A budget in a grant proposal is the main element. For it to be effective it has to outline the proposed project in fiscal terms and it must also help the reviewers to determine how the project will be conducted. It should contain information about how the activities will be undertaken, the personnel who will be involved and how the project will be managed. The budget should be containing all the details of the costs, supplies, personnel and the activities required by the project. The project is only feasible when it is within the budget. In case the costs are omitted the project will not be deemed as feasible. Secondly the budget should be reasonable by being based on actual costs.
The purpose of writing this essay is to review how various authors have written about developing a budget in a project proposal. The first article in my review was written by Mark Resnicoff. The reason why I picked this article is that it shows all the requirements of the budget and it is related to what I have learnt in the class. In this article mark outlines the format that should be followed in developing the budget in a project or a grant proposal. Mark says that a budget should contain a list of all items which should be well detailed. All figures which include the column totals should be checked accurately. One should not pad the budget because the reviewers might be aware of the current structure of the wages and the cost of goods and services. According to Mark, after writing the budget one should include a budget narrative which is used to explain on how the costs were estimated and providing justification for the expenses. The narratives are mostly in form of a text although in some cases tables can be used. Mark states that one should link the budget to the activities and objectives so as to help justify the listed expenses. The person writing the budget should also make sure that his budget fits within the donors range and should also list other sources of the projects...