When it comes to creating a budget for your ioby campaign page, the first thing to know is: don’t sweat the small stuff.
Share what you think your donors will want to see in order to trust that your project is worth supporting, but don’t overdo it with details for now. You’ll have a chance to update your budget with more detail after the campaign has come to an end.
Some tips for you as you build your budget:
1. Categories are your friend!
If you’ve ever led a project like this in your community before, you probably know that costs and plans can change on a dime. Make your budget as future-proof as possible by creating categories of expenses rather than trying to list a description and price of every item or service you’re expecting to purchase. A good rule of thumb is that you should try to limit your budget to about 4-5 expense categories. For example:
- Fundraising for raised beds in your community garden? Include a line for “Materials” instead of listing every item you expect to purchase on separate lines. It’ll save time for you now, make your plans clearer to your donors, and make reporting easier at the end of your campaign.
- Fundraising for a public art installation in your neighborhood? Include a line for “Artist stipends” rather than listing the names and pay rates of every artist you’re working with.
Pro tip: If ioby is your fiscal sponsor, we’ll be collecting receipts with your Project Report after your project has been implemented. The process of submitting receipts is easier when you have fewer expense categories in your budget to account for!
2. Aim for easy reading!
Your donors probably aren’t going to have much time to scrutinize every line of your budget, so don’t get carried away with descriptions of every category. The clearer, the better. Again, you’ll have a chance to add more detail later when you close out your campaign.
3. Don't worry about adding ioby's fees to your budget.
We’ll handle that part for you after you submit. (More on our fees here.)