Beginner’s Guide to Grant Budgets: Simple Costing Methods

The first time someone said, “Can you draft the budget for this grant?” you probably froze.

You opened Excel.
Stared at the empty cells.
Typed “$10,000” under “Total Project Cost”… and then realized you had no idea how you got that number.

You’re not an accountant.

You didn’t sign up to become a CFO.

You just want to help people and win your first grant without embarrassing yourself in front of a funder.

If that’s you, breathe. You’re not alone.

Most beginners don’t lose grants because their heart isn’t in the right place. They lose them because their budget is vague, unrealistic, or disconnected from the story they’re telling in the narrative.

Honestly, You do not need a finance degree to build a clear, funder-friendly budget. You just need simple methods and a bit of structure.

This article is your beginner-friendly guide to grant budgets for non-finance people. We’ll walk through practical, step-by-step methods that fit perfectly into grant writing for beginners and help you move from “no idea where to start” to “I can do this.”

You’ll learn:

• How to see your budget as part of the story, not just numbers
• Simple costing methods you can use with a calculator (or even pen and paper)
• How to estimate staff time, activities, and “hidden” costs without guessing wildly
• How to make your budget support your narrative so you can win your first grant with confidence
• Beginner-friendly tips that fit into how to write a grant proposal step by step

Let’s turn that scary spreadsheet into something you actually understand.

1. Think of Your Budget as a Picture of Your Plan

Here’s the first mindset shift in nonprofit grant writing basics:

Your budget is not just numbers. It is your project plan, written in money.

If your narrative says you’ll:

• Train 60 youth
• Run a 12-week program
• Provide mentoring and snacks

…but your budget doesn’t include trainers, transport, or snacks, a reviewer will quietly think:

“They don’t really understand what this will cost. Risky.”

So before you worry about formats or line items, start with this simple question:

“What exactly are we planning to do, and what will we need to make it happen?”

The “3-Bucket” Budget Mindset

For grant writing for beginners, I recommend organizing your project into three simple buckets:

1. People (Staff & Time)
   • Who will do the work?
   • How many hours per week?
   • For how many months?
2. Program Delivery (Activities & Materials)
   • What will participants experience?
   • What supplies or services do you need?
   • What “per person” or “per session” costs exist?
3. Support & Operations (Admin & Overhead)
   • What basic organizational costs support this project?
   • What tools, software, rent, utilities, or management time are needed?

When you think in buckets, your budget stops feeling like random numbers and starts feeling like a structured picture of your plan.

This is a key piece of how to write a grant proposal step by step: don’t jump to numbers until you’re clear on the plan.

2. Start with People and Time: Easy Staff Costing for Non-Finance Folks

People are almost always your biggest cost—and your biggest asset. Yet many first-time grant writers either:

• Forget to budget for staff time at all (“We’ll just handle it internally”)
• Or plug in random salary numbers without understanding how they were calculated

Let’s fix that with a simple method.

The 4-Step Staff Costing Method

You don’t need complicated formulas. Try this:

Step 1: List every role involved in the project

Examples:

• Project coordinator
• Trainer/facilitator
• M&E (monitoring & evaluation) support
• Finance/admin support

Step 2: Decide the level of effort (LOE) for each role

Ask: Roughly how many hours per week will this person spend on this project?

Example:

• Project coordinator: 10 hours/week
• Trainer: 6 hours/week (3 hours prep + 3 hours delivery)
• Admin/finance: 3 hours/week

Step 3: Convert hours to a percentage of time

Assume full-time = 40 hours/week.

• Coordinator: 10 / 40 = 25%
• Trainer: 6 / 40 = 15%
• Admin: 3 / 40 = 7.5% (round to 10% if easier)

Step 4: Multiply by monthly or annual salary

If your coordinator earns $1,000/month:

• 25% of time = $250/month on this project

If the project is 6 months:

• Coordinator cost = $250 × 6 = $1,500

Do the same for each role.

You’ve just done staff costing using simple math.

Why this matters for how to win your first grant

Funders want to see that:

• You’ve thought through who will actually run the project
• People are paid fairly and realistically
• Your staffing matches the scale of your activities

When your staff lines clearly match the narrative, reviewers feel more confident that you can deliver what you promise—one of the most underrated first-time grant writer tips.

3. Cost Your Activities Using the “Units × Quantity” Method

Now let’s talk about program delivery: workshops, sessions, supplies, participant support. This is where budgets often go wrong because everything feels abstract.

Here’s the simplest, beginner-friendly method I know:

Unit Cost × Quantity = Line-Item Cost

It works for almost everything.

Step-by-step: From activities to costs

Start with the activities in your plan. For example, in a youth training program you might have:

• Weekly workshops
• Printed manuals
• Snacks per session
• Transport stipends
• Graduation event

For each activity, ask:

1. What is the unit? (per person, per session, per month, per item)
2. What is the cost per unit? (estimate from real prices)
3. How many units will we need?

Then multiply.

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Example: Snacks for Youth Workshops

• Unit: snack per person per session
• Cost per unit: $2
• Quantity: 50 participants × 12 sessions = 600 units

Budget line:

• Snacks = 600 × $2 = $1,200

Example: Participant Transport Stipends

• Unit: transport per participant per session
• Cost per unit: $3
• Quantity: 40 participants × 10 sessions = 400 units

Budget line:

• Transport stipends = 400 × $3 = $1,200

Example: Printed Training Manuals

• Unit: manual per participant
• Cost per unit: $5
• Quantity: 60 participants

Budget line:

• Training manuals = 60 × $5 = $300

Now your numbers are:

• Logical
• Transparent
• Easy to explain in a budget narrative

And if inflation hits or prices change, you simply adjust the unit cost, not the entire budget logic.

Activity costing checklist

Use this quick list when costing activities in grant writing for beginners:

• Have I listed every key activity from the narrative?
• For each activity, did I define a clear unit (per person, per session, etc.)?
• Did I estimate a realistic cost per unit (based on real or researched prices)?
• Did I multiply by the correct number of people and sessions?
• Do these numbers match the story I’m telling in the proposal?

This “units × quantity” method is a powerful tool in how to write a grant proposal step by step—because it keeps your narrative and budget in sync.

4. Don’t Forget the “Hidden” Costs: Admin, Overhead & In-Kind

One of the biggest beginner mistakes in budget building:

Only costing the visible activities while ignoring the hidden support that makes them possible.

You might remember snacks and transport but forget:

• Internet and Zoom for virtual sessions
• Rent and utilities for your training space
• Accountant or bookkeeper time
• Printing, phone, and software

Then the project goes live, and your organization ends up absorbing those costs from already-stretched funds.

Understanding direct vs. indirect costs (without jargon)

Let’s keep this super simple:

• Direct costs = clearly tied to this project
  • Trainers, materials, participant stipends, venue hire just for this project
• Indirect costs (overhead) = shared costs that support everything
  • Rent, electricity, internet, leadership time, HR, basic finance and admin

Both are real. Both matter. Many funders will pay at least some indirect costs—especially in 2026, as more understand sustainability and fair cost recovery.

Simple ways to handle overhead for beginners

Here are three beginner-friendly options (always check funder rules):

1. Flat percentage of direct costs
   • Example: “We are requesting 10–15% of direct costs to cover shared overhead (rent, utilities, basic admin).”
2. Specific shared cost lines
   • Example:
     • “Portion of rent for training room (6 months)”
     • “Internet and communication for online follow-up”
3. Mix of both
   • A few specific shared lines + a small overhead percentage.

Document your logic so if a funder asks, you can explain how you arrived at the overhead figure.

Don’t forget in-kind contributions

In-kind contributions are goods or services donated instead of cash, such as:

• Free venue from a partner
• Volunteer time
• Donated laptops or software
• Pro bono legal, design, or consulting support

Even if the funder doesn’t require it, showing in-kind contributions:

• Demonstrates community support
• Reduces your cash request
• Strengthens your case in how to win your first grant

You can either:

• Include in-kind items as separate lines with $0 requested from the funder, or
• Mention them in your budget narrative and proposal narrative

This is a small but powerful part of nonprofit grant writing basics: show that you’re not relying 100% on the funder for everything.

5. Turn Your Numbers into a Funder-Friendly Budget (and Narrative Match)

Now you’ve:

• Organized your budget using the 3 buckets (people, program, support)
• Costed staff using simple percentages
• Costed activities using the “units × quantity” method
• Included overhead and in-kind support

The last step is to package all this into a budget that feels clean, clear, and aligned with your narrative—the kind of budget that makes a reviewer think:

“These people know what they’re doing.”

A simple beginner grant budget structure

Most funders accept some variation of this layout:

1. Personnel / Staff
   • Project coordinator (25% time × 6 months)
   • Trainer (15% time × 6 months)
   • Admin/finance support (10% time × 6 months)
2. Program Costs
   • Training manuals
   • Snacks per session
   • Transport stipends
   • Graduation ceremony
   • Equipment or licenses tied to the program
3. Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E)
   • Data collection tools (forms, survey tools)
   • M&E staff time
4. Overhead / Indirect Costs
   • Rent (portion for training room)
   • Utilities (portion)
   • Internet and communication
   • Organizational overhead (e.g., 10–15% of direct costs, if allowed)
5. In-Kind (If listed)
   • Donated venue/time/equipment (valued but $0 requested)

You can adapt the categories to match each funder’s format, but the logic stays the same.

The budget narrative: your chance to explain, not apologize

A budget narrative (or justification) is simply a few lines explaining how you got each number. This is where your simple costing methods shine.

Example:

• Snacks: $1,200 – Snacks at $2 per participant per session for 50 participants × 12 sessions (50 × 12 × $2).
• Transport stipends: $900 – Stipends at $3 per participant per session for 30 high-need participants × 10 sessions (30 × 10 × $3).
• Coordinator: $1,500 – 25% of full-time coordinator salary ($1,000/month) for 6 months ($250 × 6).

You’re not trying to impress anyone with complexity; you’re helping the reviewer follow your math. That’s one of the most effective first-time grant writer tips out there.

Make sure your narrative and budget tell the same story

Before you submit, do a “story match” check:

• If the narrative says you’ll serve 100 people, does your budget reflect costs for 100 people (not 40)?
• If you promise weekly workshops for a year, does your budget include enough sessions, staff time, and materials?
• If you talk about evaluation and data, is there an M&E line in the budget?

When your budget and narrative align, reviewers feel safe trusting your plan. And that safety is a big part of how to win your first grant, especially when you’re unknown or early-stage.

Conclusion: You Don’t Have to Be “Good at Numbers” to Build a Smart Grant Budget

If you’ve ever thought, “I’m bad with numbers; I can’t handle grant budgets,” I want you to hear this clearly:

You don’t need to be a finance wizard.
You just need a process.

In this guide, you learned how to:

• See your budget as a picture of your project plan, not a punishment
• Use simple methods for costing staff, activities, and overhead
• Apply the “units × quantity” approach so your numbers are logical and explainable
• Make your budget match your narrative so funders feel confident in your proposal

These are the pieces of grant writing for beginners that often go untaught—but they’re deeply connected to the core of how to write a grant proposal step by step and how to build trust with funders.

You’re not just filling in cells. You’re designing a financial plan for impact.

Now, if you’re serious about getting better at this—about becoming the person in your organization who can confidently say, “I can handle the budget section”—there are two powerful next steps you can take.

Want More Support Like This?

Join the Grant Writing Academy Newsletter Founding Membership

If this felt like someone finally explained grant budgets in plain language, that’s exactly what we do at the Grant Writing Academy.

As a Grant Writing Academy  Founding member, you’ll get:

• Regular deep dives on nonprofit grant writing basics that actually match real-world practice
• Step-by-step breakdowns of tricky topics like budgets, outcomes, and logic models
• Practical first-time grant writer tips for federal, foundation, faith-based, and corporate grants
• Real examples and mini frameworks you can apply immediately to your own proposals

It’s like having an experienced grant writing coach in your inbox, helping you build skills one small, doable step at a time.

Accelerate Your Growth with Digital Resources & Budget Toolkits

If you want to go faster and with more confidence, pair this article with the right tools.

Our digital resources and toolkits are designed to help non-finance people like you:

• Use beginner grant budget templates with built-in formulas and example line items
• Follow checklists for aligning your narrative and budget
• Plug your own numbers into “units × quantity” models without starting from scratch
• Adapt ready-made budget and narrative examples to fit your own programs

Instead of staring at a blank spreadsheet each time, you’ll have a clear starting point and structure—which means more energy for strategy, storytelling, and long-term funding planning.

If you’re committed to learning how to win your first grant and many more after that, this is your next logical step:

• Join the Grant Writing Academy Newsletter Founding Membership so you keep learning consistently.
• Invest in the digital resources and toolkits that make grant budgets (and full proposals) simpler, clearer, and less stressful.

You’re closer than you think.
And now, you have the methods to turn your next budget from “I’m guessing” into “I’ve got this.”