Grant Budget Template for Nonprofits
Three documents and three sheets that build the budget in the funder's categories and in your own chart of accounts at once, so both foot.
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Crosswalk to Chart of Accounts
One row per account and destination pair
Built at proposal time, not at report time. Every row foots back to its account. Every destination foots up to its funder category.
| Account | Destination | Amount | Shape | Allocation basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salaries and wages | Personnel | - | one to one | not needed |
| Payroll taxes | Fringe Benefits | - | many to one | not needed |
| Employee benefits | Fringe Benefits | - | many to one | not needed |
| Occupancy | Other | - | SPLIT | square footage |
| Occupancy | Indirect pool | - | SPLIT | square footage |
| Professional fees | Contractual | - | SPLIT | engagement letter |
| Professional fees | Indirect pool | - | SPLIT | engagement letter |
| Sum of account totals | - | |||
| Sum of destinations | - | must be the same figure |
Why the second direction is the point
A crosswalk that only foots forward hides the accounts that split, and the accounts that split are the entire reason to build one. Each of them needs a measurable basis, stated now, that every future report re-applies.
The two bases, kept apart
Total direct costs is what a funder cap is written against. Modified total direct costs is what a negotiated rate is written against. Build both from the accounts before any rate touches them.
River's grant budget pack is three documents and three sheets, built around the step every budget template skips: the crosswalk from the funder's categories to your own chart of accounts. A budget gets built once, in the funder's words, by whoever writes the proposal. It then gets reported against for years out of a general ledger that uses different words, usually by somebody else. The proposal is where the budget goes. The crosswalk is what makes the reporting a lookup rather than a reconstruction.
Every free budget template lists the same eight categories and tells you to apply your negotiated rate, or the de minimis rate if you have none. None of them mention that the two sit on different bases. A funder cap is written against total direct costs. A negotiated rate is written against modified total direct costs, which removes equipment, rent, participant support and the part of each subaward above fifty thousand dollars. Subtracting the two percentages is arithmetic on incompatible units, and it errs in the funder's favour every time.
Halyard Youth Collective's budget has total direct costs of $779,520 and a modified base of $597,600. Against the modified base the funder's ten percent cap is an effective 13.0 percent, so the real gap to a 24.6 percent negotiated rate is 11.6 points rather than 14.6. That is $69,058 of unrecovered indirect cost. Its match, separately, falls $86,041 short once items already pledged elsewhere come out, and the cost sharing rules let the first figure cover 80.3 percent of the second.
What is in the pack
Crosswalk to Chart of Accounts
One row per account and destination pair, both footing checks stated as figures, and a measurable allocation basis with its source document on every line that splits.
Budget in the Funder's Categories
The funder's own categories in the funder's own order, every figure derived from a nameable document, with the two indirect bases built out at the foot.
Indirect Cost Explanation
Both bases with every exclusion itemised, the three rates each on its own base, the cap converted to an effective rate, and the unrecovered amount in dollars.
Match Documentation Register
Every commitment with its computation, its valuation rule, its source document, and the other award it was excluded to when it turns out to be already promised.
Match and In-kind Note
The valuation rule for each kind of contribution, the de-duplication result as a figure, and the prior-approval request that closes what is left of the gap.
Budget Narrative
One paragraph per line in the funder's order, each showing its derivation, plus the four disclosures a plain narrative leaves out and a reviewer notices.
Every line exists in both languages
The space rule every prompt reads first: both totals foot, every split names its basis, indirect never gets compared as percentages, match carries its rule.
How it works
- 1
Send the form and your accounts
The funder's budget form and instructions, the notice of funding opportunity for the cap and match rules, your chart of accounts, cost detail, and your rate agreement if you hold one.
- 2
Build it in both languages
The funder's categories in the funder's words, then the same budget mapped to your accounts, with both footing checks stated as figures rather than asserted.
- 3
Compute indirect on both bases
Every exclusion itemised, each rate on its own base, the cap converted so the real gap is visible, and the unrecovered amount priced. Never a subtraction of percentages.
- 4
Value the match, then de-duplicate
Each item under the rule for its kind with the arithmetic shown, checked against every other award, then the shortfall tested against what the award terms oblige.
Frequently asked questions
Is this free, and what format are the files?
Yes. The download is three Word documents and three CSV spreadsheets, which open in Word, Pages, Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets with no conversion. Edit with AI opens the same pack as a working space instead, where the crosswalk foots against your own chart of accounts and your own funder's form.
Why not just fill in the funder's budget form?
You still do. The form is one of the two sheets here. The other one is the mapping from that form to your own accounts, which is what the financial report will need and what nobody writes down. On Halyard's budget, three of thirteen accounts split across destinations, carrying 19.5 percent of the money.
Is the de minimis indirect rate 10 percent or 15 percent?
Fifteen, and the rule also makes it electable only by a recipient without a current federally negotiated rate. Plenty of free templates still print 10 percent, which was the old figure. It is a ceiling rather than a fixed rate, and electing it commits you across all your federal awards.
Our funder caps indirect below our negotiated rate. What can we do?
First compute both on their own bases, because the gap is usually smaller than the percentages suggest. Then ask the programme officer which ground the deviation rests on, since a negotiated rate has to be accepted unless a statute requires otherwise or the agency approves a published deviation.
Can unrecovered indirect cost really count as match?
With the prior approval of the agency or pass-through entity, yes, and that is why it belongs in the proposal rather than the post-award file. Prior approval means it has to be in the approved budget. Halyard's $69,058 closes 80.3 percent of an $86,041 match gap and costs nothing to raise.
How do we value volunteer time and donated space?
By the rule for each kind, not by one blended figure. Volunteer rates have to be consistent with what you pay for similar work, donated space is capped at the fair rental value of comparable space by independent appraisal, and a third party's donated employee carries their fringe and indirect too.
How does this relate to the proposal and the eventual report?
The narrative and figures feed the proposal and whatever the portal demands of them. Later, the reporting crosswalk and the SF-425 re-apply the allocation bases set here, which is the whole reason to set them now.
Find out what your indirect cap actually costs you
Send the funder's form, your chart of accounts and your rate agreement. The first things back are the crosswalk, both footing checks, and the unrecovered amount in dollars.
Edit with AI