Although the end product looks simple, creating budgets for grant proposals can be a time-consuming process. About a third of the time Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine spends on preparing grant applications is devoted to developing budgets.
But that investment pays off, says Alex Gaeth, the organization’s chief executive.
“We assume that most [grant] reviewers are going to this page and looking at it and making an assessment based off of it, whereas some may or may not read through the entire part of the narrative at the same depth,” he says.
Bill Bayreuther, a grant-writing consultant, recommends getting everything on a single page if possible. “Don’t send super-detailed internal budgets,” he says.
That might mean combining some budget categories.
“We’re thinking about what line items can be grouped together and what level of detail to try and make it as simple and clear as can be,” says Mr. Gaeth.
Reducing the number of line items makes the nonprofit’s job easier when funders request a budget in their own format, he says. At the same time, the group needs to include enough information to show that it can raise funds from multiple sources.
The nonprofit aims to have three to six months’ worth of money as a cash reserve, so its budgeting is based on the assumption that there will be a surplus.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine often includes a short budget narrative to explain its plan for the surplus and that “every dollar does have a destination,” says Mr. Gaeth.
But he says nonprofits should give foundations everything they ask for in the format they want. If they don’t ask for a narrative, don’t send it.
Grant applications are often very similar in format. After a charity has written the content once, it can cut and paste and then slightly tweak things, says Mr. Gaeth.
“The philosophy here on grants is that we’re creating a bunch of different puzzle pieces,” he says, the budget being just one of them. “We’re organized and have the pieces.”
That’s why he recommends that organizations try to scale up their grant seeking once they’ve done the hard work of crafting the first proposal.
“If someone’s only doing a handful of grants per year, they’re really missing out. The greatest return is on grants six through 10,” he says. The chapter submits about 25 applications each a year.
By the numbers
Number of staff members involved in budgeting process: About 10
Proportion of grant-writing time spend on creating budgets: 1/3
Average number of grants submitted each year: About 25
