Chapter 8 – Developing Your Budget and Budget Narrative

For the grant writer, putting a dollar figure to an idea can be vexing. Yet, the budget is the first step in understanding the true costs associated with making your dream a reality. While the grant requirements may necessitate a different type of budget, the spirit behind the request is putting dollar figures into ideas. The budget narrative provides the details behind the line items of the budget and is essential to the justification process. The narrative provides an explanation of the ideas to include, matching funds and nuances of the budget that may be lost elsewhere in the grant. Some grant reviewers rely heavily on the budget, while others find value in the budget narrative, but both are important parts of the grant writing process. This chapter will show you how to develop your budget and create a budget narrative.