Developing your budget

For any funding application you will need to submit a budget with a breakdown of the project expenditure (how you are intending to spend the money) and any income (for example any match funding or ‘in-kind’ contributions) you have to off-set the overall project cost.

Preparing your budget

• The National Council for Voluntary Organisations have produced guidance on how to prepare your budget

Full cost recovery

As well as you project costs you may be able to include some of your organisation’s core costs, for example, heating, lighting, staffing, in your budget if your project will be using any of these. Including a proportion of your core costs in your grant is called full cost recovery.

• The National Lottery Community Fund have produced guidance full cost recovery
• South East Museum Development ran an informative training session on full cost recovery

Read the grant guidance

When developing your budget make sure you have read the guidance notes for your chosen grant stream to ensure that you are applying for funds for permitted activities. Each funding stream is different but the funder should detail what they will or won’t fund in the grant supporting information.

Examples of grant guidance giving detail of what can and can’t be funded:

• The National Lottery Heritage Fund
• Arts Council England – Finance information sheets
• Museums Galleries Scotland – Museum Development Fund: What we can and can’t fund
• Welsh Government – Capital grant for museums, archives & libraries: Guidance for applicants
• Northern Ireland Museums Council – Museums Connect Grant: Guidance notes

If you still have queries after reading the guidance it is usually possible to call or email the funder to clarify allowable costs.