Budgets: Start With Getting the Right Person on your Team.
Let's talk proposal budgets. Your story needs to be told in a narrative but it also needs to be captured in the budget. Funders are investors. Grantors are investing in your work so it's your job in the proposal to demonstrate you are the best investment of their dollar.
To start a budget:
List all anticipated income/revenue by source and amount. Where will you bring in cash....grants? Donations? Fundraisers? Social enterprise? Key question: What amount of cash is needed to operate this program or project? What do you have and what do still need to raise? What's your plan for raising what you need?
Outline individual line items expenses. What are ALL the expenses needed to make this project or program happen? Think supplies, materials, staff, volunteers, occupancy. Identify 100% of all expenses.
Budgets must be balanced. Do you have enough revenue to meet your expenses? Expenses cannot exceed your anticipated revenue. If the costs are higher than the money you'll be bringing in, then you have some work to do to think through securing revenue to meet expenses.
Get someone on your team that loves numbers and budgets. Budgets are too critical in the proposal development process to not get it right.
