A 5-Part Series – Installment #2/5
Welcome back to this Program + Grants series! We’ve addressed the Need Statement, talked about SMART Objectives, and made it clear what we mean to the Program staff. They’re starting to “get” what a grant proposal is about and what it needs to be a strong grant proposal! Now we’ll talk about a dreaded but necessary issue: the Program Budget. Program needs to be involved, deeply, so let’s get to the bottom of it.
BUDGET: GET IT ALL PAID FOR
Program staff often doesn’t take into account all the costs a program can incur, and what a program can end up costing an agency. A new or expanded program may need more teams’ time devoted to it and more items involved than they initially planned on.
Here are some examples of questions to ask to prod what costs you may have to account for in a new or expanded program. These questions would also be a great way to start the wheels turning as you get to the Inputs/Resources piece of your Logic Model meeting. [You ARE going to hold a Logic Model meeting, aren’t you??]
These same questions apply if you’re starting a new program, but for this example let’s say a new demographic is being added to the participants of a current program:
How are those new people going to find out about the program?
There may be marketing needed: billboards, flyers, and/or TV, radio, social ads, etc. Someone would have to design those, get them approved, source them, and possibly pay voice or on-camera talent. Then add ad placement costs. Then ask yourselves how long would you need to do this marketing?
–$$–
How are the new people going to get to where the program takes place?
If needed, transportation would have to be arranged. You’d need to account for the time of the (for instance) bus driver, their time while they wait for the program to let out, then drive everyone back to their homes, plus the fuel/maintenance/miles for the bus.
–$$–
Will you operate your program outside of your space’s normal operating hours?
If so, there may be extra utilities, overtime for janitorial staff, etc. For instance, if you’ll operate in a school gym or cafeteria after school lets out or in the summer months, the school may charge your program for those expenses.
–$$–
How will the current program serve the additional people?
Does new staff need to be hired, would HR need to conduct background checks? Have you accounted for the time/paid staff hours these activities would take not only in your budget, but also in your timetable?
–$$–
How will success with the new demographic be evaluated?
Will you need an outside evaluator (check the funders’ RFP), or a survey page built onto your website, or paper surveys printed? In any case, all those results will need to be tabulated.
–$$–
So as the Grants person, you need to pull out all the potential costs from your Program planners. What may have started out as a $50,000 program, may easily end up costing twice that, if you factor in all the resources that are needed to be successful.
All these costs would need to be determined, and how does that happen?
For internal items or staff time needed, Program staff would need to check within the agency’s different departments and find out time estimates (from the staff) and hourly rates (from HR), and calculate the costs to handle each need.
For instance, if marketing is needed because the program participants need to learn about the program somehow, Program would need to go to the Marketing staff, and explain the project and what communication is needed for the project (ex.: we need people in the XYZ part of town to know this program starts in March and helps them in the following ways). When Marketing tells you the best method would be (via billboards and flyers, for example) and how much that would cost and how long it would take to get that stuff arranged for, they could give you a cost estimate, a time estimate for their work, and lead time for making those arrangements.
The Program staff would give those estimates to the Grants person, who would approach HR, who would give them the hourly rate for the staffer(s) working on the project, and calculate the total. Grants, of course, would keep that information confidential. [The routing for that info may be different for your agency, check with Finance.]
For specific items needed that are from outside the nonprofit (like specific stuff the program participants will handle or use), that’s also Program’s job to root out, since only they know the specifications of the items they will need to make the program function as they intend. The Program staff would need to call around, check prices on the internet (Amazon, for instance), and calculate totals and give that info to Grants.
The Budget is an important piece of a grant application, so making sure you account for all costs properly for the Budget will show the prospective funder that you are thoughtful and thorough, and that your agency is intentional and realistic about seeing this program (or program expansion, in this example) come to fruition.
This series is meant to help communication between Program and Grants, something that can cause friction and misunderstandings between the two departments. When those communication mix-ups are cleared up, the result is stronger proposals that are easier to put together. I hope I am accomplishing that with this series.
