addressing the Budget in your Project Narrative (6b)

The budget is arguably the most important component of your grant request (since without funding there is no project). However, for the purposes of our class, I've provided materials to read and watch in order to learn about project budgeting.

There is no line-item budget section in your final project submission. although I have asked that you include in your project narrative brief descriptions that relate to spending and the matching portion of your project plan.

Thus my article today is about things to consider when preparing budget comments in your class proposal.

The first mention of the budget would be part of your Abstract, which introduces the reader to the project for which you are requesting funding. In the Abstract you would indicate the total amount of your project and that portion you are requesting in a grant. From Your Community Health Foundation, for example, it might look something like this:

We respectfully request a 12-month grant from Your Community Health Foundation in the amount of $50,000. Our organization, through budget allocations,  partnerships, and in-kind contributions, will provide a $50,000 match toward the full project cost of $100,000.

Here are other examples of how you might provide the matching amount in your total budget:

If Your Community Health Foundation agrees to fund a two-year grant of $100,000 for our proposed project, our agency Board of Directors has agreed to provide cash matching amounts of $50,000 from our existing budget and an in-kind match equivalent of $50,000 through existing professional and staff services explained in our narrative, and necessary for implementing this project. 

In addition, we estimated in Year 2 that billable third-party insurance for patients receiving this service will total at least $100,000 and be applied toward the project expense; plus a major corporate partner of our enterprise has agreed to fund this project with a $25,000 grant. In total, we have identified and committed to the full $325,000 in project cost if Your Community Health Foundation graciously agrees to our request.

You need to keep the budget and its line items in mind when supplying “inputs” in the project narrative and logic model. It is around the same time you are discussing “dosage” activities with your primary customers. Your activities are intended to support the outcomes identified in the evaluation section of the grant. For example, describing inputs listed in the narrative and logic model might be:

To accomplish the training components in our project plan we will develop a series of online-accessible introductory and advanced learning modules, with a total of seven topic areas. A learning management consultant will be secured to develop this web-based interactive teaching experience. A secure internet hosting and registration service will be subscribed to on a monthly basis for students to enroll and manage their learning program. 

As you can see from the above example, I have identified the “inputs” needed for the activity and described the manner in which the activity will operate and have related direct expense. Of course, every project is different – in fact, for this class, we have many different projects, each of which will have a different matrix of project expenses and funding sources. Many grant RFPs supply a budget page in order to break down your budget into line-item listings but also grouped by sections (e.g. Personnel, Consultants, Equipment, Supplies, etc.). 

For the purposes of our class, we're not preparing a full budget, just a few paragraphs where brief explanations of the resources comprising your project would be deemed reasonable based on your action plan. These are general descriptions of what you plan to purchase or secure using the grant request and it's matching amount. No research is necessary to identify costs, just describe the inputs and resources needed to conduct your project and use common sense that the ultimate amounts would fit within your total proposed budget, originally identified in your Abstract.

I hope the information here, in your textbook, and in the materials, I provide in the Take-Away Resource Library and elsewhere, will be helpful to you in the future. Unfortunately, time and the extent of all the content of a grant proposal just don't provide us an opportunity to include a written budget portion during the class.

But if you have any questions about completing a real grant budget in the future, please feel contact me by e-mail.

I've said already that I would be happy to be a resource to you if you have questions in the real world. If you find yourself preparing a grant proposal, and would like to bounce off some ideas or content with me, it would be my pleasure.

SPECIAL FEATURE: 
Introduction to Project Budgets from Grant Space by The Foundation Center.