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In this video, we will take a look at key points in writing a project budget to be submitted with a grant proposal. I will use examples from grants available through the NNLM Southeastern/Atlantic Region to illustrate some details, but of course, we are not the only option out there for grant funding. If you apply for other grants, some of the details discussed here will be different, but the goal of this video is to give you an idea of the information you’ll need when creating your budget. Every grant will have certain expenses that you are allowed to spend the grant money on. Money from NNLM grants can cover a variety of things, including project personnel, travel, equipment and technology, collection materials, supplies, publicity for events related to your project, and printing. Be aware that a grant might place limits on how much money you can spend on a certain allowed expense. This limit might be either a specific dollar figure or a percentage of the project budget. For example, NNLM grants allow you to buy collection materials, but you cannot spend more than 5% of your budget on them. When applying for a grant, study the allowed expenses carefully, and make sure everything you’re asking for is allowed by the grant. In the same way, all grants will have a list of expenses that are not allowed. For NNLM grants, these include food and furniture. In addition, giveaways and commemorative items, like branded pens or tote bags or other swag are not allowed. Review the allowed and excluded expenses carefully. If you’re not sure which category an anticipated project expense would fall under, check with the contact person for the grant to find out. It’s important to be as comprehensive as possible when creating your project budget, so consider what your indirect costs are likely to be. These are costs that are needed for your institution to operate and complete the project, but which aren’t identifiable with a specific cost objective. Your institution might call this “Overhead,” and when creating your budget, you usually give it as a percentage of your total grant, and you don’t have to itemize it. Most larger institutions have an applied rate for indirect costs, and you can check with your business manager or CFO to figure out what those rates are. Be aware that some grants put a limit on the percentage of your budget that can go to indirect costs, and some grants exclude indirect costs altogether. When you’re drafting a budget, it’s important that the reviewer can tell what every item in the budget will be used for. Make sure your budget agrees with what you write about the project in your grant proposal’s narrative. Include all resources that you will need to complete the project. Also, it’s important to be as specific as you can in describing what you will need. For example, don’t just say you need $1000 for equipment. Instead, say you need $900 for this...