Effective Budgeting Strategies for Grant Proposals

Budgets

Before we start You DID contact your business office already, yes? You DID mention this grant to tribal council or other authority, yes?

Budget forms Three (at least) parts Budget summary Budget detail/ justification

Personnel Category Name Hours Rate Total Principal Investigator M. Freud 936 80 74,880 Senior Software Developer D. De Mars 1040 70 72,800 Software Developer L. Bow 1040 25 26,000

Tip USE EXCEL OR OTHER SPREADSHEET You are going to recalculate these figures a lot! This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Stop! Your budget, key personnel and tasks all better match!

1. Insert a formula that multiplies rate by hours so that your total for a position automatically changes when you adjust the hours 2. Have the hours linked to your person loading chart so when you change the hours scheduled the budget changes automatically 3. Insert your indirect costs formula so when direct costs are changed your indirect costs change automatically Making life easier

You may actually need to do TWO budgets, one for your business office and one for the grant if they require different line items Talk to your business office! Example: Grant forms don t require you to break out indirect into workers comp, health insurance and FICA but tribe does

Travel Federal per diem rate https://www.gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem- rates Fly coach (sorry)

Supplies paper, USB drives, pens, computers, iPads Equipment (defined as cost over $5,000 ) Cell phone? Utilities? Make sure anything you assume will be paid by tribe really will be. Include in letters of commitment Try to think of everything you ll NEED

REASONABLE AND NECESSARY Reviewers look at if the line item is necessary to accomplish your tasks, if the tasks are necessary to accomplish your objectives and if the cost is reasonable for the line item

Your turn: Start your budget Category Person 1 Person 2 Indirect Travel Supplies Name Rate Hours Total

Budget Justification: Travel Travel is requested for four trips each to Missouri, central California and North Dakota to collect data at school sites and meet with teachers. Costs are budgeted for economy rental car, coach class airfare plus 3 nights lodging and per diem at the federal rate for rural Missouri ($141/$64) and North Dakota ($98/$59). For California, costs are budgeted for mileage round trip and two days lodging and per diem at the federal rate for rural California, ($101 lodging and $69 per diem). The extra days for Missouri and North Dakota are required due to the time for air travel. * First and last day s travel are less per diem

Budget Justification : Supplies Supplies are budgeted at $300 per month based on history of projects of this type administered by the corporation. This amount covers paper, ink cartridges, USB drives and other disposable supplies used by the project as well as two tablet computers used for data collection in observation of students in usability testing.

Budget justification: Example Mr. Dennis De Mars will work as senior programmer with Dr. De Mars, providing support in creation of animation and interactive features of the Aztech game. He is budgeted for 424 hours on this project. Mr. De Mars has B.S. degrees in mathematics and physics, an M.S. in Physics and is A.B.D. in particle physics from UCLA. For the past thirty years he has worked as a software engineer and scientist producing graphical user interface and simulation software for the defense industry. He is also the author of the Fractal Domains software, used in physics education, and the Pads note- taking program. He is paid $70 per hour, the corporate rate for a senior software developer with a graduate degree and over 20 years of experience. The corporation will provide $4,680 of Mr. De Mars salary as an in-kind match.

Adjusting your budget Can the tribe provide in-kind match? Can another organization provide in-kind match? Can you cut the hours? Can you reduce indirect cost charged?