Grant Budget Template
A budget is read as a test of whether the plan is real. Reviewers check it against the narrative before they judge either, because a project that promises four staff and funds two has told them something about the whole application. This is how the standard categories work and where the arithmetic usually goes wrong.
See the coursesEverything on this page is yours to copy and adapt. The courses cover the decisions behind it: what to charge, what to promise, and what to put in writing.
What yours needs to cover
- ✓ Personnel and fringe, with effort expressed the way funders ask for it
- ✓ Direct costs: travel, supplies, equipment, contracted services and participant costs
- ✓ Indirect costs, and what to do when a funder caps or refuses them
- ✓ Cost share and matching funds, including in-kind contributions and how they are valued
- ✓ A justification column that explains how each figure was reached
How to use it
- List every activity in the plan and cost it, before deciding what the total should be.
- Convert staff time into the unit the form asks for, whether that is percentage of effort or hours.
- Check the funder's rules on indirect costs and unallowable items before totalling anything.
- Read the budget and the narrative side by side and make every shared figure agree.
Grant Budget Template FAQs
What are indirect costs in a grant budget?
Indirect costs are the shared costs of running an organization that cannot be attributed to one project, such as rent, utilities and administration. Funders vary widely in whether they pay them and at what rate, so the guidelines decide this rather than the applicant.
What is cost share?
Cost share, or matching funds, is the portion of the project cost covered by somebody other than the funder. It can be cash or in-kind, and it is often either required, encouraged or explicitly not considered, so check which of the three applies.
Should the budget round numbers?
Show the arithmetic honestly. A column of round numbers reads as an estimate, and a reviewer who suspects the figures were assembled backwards from the maximum award will read the rest of the application that way.
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