What is a budget narrative? A budget narrative explains and justifies the projected costs attributed to each line item or category within the budget and ties the budget to the proposed deliverables and statement of work.

For simple projects, typical of proposals to foundations and private corporations, an option is to fold the budget narrative into the budget, inserting a brief explanation under each item. The budget narrative must conform to the funder’s specifications. Read the solicitation for budget constraints and any unacceptable costs.

SAMPLE - Budget Narrative – SAMPLE (NOTE: The Budget Narrative is the justification of ‘how’ and/or ‘why’ a line item helps to meet the program deliverables.) A. Salary – Total: $54,818.00 . Program Director currently oversees the program and will spend 100% of their time hiring, supervising and training staff.

The budget narrative explains in a clear and concise manner the costs in each budget category, and which budget items will be covered by the grant and which ones will be covered by matching funds (e.g., cost-share or in-kind). The budget narrative also provides supporting justification of each proposed line item in the budget and describes ...

The budget justification is one of the most important non-technical sections of the proposal, and it is often required by the sponsor. In this section, the Principal Investigator (PI) provides additional detail for expenses within each budget category and articulates the need for the items/expenses listed.