The Ultimate Guide to Nonprofit Budgets + 3 FREE Templates

You may see many nonprofits start as grassroots organizations, and at that stage it’s reasonable to use spreadsheets to plan budgets. Creating a cash flow forecast that tracks expected income and expenses The Key Benefits of Accounting Services for Nonprofit Organizations on a monthly or quarterly basis can make a big difference. 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.

• To prepare for anomalies without disrupting operations, you should regularly review and adjust the contingency fund based on your financial situation and any emerging risks.
• It’s also useful to look at the financial trends for your programs over the past few years, and assess if each program is covering its direct costs, or contributing to overhead.
• The template includes a revenue summary section that calculates your total grant income and a net section to help you quickly determine your program’s financial sustainability.
• Your nonprofit’s budget should be organized to align with other key financial resources, including your internal records, financial statements, and tax returns.
• These are only some of the many benefits a good budget brings to an organization.
• Stay informed about expenses, monitor costs, and enhance the financial performance of your project.

Free Non Profit Budget Templates

For templates that you can use to make personal budget plans, check out our collection of Personal Budget templates. If you’re looking for additional ways to streamline operations and fundraising, take a look at Sumac’s donation management software. Work to develop lasting relationships with any vendors, suppliers and partners as this will save you time, energy, and even money! Setting costs with them early on will make budgeting easier and help you avoid guesswork. Before you look at program expenses, set a meeting with executive directors to get clear on what you need to focus on so you can budget accordingly. Instead of predicting revenue by individual grants or line items, the cutoff method looks at revenue as a whole.

Non Profit Budget Template Example

These resources are crafted to save you time, reduce administrative burdens, and help you focus on what truly matters—advancing your mission and serving your community. Budget spreadsheets are important for both profit and non-profit organizations. The budget template sheets are a good way to keep track of all the revenues and expenses in an organization. It also gives a perfect overview of what is the current financial status of any business. Here we have collected a few sample nonprofit budget templates for you. The process begins with the decision of which activities at your organization comprise a program for the purpose of budgets and financial reports.

Nonprofit Budget Templates: 3 to use NOW in Google Sheets or Excel

This guide will provide startup nonprofits with an overview of budgeting — what information to track and how, and how to analyze your organization’s financial health. We’ll also discuss framework and tools to set-up, adjust, and analyze your own budget and financial planning, at any level of the organization. A staff’s responsibility to procure a budget defines the need for a non-profit budget standard template as provided. No matter what the size of your business, having the budget plan will always help you have control over your expenses always. Even small and medium companies need a budget to keep their income and expenses on the check.

• It is good practice to periodically review the budget as well as compare it to the actual cash flow and expenses, to determine whether they are playing out as expected during the course of the year.
• Ready to get started on your nonprofit organizational budget template?
• It uses its reserve fund to manage unexpected costs during disaster relief efforts.
• A well-designed template transforms nonprofit budgeting from a yearly burden into an ongoing strategic tool.
• It will cover all the expenses required to keep the organization running, from salaries and utilities to technology and insurance.

So whatever project your organization’s board of directors is planning to do, it should have a corresponding project budget. In crafting a robust budget for your organization, utilizing budget templates can streamline the process, ensuring accuracy and ease of financial management. These templates are specially designed to cater to the unique needs of nonprofits, allowing for detailed income and expenditure projections. With these templates, you can easily create a detailed budget that includes all the necessary information, from projected income and expenses to funding sources and cost estimates.

Nonprofit Project Budget

In FY23, WWF increased spending on conservation programs by 16% compared to FY22. Here’s a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to building a budget that supports your nonprofit’s mission effectively. This is how many days your organization could operate if all income suddenly became unavailable (all donors stop supporting you, or you spent all your money). Nonprofit staff members should be aware of the difference between restricted and unrestricted funds so that they can understand the differences between program budgets.

Sample Non Profit Startup Budget

That pile of receipts and jotted notes won’t cut it when it comes to budgeting. Startup nonprofits should keep track of their expenses and revenues (fundraising donations or service fees) in a spreadsheet or other bookkeeping system. This makes the data accessible to individuals at all levels of the organization with flexibility for adjusting the data as budgeting needs change. This non-profit board structure chart comes in PowerPoint and PDF formats.

No matter what kind of budget you come up with, the first thing that you should always start with would be the expenses. You will have to take note of all the things that your nonprofit organization usually spends on in order to continue operations. Go through any financial statements that your organization has accumulated to have a better understanding of the total expenses. Program expenses are the costs that are directly related to running your programs. For ASF, that includes anything related to running the extracurricular programs, including staff and supplies https://greatercollinwood.org/main-benefits-of-accounting-services-for-nonprofit-organizations/ (i.e. soccer balls). Their program expenses also include program advertising and staff training and travel costs.