Non-Profits: How To Submit a Budget

All applications must submit a detailed budget with their full application to Harit Bharat Fund.

Note that this is one of the most critical elements of your project application and will impact the evaluation of other facets of your proposed project. The budget must fully cover the costs of the project during its entire duration, which is 6 years in total.

You must download the standard template, found on TerraMatch and downloadable below, fill it out, and then re-upload it to TerraMatch. We will not consider project budgets submitted in any other format.

Download the budget template for non-governmental organizations here.

Sample Budget (Linked to Definitions Below)

This budget is an example, which demonstrates the costs for a 52 lakhs project.

Budget Categories*	Total Budget Per Category in INR	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Year 6	Year 1 Convergence	Year 2 Convergence
Personnel & Salaries	₹500,000	₹150,000	₹150,000	₹50,000	₹50,000	₹50,000	₹50,000	₹150,000	₹150,000
External Contractors	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0
Seedling/Sapling Costs	₹1,000,000	₹500,000	₹500,000	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹500,000	₹500,000
Tree Nursery Management	₹1,000,000	₹700,000	₹300,000	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹700,000	₹700,000
Site Preparation	₹500,000	₹250,000	₹250,000	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹250,000	₹250,000
Tree Planting	₹500,000	$250,000	₹250,000	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	$250,000	$250,000
Development of Water Resources	₹100,000	₹100,000	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹100,000	₹100,000
Soil & Moisture Conservation	₹100,000	₹100,000	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹100,000	₹100,000
Sustainable Agriculture	₹100,000	₹0	₹100,000	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0
Value-chain Development	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0
Tree & Site Maintenance	₹500,000	₹0	₹100,000	₹100,000	₹100,000	₹100,000	₹100,000	₹0	₹0
Material Inputs	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0
Other Project Costs	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0
Community Engagement & Capacity Building	₹250,000	₹100,000	₹100,000	₹50,000	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹100,000	₹100,000
Monitoring & Reporting	₹220,000	₹50,000	₹50,000	₹30,000	₹30,000	₹30,000	₹30,000	₹50,000	₹50,000
Communications	₹50,000	₹25,000	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹25,000	₹25,000	₹25,000
Local Transportation	₹250,000	₹75,000	₹75,000	₹25,000	$25,000	$25,000	$25,000	₹75,000	₹75,000
Total Direct Costs	₹5,070,000	₹2,300,000	₹1,875,000	₹255,000	₹205,000	₹205,000	₹230,000	₹2,300,000	₹2,300,000
Administrative Expenses & Indirect Costs	₹180,000	₹69,000	₹56,250	₹7,650	₹6,150	₹6,150	₹6,900	₹69,000	₹69,000
Total Project Costs	₹5,222,100	₹2,369,000	₹1,931,250	₹262,650	₹211,150	₹211,150	₹236,900	₹2,369,000	₹2,369,000

*Budget Categories are defined specifically below and align with the template provided

Project Budget Duration & Timeline:

A key element of a successful budget is aligning your cost breakdown with the expectations for Harit Bharat Fund project timelines. Projects must focus their planting in year 1 & year 2 and maintain and monitor their trees through the end of year 6 , which aligns with the budget example provided above. Our selection and funding process will conclude in first quarter of 2024, giving our selected projects sufficient time to prepare for the 2024 planting season.

In practical terms, we expect this budget to cover activities beginning no earlier than April 2024. All activities should conclude by December 2029, and therefore all planting activities must be completed by December 2025. The final six-month progress report will be due on January 31, 2030.

Budget Category Definitions:

Personnel / Salaries:

This includes the salaries and benefits associated with staff officially and legally employed by the implementing organization. This should cover only those staff who are actively working on the project.

Note that Harit Bharat Fund requires its partners to pay a "living wage" to all employees. Learn more about our policy and commitment here.

External Contractors:

This includes any work that may be outsourced to other organizations or individual contractors and must involve formal contracts for goods or services rendered. This should not be a significant portion of the budge and must be justified.

Seedling/Sapling Costs:

This line includes the costs of growing seedlings in a nursery or purchasing them from a third party. This should include payments to community members that care for seedlings but are not formally employed. For natural regeneration projects, this cost should be 0.

Tree Nursery Management:

This line includes all construction, management, and expansion costs of nurseries managed by this project. If the project does not operate its own nurseries, this cost should be 0. This should include payments to community members that construct or manage nurseries but are not formally employed.

Site Preparation:

This line includes all of the start-up costs related to work within the project's restoration sites, including clearing vegetation, fencing, building infrastructure, and preparing the ground for planting. This should include payments to community members that work on preparation but are not formally employed by the organization. Note that this can include buying land, but projects that do not have access to land already are less likely to be selected for funding.

Tree Planting:

This line includes all of the costs associated with planting trees on prepared sites. For natural regeneration projects, this cost should be 0. This should include payments to community members that work on planting but are not formally employed by the organization.

Development of Water Resources:

This line includes all of the costs associated with the development of water resources, such as stop dams, farm ponds, lift irrigation, and dug wells. This should include payments to community members that work on developing water resources but are not formally employed by the organization.

Soil & Moisture Conservation:

This line includes all of the costs associated with soil and moisture conservation related interventions, such as field bunds and drainage line treatments. This should include payments to community members that work on soil and moisture conservation related interventions but are not formally employed by the organization.

Sustainable Agriculture:

This line includes all of the costs associated with sustainable agriculture-related interventions, such as the demonstration and promotion of good agriculture practices (mainly organic, non-chemical practices), varietal promotion, and promotion of nutrition gardens.

Value-chain Development:

This line includes all of the costs associated with the development of value chains and market linkages for restoration-related products that will undertaken as part of the project.

Tree & Site Maintenance:

This line includes all work on the site after the initial restoration work is complete to ensure that the trees grow to full health, in line with the proposal. This should include payments to community members that work on maintenance but are not formally employed by the organization. There should be a modest budget for this line for each year of the project.

Material Inputs:

This line includes expenses for materials that improve the livelihoods of communities but are not related to nursery management, site preparation, or tree management, e.g., processing machinery, bee hives, and water pumps. This should be a modest portion of the budget.

Other Project Costs:

Other costs should remain less than 5% of the total project costs and be directly related to implementation, but they must not be included in one of the above categories. They must be clearly defined in the project proposal.

Community Engagement & Capacity Building:

This line includes all work to mobilize smallholder farmers and other community members that will contribute to the project, along with any conference or training costs.

Monitoring & Reporting:

This line includes costs associated with collecting the information needed to establish sites and submit reports on the TerraMatch platform, along with expenses related to data collection, in-field monitoring and evaluation work. Crucially, this includes expenses related to producing high-quality geospatial shapefiles of each restoration site. There should be a modest budget for this line for each year of the project. Note that monitoring professionals will independently analyze progress within each site; this budget line should not include that data analysis. Staff time allocated to monitoring and reporting should be included in your Personnel & Salaries line.

Communications:

This line includes all communications and marketing expenses related to the project, e.g., printed materials and website development.

Local Transportation:

This line includes the costs of local travel undertaken within the project area, including per-diems for staff and drivers, fuel, mileage etc. External travel, including all flights and international conferences, must be either covered by the organization's overhead or by requesting additional funding from the assigned project manager.

Total Direct Costs:

This line should summarize all of the direct project cost categories across all years.

Administrative Expenses & Indirect Costs:

This line includes all reasonable administrative expenses associate with organizational execution

Total Project Costs:

This line should summarize all project cost categories across all years.

Projected Convergence:

This include includes the estimated amount of other funds you will converge into this project from other schemes. We understand that this is, at best, an educated estimation at this stage. If convergence does not apply to your project, put 0 here. This figure is not included in your Total Project Costs.