Nonprofit Program Budget Template
Three documents and three sheets that load allocated overhead into every programme's cost, so a subsidy no grant is paying for shows up in dollars.
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Every serious nonprofit program budget template gets you to the same finish line. Split direct and indirect costs, pick a driver like FTE or square footage, and allocate the indirect pool across programmes. Propel Nonprofits and Bridgespan both do this well, and reaching that finish line already puts an organisation ahead of the majority that still budgets by direct cost alone. None of them take the next step: checking the resulting full cost against what each programme's own grants actually pay toward it.
This pack allocates overhead through three pools: occupancy, staff support time, and a residual pool of insurance and audit. Each pool is spread by the driver that actually explains it, square footage, FTE, or a share of direct cost, under 2 CFR's multiple allocation base method for indirect costs benefiting programmes unevenly. In the worked example, Cedar Line Community Health's three programmes carry $874,000 of direct cost and $381,200 of allocated overhead. Diabetes Education Course alone moves from a $412,000 direct budget to a $600,600 full cost, a 45.8% jump the direct-cost budget never shows.
Of that $381,200, the six awards behind these programmes pay $21,600 toward it. One clears the federal de minimis rate, one clears a state contract's own negotiated rate, and the rest pay zero. The remaining $359,600 has no grant behind it and comes out of whatever unrestricted money exists: $410,000 in net assets for Cedar Line. This year's gap alone draws down 87.7% of that reserve, and a programme reading as fully funded on its own line can be the one an impact report still lists as such.
What is in the pack
Programme Budget Narrative for the board
Walks direct cost to full cost to the reserve draw-down, in the dollars a board packet needs rather than an allocation percentage alone.
Full Cost by Programme, three pools
Occupancy, staff support labor and a residual pool, each spread by the driver that actually measures its benefit, not one blended rate.
Award-by-award reimbursement, then the gap
What each award actually pays toward overhead, subtracted from the full allocation to produce the subsidy gap, per programme.
Capacity Assessment against budgeted FTE
Filled staff checked against what each programme's own budget already assumes, before any new hiring ask gets priced.
Staffing Requirement with the delivery ratio
Budgeted against filled FTE by programme, plus the FTE-per-cohort or per-site ratio that prices the next growth ask.
Scaling Note before the award is signed
Full incremental cost of one named growth decision, vacancy included, checked against the money actually being offered.
Cost per Participant, translated
The same full-cost figure stated as a per-unit rate, so the gap between funded and true cost is visible in a funder's own terms.
How it works
- 1
Send the current numbers
Each programme's direct cost, FTE and square footage, plus whether overhead is already partly folded into a budget line the logic model's own gap costing prices separately.
- 2
Build the three pools
Occupancy, staff support labor and a residual pool, each assigned the driver, square footage, FTE, or a share of direct cost, that actually measures its benefit.
- 3
Reconcile every award
Sort each award into direct-cost-only, de minimis-eligible, or its own negotiated rate, then sum what each one actually reimburses toward overhead.
- 4
Compute the gap and the ratio
The subsidy gap per programme against unrestricted reserves, and the FTE-per-unit ratio that prices the next cohort or site before it gets accepted.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to allocate overhead if our budgets already look fine on direct cost alone?
Looking fine on direct cost is the problem, not evidence against it. A programme funded at exactly its direct cost is, by definition, not paying for the space, HR, and finance functions it still uses. Allocating overhead is what makes that cost visible instead of invisible.
How do we choose which driver to allocate a cost by?
Match the driver to why the cost exists. Occupancy tracks square footage because space is the resource. Staff support time tracks FTE because it exists to support people. A residual pool with no clean driver of its own is the one place a share of direct cost is defensible.
What if a funder refuses to pay any indirect rate at all?
State the subsidy that decision creates, in dollars, rather than absorbing it silently. Federal awards without a negotiated rate can elect up to 15% of modified total direct costs under 2 CFR 200.414(f); a funder paying zero is choosing not to use an allowance that exists.
Should we turn down a grant that does not cover full cost?
Rarely, on that basis alone. Most sustainable nonprofits run on a mix that includes direct-cost-only funding. The point is knowing the subsidy each one creates and sizing it against unrestricted reserves, not screening out every award that fails a full-cost test.
How is this different from a program evaluation?
A program evaluation asks whether a programme works. This asks what it costs to run and staff, including the overhead a direct-cost budget never shows, and whether the money on the table actually covers that, regardless of whether the programme is effective.
Does the functional expense allocation on our 990 already do this?
It allocates the same overhead across the same categories, for a different purpose: Form 990 reports what happened last year. This prices a specific programme, or a specific new award, before the money is spent, which is a decision a filed return cannot inform.
Find out who is really paying for your programmes
Send each programme's direct cost, FTE and space, and every award's indirect terms. The full cost, the subsidy gap and the staffing ratio come back priced.
Price my programmes