For example, program managers can offer details about anticipated costs, while financial officers can provide an overview of past income trends. Keep monthly and quarterly tabs on your nonprofit’s cash flow with this all-inclusive, customizable template. Pre-filled income sources — such as grants, donations, etc. — enable you to track monthly and quarterly income actuals. A budget is a guide that can help a nonprofit plan for the future as well as assess its current financial health.
Propel Nonprofits Program Budget and Allocation Template and Resource
They support complex calculations, web and Excel integration, donation tracking, and invoicing. Insurance is one of those necessary costs that comes with running a nonprofit. Include your general liability, directors liability, employee benefits, and other insurances here. You could also include insurance costs for any vehicles you own, property you occupy, and equipment you own. Alongside your water and energy costs, you’ll also need to think about your phone and internet provisions. Record them here and take the opportunity to compare them against what’s available on the market.
Best Free☝️ Google Sheets Nonprofit Budget Templates for 2023
Nonprofit organizations need physical space to conduct their work, including office space and employee parking. Even if you operate within a virtual working environment, you’ll likely have facilities expenses, such as work laptops or technology reimbursement for your team. In incurring fixed expenses, you can reduce your overall costs, making it less wasteful.
QuickBooks Nonprofit Budget Templates
- Nonprofits often rely on unpredictable funding streams such as donations, grants, and seasonal fundraising campaigns.
- You can easily find pre-built templates for operating budgets, program-based budgets, and grant proposals.
- If any of the sources don’t apply to you, you can just delete them—likewise, you can add anything that’s missing.
- If you’re a nonprofit organization, you’ll know there is no room for error regarding the management of funds, as this could have a direct impact on the probability of securing funds in the future.
- To make sure you don’t forget anything critical, here’s a look at several key areas you need to include in a program budget plan.
Consider strengthening your team’s communication abilities with targeted business writing skills training from Natural Write. This includes estimating the costs of running your organization; such as salaries, rent, office supplies, and marketing. Budgeting for a surplus allows you to support future innovations and invest in your staff.
Define the initial plan and process
Running a nonprofit is a lot like learning to juggle—exciting as the skill is, it’s harder than it looks! If you’re looking for a way to keep all those balls in the air, nothing is more valuable than a foolproof nonprofit budget. Instead of predicting revenue by individual grants or line items, the cutoff method looks at revenue as a whole. To use this method, simply calculate the projected fundraising revenue by multiplying the estimated total amount with the probability estimate.
Given our focus on foundation grants, most of Candid’s budget resources are for proposal budgets. You can also find information here about other budgeting tools, such as organizational operating budgets and cash flow forecasts. With these templates, you can easily create a detailed budget that includes all the necessary information, from projected income and expenses to funding https://nerdbot.com/2025/06/10/the-key-benefits-of-accounting-services-for-nonprofit-organizations/ sources and cost estimates. Plus, the easy-to-use format makes it simple to track your progress and make adjustments as needed. Use this basic sample annual nonprofit budget template with sample text to guide you through the process of balancing your nonprofit’s budget.
- Involve your Board, your staff, and your volunteers in creating the budget and reviewing your revenue and expenses.
- This budget template is designed to help nonprofits quickly and accurately estimate operating expenses while creating a plan to reach their goals in the new year.
- Start with setting clear goals and bringing in key stakeholders—such as program managers and department heads—who can provide detailed estimates of expected costs and revenues.
- This typically covers capital campaigns and other significant expense campaigns for your nonprofit.
- It’s a perfect slide to use to provide a visual of your nonprofit’s Board of Directors.
- Before you start planning your budget, you must calculate all the expenses first.
It outlines expected income and planned expenses for a specific period, typically a fiscal year, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and transparently. For nonprofits, budgeting plays a pivotal role in aligning limited resources with their mission-driven objectives. This guide is designed to help nonprofits of all sizes master the art of budgeting. We’ll provide a step-by-step process to create an effective budget, offer examples for various budget types, and address common challenges with actionable solutions. You’ll also find downloadable templates to streamline the process and empower your team to hit the ground running.
Since different funding sources often come with specific restrictions, your budget should carefully allocate resources to cover each need effectively. Start with setting clear goals and bringing in key stakeholders—such as program managers and department heads—who can provide detailed estimates of expected costs and revenues. By involving staff from various departments in the budgeting process, you get a more accurate and realistic picture of your financial needs. Zero-based budgeting requires your financial planners to evaluate each expense based on current needs, starting from scratch for each new budgeting period. Most nonprofit budgets have columns indicating the period covered, budgeted amounts, actual spending, and the percentage difference from the previous period or year.
Cash flow refers to the monthly movement of money coming in and out of your organization. Tracking this number tells you how much you have in the bank at any given time. This information is hugely important, because accounting services for nonprofit organizations it shows you the best (and safest!) times to spend. Your board of directors will see your budget at some point, but it’s important to know how involved they’ll be! A board can either be very hands-on or hands-off, depending on how you want to use them as a resource.