1. GRANT BUDGETS: NARRATIVES AND NUMBERS THAT MAKE THE CASE FOR FUNDING BRUCE HARRINGTON, PRINCIPAL CONSULTING NONPROFITS, LLC BRUCE@CONSULTINGNONPROFITS.COM 719.244.8282

2. MY ASSUMPTIONS: YOU… Are here voluntarily. Experience some “lack of communication” between grant writing and project budgeting. Think it might be better if an accountant (or at least somebody else) did the project budget. Want to help your organization prepare better grant applications. 2

3. OUR GUESTS TODAY. YOU ARE… Development staff with responsibility for grant applications (and the revenue associated with good grants), or Financial staff with responsibility for organizational financial health. 3

4. ZOOM Zoom – Instvan Banyai What is the main teaching point of this illustration? 4

5. ZOOM -2 My view: We all make assumptions We all make assumptions that are wrong 5

6. What are your goals for this hour? I.e., what do you expect from me? What’s the real challenge for you in getting good grant budgets prepared and presented? 6 QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

7. SEMINAR OVERVIEW – 3 POINTS I.Grant Application Budgets are SELLING tools. II.Grant Application Budgets are PLANNING tools. III.An Awarded Grant is a HEALTH tool - both missional and financial. 6

8. I. GRANT APPLICATION BUDGETS ARE SELLING TOOLS. 8

9. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER -1  FINRA Rule 2090 requires a firm to “know the essential facts” concerning every customer. Don’t write grant applications for grantors you’ve never met. 9

10. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER -2 Know the goals of the grant organization and the grant project. Know the rules/guidelines for how they want a budget presented. Know dollar and formula limits. Budget should make sense to a non-financial reader or someone who hasn’t read the narrative. 10

11. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER -3 READER FOCUSED A grant budget is about future events. Use rounded numbers appropriately. Does this budget explain the idea to non-financial people? [Include explanations in the budget presentation itself.] “There is no such thing as good writing, only good editing.” 11

12. KNOW YOURSELF -1 “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. 12

13. KNOW YOURSELF -2 Ensure budget supports the narrative – exactly.  Important in narrative is important in the budget.  Budget presentation is professional and explanatory. The person preparing the budget should be part of the grant application process from the beginning. 13

14. II. GRANT APPLICATION BUDGETS ARE PLANNING TOOLS. 14

15. BUDGET GUESSING & DEBATING Budget numbers are not merely ‘guesstimates’ and an ‘educated’ guess is still a guess. A budget should be based on precisely articulated, internally consistent assumptions that are subjected to internal debate before acceptance. Woods Bowman, Ph.D., DePaul University 2007 15

16. GOOD SELLING COMES FROM GOOD PLANNING You want “sales that wear well.” I.e., you have to live with the consequences of your budget. 16

17. GOOD BUDGETS CLARIFY THINKING Use the process of getting numbers on paper as a tool to force (lead/encourage) your group toward clearer thinking. 17

18. USE PLANNING TOOLS WISELY -1 Tools are servants, not masters. Vision, strategy & non-financial performance goals should dominate the budget, not vice versa. More detail reflects more assumptions. More detail is not necessarily better. 18

19. USE PLANNING TOOLS WISELY -2 CFO, Project Leader and Development Director often have different goals. The one who sets the budget has great influence – but shouldn’t be budgeting alone. Good grant budget planning is not an afterthought. 18

20. THE GRANT APPLICATION PLANNING BUDGET ≠ EXECUTION BUDGET A Grant Application Budget need not necessarily be identical to the Execution Budget. Review the Application Budget after a grant is awarded. Edit & Adjust as appropriate. Consider whether changes are substantial enough to warrant communicating with the grantor. They don’t want to be surprised. 20

21. III. AN AWARDED GRANT IS A HEALTH TOOL – BOTH MISSIONAL AND FINANCIAL. 21

22. AWARDED GRANTS AID ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH Details (explained) help sell ideas. I.e., the ability to articulate and accomplish goals are related. Application budgeting teamwork protects & builds shared vision. Planning assumptions recognize complexities and overhead costs. 22

23. HEALTHY IS REALISTICALLY CONSERVATIVE Know what happens if you succeed. I.e., who gets the money? Know what happens if you don’t succeed. I.e., who is going to fund the gap? Know the risks. Are program participants and/or your organization going to be in jeopardy because of failure? 23

24. A GOOD BUDGET MAP IS HEALTHY “To keep your company on a path, it has to have some kind of map. The budgeting and planning process is that map.” Paula Brock, CFO, Zoological Society of San Diego CFO magazine, July 2005 24

25. WE ALL GO OUT FROM HERE 1.What is the next step for applying this information in your organization? 2.Help me do this better. What was most useful for you? 25

26. 26 GRANT BUDGETS: NARRATIVES AND NUMBERS THAT MAKE THE CASE FOR FUNDING BRUCE HARRINGTON, PRINCIPAL CONSULTING NONPROFITS, LLC BRUCE@CONSULTINGNONPROFITS.COM 719.244.8282