This is an anytime, anywhere online video training. As soon as you enroll, you will have instant access to the recorded training and can watch from any Internet-connected device, on your own schedule, as often as you like.


Five-star student reviews:

5 star rating

PERFECT for young, start-up nonprofits

Kathleen Weinberg

This course really makes the idea of budget-planning simple and straight-forward. The tools are great! I struggle with defining and quantifying in-kind resources and Maryn gives very straight forward explanations on these subjects. I love the e...

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This course really makes the idea of budget-planning simple and straight-forward. The tools are great! I struggle with defining and quantifying in-kind resources and Maryn gives very straight forward explanations on these subjects. I love the emphasis on showing the full value of a program and being able to share this with funders. I work with young, start-up agencies and I can't wait to use these tools as I work with the boards and executive directors to more clearly develop their program budgets. This is a very worthwhile course! I highly recommend it.

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5 star rating

Informative, insightful and delightful

Emily Anderson

Maryn is deliberate and methodical in her teaching. She provides great examples of budget-planning practices to put into use. The pictures and charts she provides are very helpful, and her teaching is clear. And although this is an online course,...

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Maryn is deliberate and methodical in her teaching. She provides great examples of budget-planning practices to put into use. The pictures and charts she provides are very helpful, and her teaching is clear. And although this is an online course, her genuine teaching style gives me courage to (one day) put this knowledge into use in a program support or development position.

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5 star rating

Total Value = Total Winner

Robin Gore

Great information! Very organized and logical step-by-step approach to planning and crafting a "total value" grant budget.

Great information! Very organized and logical step-by-step approach to planning and crafting a "total value" grant budget.

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5 star rating

Much more than "crunching numbers"!

Laura Keller

This workshop provides a great perspective on the "total value" budget. I loved that it was about more than "crunching numbers"... Maryn does a great job of using metaphors and examples to help build understanding of concepts and the WHY behind it...

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This workshop provides a great perspective on the "total value" budget. I loved that it was about more than "crunching numbers"... Maryn does a great job of using metaphors and examples to help build understanding of concepts and the WHY behind it. Thank you for taking a challenging topic (for me) and making it enjoyable to learn!

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5 star rating

Incredibly Informative!

Jeri Vradenburg

As a nonprofit consultant, I'm always looking to educate myself about best practices and processes to share with my clients. Maryn's budget class was the most comprehensive and incredibly detailed one I've taken thus far! After viewing this video,...

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As a nonprofit consultant, I'm always looking to educate myself about best practices and processes to share with my clients. Maryn's budget class was the most comprehensive and incredibly detailed one I've taken thus far! After viewing this video, I've completely restructured how I will be creating budgets with my clients. Her method added another layer to the process that I never considered but find it so helpful in relaying the TOTAL VALUE to funders. So many questions were answered for me including how to value volunteer time, breaking down the costs, and how to incorporate infrastructure costs into each project budget. Thank you so much Maryn for taking the time to teach this valuable budget method!

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At the heart of every mission-driven grant proposal stands a mission-driven budget. A good budget provides an honest, complete, and clear picture of the total value of all the resources necessary to perform the proposed work. It also stands as an invaluable management and evaluation tool when it comes to running the grant-funded program.

So … how do we get there from here?

That’s the question we’ll explore in this down-to-earth, myth-busting session. 

BONUS: In this session, you’ll be introduced to GrantsMagic U’s exclusive Master Budget Planning Checklist and Worksheet, a powerful planning tool to help make sure you’re crafting a budget that is comprehensive, realistic, and bullet-proof—and that will work for you, your organization, and your grantmaking partners.

Your big take-aways:

  • You’ll learn and practice how to take "total value” approach to budget-building, to clearly and compellingly show the value of everything it takes to do our work successfully.

  • You'll learn why you should never plan your proposal budget using the form the grantmaker gives you … and what you can use instead.

  • Working with a real-life scenario, we’ll make our way through each of the six major budget categories … looking at the key issues and challenges you can expect to run into in each one.

  • You’ll have the chance to whip out your calculator and try your own hand at thinking through some of the situations in our real-life scenario - some are pretty tricky!

  • You’ll get a behind-the-scenes view of how grantmakers evaluate your proposal budget – and what your budget tells them about your organization.

  • And we’ll clear away the confusion around value of volunteer time, accounting for “match,” handling administrative/indirect costs, and other perennially perplexing budget issues.

Curriculum:

TOTAL VIDEO TIME:  1 hr. 54 min.

PART 1. GETTING TO KNOW THE TOTAL-VALUE BUDGET FRAMEWORK (runtime: 38 min.)

  • What is "Total Value" - and Why Does It Matter?
  • Setting the Context: The Hierarchy of Budgets in Your Organization
  • The Total-Value Planning Tool: Basic Version
  • Two Working Examples: The Post-Hole Digger and the Maxillofacial Surgeon
  • The Total-Value Planning Tool: Full Checklist Version

PART 2. BUILDING THE TOTAL-VALUE BUDGET: OUR WORKING EXAMPLE (runtime: 35 min. - allow extra time for hands-on exercises)

  • YouthPlay and Been There: Introducing Our Real-Life Scenario
  • Salaries (with Exercises)
  • Employee-Related Expenses
  • Contractual Services (with Exercise)
  • Space Costs (with Exercise)
  • Equipment; Supplies
  • Travel Costs
  • Building Costs; Other

PART 3: WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE TOTAL-VALUE BUDGET FRAMEWORK?  (runtime: 28 min.)

  • How Grant Reviewers Look at Budgets: The Bottom-Up Logic Model and ABC=123
  • Those Tricky "Direct" and "Indirect" Costs, Defined
  • Core Mission Support: A New Model for Thinking About "Indirect" Costs
  • Working with a Grantmaker's "Indirect" Costs
  • Total-Value Thinking and the Direct-vs-Indirect Cost Ratio
  • Sample Grantmaker Budget Form: Reporting Tool vs Planning Tool

PART 4: RECAP, REVIEW, AND NEXT STEPS (runtime: 13 min.)

  • Total Value - Why It Matters ... and the GrantsMagic U Total Value Pledge
  • Wrap-Up: What Do You Know; Putting It Into Practice

Accepted Continuing Education Credits:

BUDGET-BUILDING FOR GRANTWRITERS (1 hr. 54 min. viewing time) is accepted by the following credentialing institutions for professional Continuing Education (CE) points:

Meet Maryn!

Maryn M. Boess

Founder/Chief Magic-Maker

Over her 35+-year nonprofit career, Maryn Boess has been an on-staff grantwriter; a grants consultant (winning $42 million for her clients over 10 years); a grants trainer; a grants reviewer, author, speaker, mentor and coach; and – starting in 2006 - even a grantmaker. This 3-D background brings a unique insider's perspective to the practical, inspiring trainings on healthy, successful grantsmanship she shares with thousands of people each year through GrantsMagic U (Go.GrantsMagic.org).

A true dual-citizen of the grants world, Maryn may be the only person holding membership in both Grant Professionals Association (for grantseekers) - and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (for grantmakers). In 2020, Maryn became just the second inductee into the international Grant Professionals Class of Distinguished Fellows, in recognition of her long history of contribution to the field.