State Your Budget
by Amy Brugh
I propose a change. Let’s get into the practice of stating a budget range in our RFPs and in our general requests for outside help.
Is this controversial? I don’t know, it seems to be so. I want to move this conversation along. Let’s ask ourselves why we have a hard time stating a budget to potential contractors or consultants. I hope we can consider a new way forward.
A little background
I think we’ve made some progress on understanding why we need to state a salary range when we post job openings. A lot of work has gone into shifting the norms around this. A couple of years ago, three of the major job boards (Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, Springboard for the Arts, and Pollen) required a salary range in order to post a job on their popular job boards. It’s good stuff and you can read up on it here.
In my experience, we haven’t yet extended this practice to stating a budget range in RFPs and in other general requests for outside help.
Why don’t we state a budget range?
I have a few theories.
We’re sometimes afraid to be transparent about money, even if it’s our organization’s and not ours.
We still have money and power all wrapped up. Deep down we’re suspicious and don’t want someone to take advantage of us.
We’re not practiced at stating a budget range and no one is making us do it.
What could be the benefits of us changing this?
We’d save a heck of a lot of our own and everyone else’s time.
We’d extend a culture of transparency and fairness, as we’ve started to do with the job boards.
We’d open ourselves up to new conversations with those that can provide outside help, specifically with people that may have refreshing ideas and different ways of doing business.
What can we do right now?
Ask yourself what is getting in the way of stating a budget range.
If you’re going to be looking for outside help, put it in your budget now. Do some research. Ask people. Apply the tools you use for estimating other budget items to the budget line(s) for outside contractors or consultants. Consider these factors now and whenever you are seeking an outside consultant in the future.
Start with something small. State a budget range for a smaller project where the stakes might not feel as high.
Read up on why we’re shifting to including a salary range in job postings, and consider how this might be extended to contractors and consultants.
Talk about this! Talk about it within your organization. And talk to me—I’d love to talk more about this.