Grant budget template
A grant budget lists every cost of the project by category and shows how each figure was calculated. Most funders use the same categories: personnel, fringe benefits, travel, equipment, supplies, contractual, other direct costs and indirect costs. Fill in the template below and keep it in step with your budget narrative. If the funder supplies its own budget form, use that form.
Reviewers read the budget as a test of whether you have actually planned the work described in the narrative. A figure that appears in the narrative but not in the table is one of the quickest ways to lose their confidence in an otherwise strong proposal.
Free to copy and adapt. Square brackets mark what you replace. Nothing here is tied to a particular funder. Read each funder's guidelines for required headings, page limits and attachments before you paste a finished draft into their application form.
The template
Personnel
Staff salaries come first. Show each person's share of time on the project so a reviewer can check it against everything else that person is already doing for your organization.
Program Director: $[annual salary] × [percent of time]% × [months]/12 = $[amount]
Program Coordinator: $[annual salary] × [percent]% × [months]/12 = $[amount]
Personnel subtotal: $[amount]
Fringe benefits
Taxes and benefits for that staff. Most organizations apply a single rate to salaries and keep a note of how that rate was worked out in case the funder asks.
Fringe at [rate]% of personnel: $[amount]
Basis for the rate: [negotiated rate agreement, or how the estimate was calculated]
Travel
List each trip. Federal budgets usually expect mileage and per diem at the published government rates for the destination rather than an estimate of what the trip might cost.
[Purpose]: [number] people × [number] trips × $[cost per trip] = $[amount]
Local mileage: [miles] × $[rate per mile] = $[amount]
Equipment
Big purchases only. Items above your organization's capitalization threshold count as equipment and often carry their own rules about ownership, tracking and disposal after the grant ends.
[Item]: [quantity] × $[unit cost] = $[amount]
Why the project needs it: [one line]
Supplies
Consumables and small items. Anything that costs less than your equipment threshold belongs here even when you buy a lot of it at once.
[Item]: [quantity] × $[unit cost] = $[amount]
[Item]: [quantity] × $[unit cost] = $[amount]
Contractual
Outside help. Give each consultant or subcontractor a rate and a scope of work so the reviewer can see exactly what the money buys and why your own staff can't do it.
[Consultant or firm]: [hours or deliverables] × $[rate] = $[amount] for [scope of work]
Other direct costs
The catch-all. Participant support, printing, rent for project space and similar costs go here when they belong to the project and fit no other category.
[Cost, such as participant support, printing or rent for project space]: $[amount]
Indirect costs
Shared overhead. Use your federally negotiated rate if you have one or the rate the funder allows. Apply it only to the base that the rate agreement or the funder names.
Indirect at [rate]% of [base, such as modified total direct costs]: $[amount]
Totals and other support
Add it all up. Many funders want to see cash match and in-kind support beside the request even when they don't require any. It shows who else believes in the project.
Total direct costs: $[amount]
Total request: $[amount]
Cash match: $[amount] from [source]
In-kind support: $[value] of [what is donated] from [source]
Total project cost: $[amount]
Skip the blank page
Quillify drafts the budget narrative as part of the proposal, working from the budgets and documents you select. The evaluator then scores the whole proposal against the announcement before you send it.
Questions people ask
What categories go in a grant budget?
The standard set is personnel, fringe benefits, travel, equipment, supplies, contractual, other direct costs and indirect costs. Federal forms use these same categories.
What is the difference between direct and indirect costs?
Direct costs belong to the project itself, such as the coordinator's salary or program supplies. Indirect costs are shared overhead like accounting, rent and leadership time, usually charged as a percentage rate.
Do I need a budget narrative as well?
Usually. The narrative explains how every line was calculated and why the project needs it. Reviewers read the two side by side.
Related guides: How to write a budget narrative. The budget-line funding. The mistakes that repeat in grant proposals. All free templates.
Let Quillify write the first draft.
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