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I used to hate budgets. Even the word was ugly. Squat. Clipped. No fun whatsoever. A budget felt like a grapefruit diet, something that had to be done if I wanted to be svelte but which left me feeling deprived. I didn’t want to record dollars in black and white; the numbers laid bare made me nervous.

When I was growing up, if my mother wanted to buy something expensive, like nice fabric to reupholster a couch, she bought it and then reminded me on the ride home: “Don’t tell Marvin how much this cost.” He was my stepfather and might not approve. Once, on a visit with my real father in Manhattan, we were sipping lemonade at a café. From under the table he pulled a wad of cash and thrust it at me. “Take it, spending money,” he said like it would evaporate if I didn’t hide it quickly. I snatched it from him and jammed it in my jeans pocket. Why was the money a secret?

No wonder I didn’t want to put numbers in black and white. I grew up believing that money, either expenses or income, must never be recorded in the open air for everyone to see. If you really wanted something it was best to hide how much it cost. And never divulge where your money was coming from.

When I grew up and started applying for grants, I was forced to make some budgets. I was shocked to discover that all my preconceptions about them proved wrong. Although creating a budget made me shaky, once I had one, I felt grounded and secure—happy even. Announcing the numbers in black and white eased my anxiety. I wasn’t dealing with some amorphous amount of money but rather a concrete number I could see. And having that specific number forced me to be creative about ways to find the funds. Numbers gave me the backbone to negotiate and ask for discounts, trades, and donations.

Despite all of this positive reinforcement, I still resist making budgets. Sometimes I’m afraid to acknowledge how much my artistic projects really cost to make and how much money I need to make them. But at least now I realize that my resistance to budgets has less to do with mathematics and more to do with exposing my own desire.

Most grant applications require a budget. Your funder wants to know how you plan to spend the money.

​Start making your budget early in the application process. Like the rest of your application, budgets—even small ones—take time to make. You need to consider all your expenses, find out which expenses your funder does and doesn’t cover, and research how much materials and services cost so that your numbers are accurate. A well-done budget demonstrates your experience and professionalism. You’ll need your budget, maybe even love your budget—ugly word and all.

Flesh Out the Numbers

Your budget comprises two lists: expenses (the money you want to spend) and income (the money you’ll earn) for your proposed project. Together, these two lists tell the story of your project with numbers.

If you are applying for a small grant, your budget will be fairly simple. For example, if you propose a professional development grant to attend a workshop, then your expenses might be tuition, plane fare, and hotel. If you are applying for a project grant, your list of expenses will be longer. It might include artist fees for paying yourself and your team of collaborators, materials and supplies, equipment rental, airfare, studio rental, advertising, and so on. Your income would include any funds received from other grants, donations from individuals, in-kind donations, and your own money.

Helen Daltoso, a grants officer at the Regional Arts and Culture Council in Portland, Oregon, advises artists to make a budget even before they begin writing about the project. The exercise of making a budget helps you figure out exactly what your project will involve.

Visual artist Dread Scott used to struggle with budgets, but “Now it’s kind of easy,” he said. “I’m just figuring out what I need—how much film? how much hard drive? Do I need to buy a new camera or microphone? Do I need airfare? Do I need to rent a car? I compare the income section with the expenses and I might end up with a $5,000 or a $30,000 hole … that has to be filled by a foundation or something,” he said. “But the hole doesn’t go away. I don’t say, well, I can’t see how to get the money so I’ll do the project with less.”

​A well-done budget is specific and fully fleshed out. Because of the necessary detail, don’t wait until the last minute to create one. If numbers scare you, make these lists with help from one of your team members. She can interview you about your project and write down all the possible expenses. Then, she can brainstorm with you all the ways you can earn money.

If you have been running a successful art business, budgets may be no big deal for you. However, if art as a business is a new concept for you, making a budget for this one grant application will be great practice for all the budgets you’ll need to make from now on in your career.

Expenses List

To create your budget, first list all the steps it will take to complete your project. Start at the very beginning and include every baby step. Take your time, and plan to work on several drafts of this document so that you don’t forget any steps. Then write down every item that you’ll need to purchase—such as art supplies, printing services, travel expenses, marketing materials—and everyone you want to hire to help you create the project, such as website designers or consultants. Do not concern yourself with costs for this first draft.

The sample budget (this page) lists many of the categories of expenses you may have on any project. Refer to it while you prepare your list of expenses to remind you of all relevant expenses for your proposed project.

RESEARCH COSTS · When your list of expenses is complete, write estimated costs next to each item. Some costs you’ll know off the top ​of your head; others you’ll have to research. How much is round-trip airfare to Iceland these days? What is the cost of printing 1,000 postcards? What is a graphic designer’s hourly rate? How much does canvas go for?

Depending on the detail of your budget, this step could take several hours and many drafts to complete. Most of the information can be found on the Internet or from your suppliers. You don’t need the numbers to be accurate to the penny.

ESTIMATE LABOR COSTS · You may need to hire assistants, collaborators, web designers, photographers. List their fees at the going rate, and estimate their total fees on the basis of the numbers of hours and the hourly rates.

Daltoso urges artists to be detailed with their budgets so she can understand the design and planning of the project. In a budget, it’s almost impossible to provide too much detail. “If there’s a line item for artistic fees and somebody tells me the artist fees for two people are $1,000, well, I can extrapolate that that’s probably $500 per person. But I’d much rather know that one of the people is the director and the other person is a lead actor and that the director is going to get $600 and so on.” The details in your budget demonstrate how thoroughly you’ve planned every aspect of your project.

YOUR OWN TIME · Most artists are stumped when it comes to estimating the cost of their own time because many feel like they’re never paid or paid very little. However, grantors expect artists to be paid for their time, and it looks unprofessional if you’re not planning to pay yourself and your artistic collaborators. You may decide later to donate your time and list this donation in the budget under in-kind services. For now, estimate your time and your creative fee.

How do you estimate your time? First, calculate about how much time your project will require. To do this, walk through the steps of producing your project and write down the number of hours or days it will take you to complete each step. Then, figure out an hourly or daily wage based on the going rate for what you do. Ask other artists what they charge or what they have listed as a rate on successful grant applications. You can also calculate your fee as a percentage of the total cost of the project—usually 10%–25%, depending on the size of the budget.

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​You can ask the funder if they have guidelines for figuring your artist fee. If the funder is used to working with artists, they’ll know that coming up with an artist’s fee is often a conundrum and will advise you on how other successful applicants have figured out the cost of their time.

Income List

If you’ve ever made a household budget for yourself, you know that one of the key elements of any budget is income—how much money you earn, perhaps in a few different ways. This number helps you decide whether you’ll be eating rice and beans or Kobe steaks and Portobello mushrooms.

Make a list of all the possible ways you can earn money for your project. Think big. With your team, brainstorm every possible avenue for generating income. Consult chapter 11 for even more fundraising ideas. Your income list might include money that you’ll raise from individual donors at events or through a direct mail campaign, merchandise that you will sell at your event, and some of your own money. Your income list should also include grants you’ve received or intend to apply for.

Generating your income list will require some research and estimation. For example, if you plan to sell tickets to your event, you first will need to determine a ticket price. You may research what similar events charge or base it on what you charged last time for a similar event. Next, estimate attendance—and always underestimate. If you’ve put on this type of event before, then you’ll know how many people showed up last time, which will help you estimate how many people will show up next time. Increase this number only if you plan on doing more marketing this time.

​Make your estimates conservative. If you’re an emerging artist who’s still building an audience, it will be unrealistic to expect to sell out for six weeks at Lincoln Center, for example. Overestimating attendance will make your proposal look amateurish.

Add It Up

Add all the items in the expense list to arrive at total expenses; add all the items in the income list to arrive at total income. Subtract the income from your expenses. The remaining amount should equal the amount of the grant you’re requesting. If this is confusing, see the sample budget (this page).

To make the numbers work you may need to lower some of your expenses (can any materials be obtained more cheaply, or can you do without?) and earn more income (can you throw another fundraising party?). You may have to adjust these numbers (along with your plans) several times.

Guidelines for Creating a Better Budget

After you’ve created your income and expenses lists, the following tips will help you create a clear, clean, error-free budget to submit with your application.

EXPLAIN ALL LINE ITEMS · Label every line item completely. Relate each one to the expenses outlined in your proposal; none should be ​mysterious. For example, rather than “Printing,” list “Printing posters and postcards” and be sure that posters and postcards are discussed in the marketing section of your application. (Read the “Know Your Target Audience” section in chapter 4, this page.)

Everything you mention in the application must also appear in your budget. For example, if you’ve mentioned mailing invitations via snail mail, your budget must reflect the costs of printing invitations and postage. If you’ve listed the cost of hiring a videographer in the budget, make sure that you’ve described elsewhere on your application what the video will be used for. Will it document the project for future reference, or is it part of the artistry of the project?

CHECK THE MATH · Your budget totals must be correct. Always have another person double-check your math. Believe it or not, a miscalculated budget can disqualify your application. Typos in the budget matter.

TELL A COHERENT STORY · The budget has to make sense within the scope of the project. For example, if you’re planning a performance and estimating hundreds of attendees, your budget better list marketing expenses. It won’t make sense to expect a big crowd but not spend any money on getting them there—unless you have already outlined a free, successful marketing plan in your proposal.

RECORD IN-KIND DONATIONS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BUDGET · If you have arranged for an in-kind donation of goods or services, you must record it on both the expense and the income lists of your budget. For example, if your graphic designer is donating two hours of time at $50/hour, list “Graphic Designer 2 Hours @ $50 = $100” in the expenses and then list the same item under income.

REFLECT YOUR ATTITUDE IN THE BUDGET · The more income you can list in your budget and the better you show that you have thoroughly thought out every financial aspect of your project, the more ​impressed decision makers will be. Done right, your budget can reflect the attitude that you’re going to accomplish this project, no matter what. This attitude makes for winning applications.

Best case you’ll have already won other grants for this project and collected cash from a fundraiser or two. Second-best, you have applied for other grants but haven’t yet heard back and have several fundraisers planned with estimates of how much money you’ll earn. Nobody likes to be the first one or the only one to finance a project. Contributors will be more excited if others before them have already donated. Individual donors and granting organizations like to give money to a project they know will succeed. Your attitude is what shows this.

Because chances are there won’t be adequate room on the budget form to list all your fundraising plans, mention any past fundraising successes and your commitments for future fundraising somewhere else on the application. If you’re unclear where this information belongs, check the guidelines or call the funder and ask.

CONFIRM ELIGIBLE EXPENSES · Make sure that all your budget items are for things that your grantor funds. For example, some grantors won’t pay for food or equipment purchases. Listing ineligible expenses will show that you didn’t read the criteria and could disqualify your grant application. If you’re not sure if an item is eligible, read the guidelines. If you’re still unclear, call the funder and ask.

ASK TO SEE EXAMPLES · Some granting organizations let you review funded grant applications, including budgets. Study the budget for a similar project that was successful. If any information is confusing, ask the funder for clarification. Most funders are happy to help you finesse your application, especially when you ask them well in advance of the deadline.

NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING · If you’re unclear about what will and won’t make your grant application more competitive, call and ask the ​funder for guidelines. I once applied to the Oregon Arts Commission for a “career opportunity grant” to attend the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop. It’s usually best to have more than one source of income on your grant application, and I wanted my application to be competitive. I didn’t have time to do any fundraising so decided to donate a couple hundred bucks of my own money and list it on the income list of my budget. After I received the grant, I found out that the commission didn’t require applicants to list any income and would have paid the entire cost of my workshop. My donation was unnecessary. Now I know to ask.

  Note: Consult a tax accountant after you win a grant. Unfortunately, you’ll have to pay a percentage to Uncle Sam because grants are considered taxable income. Fortunately, the expenses you incur can usually be deducted from your income. Hire professional help so you comply with the rules, but don’t pay more than you need to.

No Fake Budgets

One mistake many artists make in creating a budget for a grant application is starting with the maximum amount of the grant and working backward. They may see a grant for $6,000 and think, I want that money. So, they create an expenses list that adds up to $6,000. This is a fake budget because it doesn’t start organically with the project and ask, “What will it take to produce this project?” Instead it starts with “What can I invent to get that money?” Funders can tell whether an application is for a project that is meaningful or a project that was invented to get some money.

Monica Miller spoke with many artists in the course of her job as former director of programs at Washington’s Artist Trust. Some artists who wanted grants invented projects that they thought would interest Artist Trust and make them eligible for funding, but the projects were not connected to the artists’ work. “The most important tip is for ​artists to stay true to their intentions and desires as artists and to reflect themselves in the application as much as possible,” said Miller. Once, an artist who wanted funds to hire a babysitter proposed a project that included “public critiques” of her work because she thought involving the public would appeal to Artist Trust. Part of her budget for the project included a line item for babysitting. When Miller asked the artist if her work was based on other people’s feedback, it was clear that it wasn’t. This artist wasn’t funded because the grant request didn’t make sense; the project didn’t relate to the artist’s work. She didn’t propose a project she really wanted to do; she proposed a project she thought would appeal to the funder.

The way to create a real budget is to actually write down the expenses needed to produce your project in the fullest possible way. (In The Artist’s Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love, Jackie Battenfield refers to this first pass as the “fairy godmother budget”—the budget you would have in a perfect world.) Then write down all the funding you think you can raise. “Then you see what’s left,” said Helen Daltoso, who reviews hundreds of budgets a year for professional development and project grants. “You might really need $10,000. You might only need $4,000. In order to produce the clearest, truest, cleanest budget, you have to start at that place.” If it turns out that you need $10,000, then you can cut the expenses down to the essentials and build the income to get to $6,000.

When you start with your project’s needs, it’s inevitable that you’ll produce a true budget. This realistic budget will impress decision makers because it shows them that you know what it takes to succeed. A skimpy budget may make them wary about whether you can actually complete the project.

Imagine your project finished. It’s opening night, or the final day of the workshop you attended. What did it take you to get to this moment? Start at the beginning and list every baby step you took to arrive at where you are now. What did each step cost? Let the vision of your project lead you through developing your budget, then fill in the costs. Let the numbers ground you in reality. The best budgets are born out of your vision for what you want and need to create next.

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