Streamline Your Approval Bill Format for Nonprofit Organizations

On approval bill format for Nonprofit

hi there i'm back at it again this week with more on budgets today i want to talk about a non-profit's annual operating budget now i know there's a lot of really great advice out there about non-profit financials and i'm not here to reinvent the wheel or repeat what's already been said so i want to talk to you about how your annual budget fits into your grant strategy in case you don't already know me i'm dr krista krulinkas and i am a grant writing consultant and the creator of grant writing made easy so i'm going to stick to my zone of genius and talk to you about grants and annual budgets in my grant genius framework training i talk all about the importance of having both an actual current budget and a projected annual budget so when you apply for grants funders are typically going to want to see both your previous year's actual budget and your current year's projected budget now i'm going to go into greater detail about what each of these are in a moment but for now i want to share a bit of strategy that will help you do not wait until you have a grant opportunity to apply for to create your nonprofit's annual budget this is one of the key components of being grant ready which is all of that work you need to do before you even start thinking about searching for and applying for grants if you're not familiar with the term grant readiness definitely check out my training the grant genius framework for more on what grant readiness means and how to get there i also want to emphasize that to a grant maker your budget is not just a measure of your organization's financial health although it indicates some of that as well your annual budget makes a statement about your priorities and your mission and when you're writing a grant you want to be sure that all of your materials tell a clear and unified story so it should be clear from your budget and your organizational history and programs what your focus is and those pieces should not tell different stories they should be in alignment here is what grant makers are looking for in your actual budget okay so your actual budget is documentation of funds in and out for the past years that you've been in operation current year to date projected budgets are for the future and include anticipated or expected revenue and expenses when a grant maker looks at your past year's budgets they're looking for diversity and funding sources reasonable overhead and operating expenses which i also talked about in my last budget video and budgets that like i said align with your organizational mission history and programs grant makers want to see a few things when they look at your projected annual budget so the budget for the current year or if you're at the end of that year the next year they want a sense of where your revenue will come from this is one thing that folks come to me confused about often even though you may not have the funding yet or promise of funding yet you should have in your budget what you expect and hope to receive and what you need to receive in order to operate and cover the expenses that you list grant makers also want to see that you're requesting funds from other sources besides just them and that you are doing more than just seeking grants so that you're either earning revenue you have individual donations you're doing fundraising activities all of that and they also want to see on your expenses side that you've allocated resources ing to those organizational priorities and your programs now here's where to start if all of this is sounding a little overwhelming i want you to dedicate some time this week to take stock of your nonprofit's financial documents so just ask yourself do i have a current budget do i have previous budget you may get a grant maker that asks for a prior two or even three years of budgets you want to make sure you have all of those up-to-date accurate and on file then ask yourself do i have good bookkeeping software that i am using to implement this budget and does that bookkeeping software allow you to set categories for funding and restrict funding that comes in ing to programs capital needs and all of the different categories you might have now if you don't have an annual budget for this current year start one we're going to start with what you've already spent what you've already brought in and then you can project out from there and you can account for growth if you have new funding sources that you anticipate getting having a budget is one of the keys to being grant ready so i absolutely implore you to have that before you start grant seeking your budget does not have to be complex and if you haven't read my last post or watched my last video check it out for some help on how to categorize administrative expenses if you have some questions about those all right i hope that this gave you some clarity around operating budgets i have an entire module on budgeting both for the operational budget as well as program and project budgets inside of grant writing made easy which is my comprehensive self-paced online grant writing course that i've been teaching since 2016 and i've had thousands of members go through successfully and start to get grant awards either for the first time or get more and higher award amounts so if you're already a member please go check out module five and remember you can submit your budget for review during one of our twice monthly workshops all right that is it i appreciate you all so much and i hope to see you inside the course soon