Budget - Cost estimate
From plans to prices - with a clear cost estimate and a strong budget, bring your project to life.
You've developed your concept and created a plan, making important choices - such as the location of your project and who will collaborate on it. Now it's time for the next step: understanding the costs. By concretely translating your plans into numbers, you'll create a realistic cost estimate. Based on this, you will prepare a clear and reliable budget that shows what you need to carry out your project.
A budget: translating your plan into numbers
In your plan, you have made choices about, for example, the number of employees, locations and events. Now you link numbers to them and estimate costs. The budget includes all the costs you think you will incur. If it is a larger initiative or project, you can use different headings to keep the budget clear. Work with categories such as production, program, personnel and communication.
There are different ways to make a budget, but most people use Excel. With it, you put all the items neatly in a table, with automatic calculations of the total amounts per item and for the entire project. Check out the sample budgets below as a handy starting point.
Examples of budgets
Tips for preparing your budget
- Budget realistically: Get quotes if you are unsure about amounts and take into account Fair Pay for personnel costs. Budget a little too much rather than too little - downward adjustments can always be made, the other way around is more difficult.
- Provide clarity: Explain items that you expect may raise questions. A clear budget avoids unnecessary confusion for reviewers or collaboration partners.
- Be precise with your set-up: Check whether you are subject to VAT and whether you should prepare your budget with or without VAT. In addition, save different versions of your budget separately - this keeps it organized and prevents errors.
Translating your project plan into numbers
In your plan, you have already made important choices: who will work with it, where and when the project will take place, and what it will take to carry it out. The next step is to link numbers to these choices by preparing a budget. A budget is basically a reasoned estimate of the costs you expect to incur and is an essential part of your project preparation. Especially for grant applications, a clear budget is often mandatory.
Components of a budget
Which items you include in your budget depends on your project. Grantors often ask for an explanation per item so that it is clear how you arrived at certain amounts. So always include that explanation - it increases transparency and strengthens your application.
Common items include:
- Personnel/honoraria
- Program costs
- Communications & marketing
- Materials/supplies
- Office, studio or location rental
- Travel costs
- Subscriptions
- Insurance
- Permits
- Unforeseen
💡 Tip: List all costs - even if they are sponsored or "in-kind. 'In-kind' refers to contributions in the form of goods or services rather than money, such as free venue use or technical support. This will give you a complete and realistic picture of the total costs.
Components of a budget
In your budget, you make all foreseeable costs clear - including costs that you get sponsored or receive in kind. A budget is always an estimate of the total costs to be incurred, and it is important to be as complete as possible. Below is an overview of common items, including tips and points to consider.
Types of budgets
Budgeting plays a role at every stage of your project. You start with an estimate of the costs: your initial budget. With that, you start looking for funders. As soon as you know how much money you have raised, you draw up a working budget - the version with which you will actually get started.
At the end of your project, you make a statement: the overview of what it really cost. You need this for accounting purposes. Do you organize more projects or work longer on an initiative? Then you will probably also work with a multi-year budget.
Types of budgets
Throughout the life cycle of your project, you work with different types of budgets. Each phase requires a slightly different approach, tailored to the goals and insights of the moment. Here we explain how you get from an initial estimate to a balanced justification and how you eventually move toward a multi-year budget.
Financial administration
Throughout the project, keep your records clear and organized. Collect and store all tenders, invoices, contracts and agreements in one place. This prevents hassle afterwards and helps you to quickly adjust budgets, justify costs or retrieve information - for example, when applying for subsidies or making a final report. Good administration saves time, prevents errors and gives you a grip on your project.
Financial administration
Are you working on a cultural project or initiative? Then chances are you will have to deal with funding. And therefore also with keeping good records. Whether it's grants, income from ticket sales or sponsorship money - clear financial records are indispensable.