Exercises — Chapter 11: The Budget

Part C builds your real budget. Calculators allowed. Selected answers in the appendix.

Part A — Recall and Understand

11.1. State the threshold concept in one sentence. Why do reviewers read the budget so closely?

11.2. Define salary, effort, and fringe, and give the formula for one person's personnel cost.

11.3. Distinguish direct from indirect (F&A) costs. Why are indirect costs contentious?

11.4. What is cost-sharing/matching, and what's the difference between cash and in-kind?

11.5. What is escalation, and why isn't a multi-year budget just year one repeated?

11.6. Name three common budget mistakes and why each hurts.

Part B — Apply (show your work)

11.7. Personnel. A staff member earns \$55,000/year, works 40% effort, fringe rate 28%. What does the project pay for them?

11.8. Indirect. Direct costs are \$150,000, including \$25,000 equipment (excluded from base). Indirect rate is 45% of modified total direct costs. Compute indirect and total.

11.9. Escalation. A \$30,000 salary line escalates 3%/year. What is year 3?

11.10. Classify. Put each in the right category: (a) \$4,000 laptop; (b) \$60/hr evaluator for 50 hours; (c) \$25 participant gift cards; (d) \$40,000 of work by a partner nonprofit; (e) \$9,000 instrument.

11.11. Spot the mismatch. A narrative describes a full-time outreach worker and a 300-person survey; the budget has no outreach line and \$200 for "survey." Name the problems and fixes.

Part C — Analyze and Create (your real project)

11.12. Personnel. List each person, with salary, effort, fringe, and total. Check effort is credible and consistent with your narrative.

11.13. Line-item budget. Build your full direct-cost budget by category, each line traced to a narrative activity.

11.14. Indirect. Apply your institution's rate to the correct base, respecting the funder's cap. Show the calculation.

11.15. Multi-year (if applicable). Build each year with escalation; show year-by-year and total. Check the shape matches your timeline.

11.16. Match check. Run the budget-narrative match both directions; verify every total agrees in the table, text, and (preview) justification.

Part M — Mixed Review

11.17. (From Ch 9) What must the budget do for each activity in your approach? Define a "budget hole."

11.18. (From Ch 10) Where do an external evaluator and data collection appear in the budget, and why must they?

11.19. (From Ch 5) Why is one budget-narrative mismatch so costly to the whole proposal?

Reflection

11.20. Learning check-in. Did you feel the pull to under-budget (to seem modest) or to pad? Name which, and how you chose accuracy instead.