Grant Budget Guide

An essential part of applying for any Louisville Institute grant is preparing an itemized budget and a budget narrative. The …

An essential part of applying for any Louisville Institute grant is preparing an itemized budget and a budget narrative. The Institute closely reviews the information you provide and analyzes what you anticipate the proposed activities will cost.

Because individual recipients of Institute grants may be liable for income taxes on funds awarded, grantees typically have grants made payable to a tax-exempt nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) status. The Institute does not provide advice on tax matters; we advise grantees to consult their own tax advisers to determine the tax consequences of receiving grant funds.

Your grant budget should include two parts: a line item budget and a budget narrative that supports your request.

Line Item Budget

List all the appropriate accounts where grant funds will be spent (e.g., Personnel, Travel, etc.) and indicate the anticipated costs of project activities in each of these line items. When appropriate, work with those responsible for accounting in your organization to develop the budget based on your organizational chart of accounts; this will enable both Institute staff and your organization’s staff to monitor the budget more easily.

The Budget Preparation Guide for each grant program provides sample budgets you may find helpful as you craft your budget. Sample budgets feature line items commonly found in budget requests for this particular grant program.

If requesting funds for more than one year, arrange the budget in a calendar-year format, even though your own fiscal year may be different. The last right-hand column should show the total of each line item for the duration of the project, including the grand total of funds requested.

The Institute receives two types of requests for funding: one seeking entire support for a project and another seeking support for a portion of a project.

  • If requesting Institute support to fund 100% of your project costs, your budget should reflect all anticipated expenditures.
  • If seeking Institute support to fund a portion of a project, your budget should include anticipated sources of income as well as expenditures for these other funding sources (e.g., your organization’s in-kind support, other grant support, income from registration fees, etc.).

Budget Narrative

Include a written justification for each line item in your budget, succinctly describing:

  • the specific item
  • how the specific item relates to the project
  • how you calculated the amount requested

Program-Specific Guidelines

Although budget requirements are similar for each grant program, see the guides below for the specific grant program you are applying for:

Pastoral Study Project Grant

Project Grant for Researchers

Sabbatical Grant for Researchers

First Book Grant for Scholars of Color}