Comm/301 Week 2 Individual Assignment

Design and Budget Elements of Proposal

Lori Cannella

COMM/301

March 2, 2012

John Brady

Budget Proposal

Every proposal requires a budget but the key is to what budget is going to fit your

response to the proposal. There are several types of budgets: itemized, non-itemized, fixed and

flexible. The budget is the most important of the proposal and knowing what the right budget to

use will set the tone for the proposal.

When developing a budget for a company with a set price, one must take into account

how much it will cost to implement the project plan. Project funding should be reasonable. It

should be allocated to the project plan, and should follow all guidelines set forth by the

sponsoring organization. When beginning the budget process, the costs should be broken down

into the following categories: management and salaried labor, direct and indirect labor,

equipment, direct and indirect materials, travel, communication, profit for business proposals,

and cost sharing for grant proposals (Johnson-Sheehan, 2008).

Itemized vs. Non-itemized

Budgets can be itemized or non-itemized. An itemized budget breaks down the costs to

the smallest detail. The more details included in the proposal helps the sponsoring organization

keep track of the funds spent. Organizations use non-itemized budgets if they do not need to

know the exact cost of every item. The National Institutes of Health, National Science

Foundation and United States Department of Agriculture request for proposals have either a

detailed budget or a modular budget. The detailed budget is used for budgets that are over

$250,000 a year and every expense needs to be clearly broken out. The modular...