Building the Total Value Budget

A Step-By-Step Framework for Crafting an Unbeatable Project Budget

An A+ proposal budget provides an honest, complete, and clear picture of the total value of everything it takes to do your work successfully.

It also stands as an invaluable management and evaluation tool when it comes to running your grant-funded program.

So how can you craft this type of budget? That’s the question you’ll explore with Maryn Boess in this down-to-earth, myth-busting session.

In this webinar, you will:

• learn and practice how to take a "total value” approach to budget-building, so you can clearly and compellingly show the value of everything it takes to do your work successfully;
• learn why you should (almost) never plan your proposal budget using the form the grantmaker gives you, and what you can use instead;
• work with a real-life scenario to go through each of the six major budget categories, looking at the key issues and challenges you can expect to run into in each one;
• have the chance to whip out your calculator and try your own hand at thinking through some of the situations in a real-life scenario;
• get a behind-the-scenes view of how grantmakers evaluate your proposal budget and what your budget tells them about your organization;
• clear away the confusion around the value of volunteer time, accounting for “match,” handling administrative/indirect costs, and other perennially perplexing budget issues; and,
• be introduced to a powerful planning tool to help you craft a budget that is comprehensive, realistic, and bullet-proof—and that will work for you, your organization, and your grantmaking partners.

Most importantly, you’ll walk away understanding how to break the “starvation cycle” that plagues many nonprofit organizations so you no longer understate the cost and value of your mission-critical work.

This session is perfect for any project or leadership team member who wants to transform a budget into a rock-solid resource plan that will support your project's successful implementation.

Testimonials from past participants:  

This workshop provides a great perspective on the “total value” budget. I love that it was about more than crunching numbers – Maryn does a great job of using metaphors and examples to build understanding of the WHY. Thank you for making a (to me) challenging topic easy to learn and enjoyable!
-Laura Keller

As a nonprofit consultant, I’m always looking to educate myself about best practices and processes to share with my clients. Maryn’s budget class was the most comprehensive and incredibly detailed I’ve taken thus far! I’ve completely restructured how I will be creating budgets with my clients.
-Jeri Vradenburg