This week you will build an annual budget for your nonprofit including where you will get money (revenue) and what you will spend that money on (expenses). Here are the requirements:
1) Paste your organization’s mission statement at the beginning of the paper.
CREATE A VISUAL OVERVIEW:
2) BUDGET TABLE: Create a Word table (not a screenshot or a link to an external file such as Excel) that outlines your revenue and expenses and embed it into your document. Use this table as a guideline: How to create your new nonprofit’s first budget.Links to an external site.
3) REVENUES: You must include at least one grant and two other sources of revenue (grants, donations, earned income/fee for service, etc.) in your table. Not sure where to start? Search for grants online (e.g., google “grants for soup kitchens in SC”). Remember that you are building a small to mid sized, local/regional nonprofit with a minimum budget of $75k per year, and a maximum budget of $500k per year.
WRITE A BUDGET NARRATIVE:
4) DETAILED JUSTIFICATION: Under the budget-table, provide a running text of additional details about each and every category/type of revenue and expense you have included in your budget. For example, if you have $50k in grants listed in revenue, tell me what grants you will apply for and how much you expect from each grant. Explain why your grant-giver is a good fit for your nonprofit. If you allocated $20k for marketing expenses, tell us what you are spending it on, if you expect $20k in individual donations, explain your calculations (note that a start-up nonprofit may have a low amount of initial donations), etc.
Example of a budget item justification:
“This item was estimated at $XX,XXX by calculating A and B. We also note that *insert reading/source* estimates this revenue/expenditure at a similar level. We plan on using the amount for C, which will consist of *insert further details*.”
5) PERSONNEL EXPENSES: If you have $100k in personnel expenses, tell me how much each employee will make, full-time, part-time, does the amount include benefits, etc. Please remember that your nonprofit already hired an Executive Director and three staff members – and that each individual is entitled to fair compensation (google “How much does a nonprofit employee in *insert state* make?”). Your salaries have to be competitive from the get-go, as starting off with lower salaries (and vaguely promising a salary increase in the future) will only guarantee a lack of qualified job applicants!
Remember, 501(c)3 organizations are exempt from federal income tax; however, they are required to withhold federal income taxes from employee paychecks unless an employee is paid less than $100 per year. Calculate your employees’ payroll taxes here Links to an external site.and add those to your table.
CITE YOUR SOURCES:
6) This assignment will require you to do some additional research/digging beyond the readings and resources we have provided to make your budget realistic. So…as always, cite your sources, and you must include at least two external sources (not included in the readings and resources in Canvas) for this assignment. Cite your grant sources as well!
