Essential Budget Proposal Tips: Focus on Storytelling Over Spreadsheets

For program managers juggling deliverables and dollars.

“No money, no mission.”  It’s the number one rule when it comes to nonprofit finances. 

And while it’s true that we need revenue to serve our communities, creating a budget—whether for a funding proposal or a board meeting—is about much more than just aligning income and expenses. Indeed, one of the most common mistakes for new managers to make a budget is to start by creating a budget before even thinking about the project itself or the aspiration of the team. 

Mistake 1: Starting with the Numbers Instead of the Story

A budget is not just a spreadsheet—it’s a reflection of your program’s purpose, your team’s capacity, and your organization’s values. In other words, the budget should tell the story of what you’re trying to achieve.

Several experts, including nonprofit financial strategist Hilda Polanco (FMA), advocate for a “story-first” budgeting approach. They recommend that before entering any numbers, managers should work through questions like:

• What is the core goal of this project or initiative?

• What results are we trying to achieve?

• What support, capacity, or collaboration will it require?

• How does this budget align with our organization’s broader priorities?

In some circles, this approach is referred to as “no-number budgeting"—a concept where you first design the budget framework around your intended outcomes, and only then layer in financial estimates. It helps ensure that the numbers serve the mission, not the other way. 

Mistake 2: Guessing What the Decision-Makers Want

When we start by telling the story behind the budget and clearly outlining the results we want to achieve, we are less inclined to make the second most common mistake;  guessing what the decision makers want. In order words, bending our budget outputs in an effort to align with what we think a funder wants to hear.  This can lead to:

• Proposing outputs that don’t reflect actual capacity 

	E.g. You promise to deliver 20 workshops in a year with a team that currently struggles to manage 8.

• Under-budgeting key roles or overhead 

	E.g. You leave out the salary for a coordinator and evaluator your project needs, 	hoping your existing team can absorb the extra work.

• Leaving out important context to “look lean” or overly efficient 

	E.g. You cut travel and translation costs from your budget, even though your program operates in remote, multilingual communities.

But bending your plans to fit perceived expectations often means leaving out the full story: underestimating your team’s time, cutting corners on evaluation, or leaving administrative costs off the table. 

The potential result? A budget that doesn’t reflect reality and a project that risks being under-resourced from the start. 

When you present the full picture to the funder, you give them a chance to understand the true cost of your work and what it takes to deliver meaningful results. It also helps you build clear expectations on your end. If they can't fund everything you need, you now have a solid base to negotiate outcomes (results) that match the level of investment —rather than trying to stretch your team. 

When we start with the story before layering up the financials, it allows for more productive conversations with funders. It makes it easier to explain why certain expenses are essential, and clarify what adjustments can be made to the budget without compromising our team’s capacities and the organization’s priorities.