Related Pages in this Manual
- Green Living Program: Budget Development and Budget and Finance
- Student Internship Program: Funding
The Budget
Your proposal should include all financial details, including your program's bottom line. Funders will need to know exactly what they are committing when they enter final negotiations with you. If you find later that you have under-budgeted the program and must ask funders for more money, then you will lose some of the trust you painstakingly built. Planning and presenting your budget carefully will help you avoid that scenario.
To accurately estimate your future expenses, consult knowledgeable managers and staff members and request their comments on your draft budget. A sound budget will have undergone a series of reviews during its development. Build in line items that allow for unpredictable costs, such as increases in overhead, and overestimate certain costs so that you have space for tightening the budget if potential funders require that you do so. At the same time, be realistic about what will get approved. If your 20-student green living program requires overhead greater than your funders are willing or able to provide, downscale your program rather than stretch insufficient resources.