It’s important that you think through carefully what funding you are likely to need for your project and can demonstrate ‘value for money’.
Start off by writing a list of all the items that you are likely to need to pay for. Estimate the cost of each item of expenditure as accurately as you can. If you have been running the same activities for a while, you can base your estimates on previous years – but remember to increase them in line with inflation. Keep notes of how you arrive at your figures. For example, note down that ‘hall hire’ is a known cost based on 26 weeks or that the figure for insurance is a rough estimate based on a quick search on the internet. The notes will be invaluable when you need to explain your figures to other members of your group or with CAfS. Once you’ve constructed a draft budget, it’s important that you discuss it with your group and agree it at a meeting.
When you have finalised your budget, this will help you to make financial decisions and keep control of your spending during your project. It means that it is unlikely that you’ll run out of money by mistake, but it could mean that you need to plan in more fundraising to sustain or develop the project further!
Please see our Guidance Notes for applicants for further details.