Great Partnerships
Planning Tool #9
Developing Your Budget
Developing Your Budget
Your budget needs to clearly show a dollar value for everything the project will require, including
time and resources – this is your expenditure. Include donations or volunteering as these count
toward your total project value. The budget also needs to show where those resources, including
grants and other contributions will come from – that is your income.
Try to think what kind of things will happen from the beginning of the project through to the end and
write down each cost or resource requirement as it comes up. Once you have captured these,
group them into types, for example:
Expenditure
Salaries & Personnel Costs
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Artists project fee
Casual relief teachers (to cover planning sessions)
Superannuation and WorkCover
Working with children check fee
Guest musicians fees
Costume makers (volunteer parent – in-kind)
Project and Production Costs
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Church hall hire
Fabric and materials for costumes
Hire of sound system
instruments (donated – in-kind)
Bus to and from hall
Marketing and Promotion
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Filming of promo video
Poster design and print
Local radio interview (in-kind)
Photography of performance (parent donation – in-kind)
Administration
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photocopying of sheet music (in-kind from school)
phone costs (in-kind from school)
catering for info night for parents
There are lots of other costs that might come up depending on the nature of your project, such as
photographic paper, disposable cameras, projector hire, construction materials (for large-scale
outdoor art), front of house costs such as the printing of tickets, professional learning for teachers
and artists, purchase of apps, mounting and hanging costs for visual art or the printing and binding
of books.
Do your best to estimate or get quotes for the cost (or dollar value if the item is donated or provided
as in-kind) for all of your project requirements.
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Income
Matched to the costs and dollar values of your project’s needs, will be a column showing how those
costs are covered. As with your expenditure, make a list of all the contributions that you anticipate
coming in to the project, including grants you are applying for, money committed by the artist/s and
the school, income from product sales or fundraising and donations. Group these into types.
Income from fundraising and sales
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Guest musicians fees
Catering for info night for parents
Poster design and print
Contributions from the partners
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Church hall hire (from school budget)
Fabric and materials for costumes (from School budget)
Hire of sound system – (provided by artist)
Bus to and from hall (from school budget)
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Artists project fee
Casual relief teachers (to cover planning sessions)
Superannuation and WorkCover
Working with children check fee
Filming of promo video
Grants
Donations and Volunteering (in-kind)
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Costume makers (volunteer)
photocopying of sheet music
phone costs
Local radio promotional interview (in-kind)
Photography of performance (parent donation)
instruments (donated)
Important information to know
Creative Victoria Education Partnerships grants
Creative Victoria offers Education partnership grants programs.
Information including budget guidelines are available on the website.
To find this go to http://creative.vic.gov.au/Funding/Arts_Programs/Education_Partnerships. The
programs will have a Budget Guidance page.
A note on Artists Fees
There are no set hourly or daily rates for artists in Victoria. Depending on which art-form the artist
works in and how experienced they are, the rate may vary considerably. It is important to negotiate
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and agree on an hourly or daily rate beforehand, reaching an understanding about whether this
includes preparation time and how many hours the total fee constitutes.
The artist can either invoice the school at the completion of various milestones during the project or
be contracted as an employee. If the artist in invoicing, they should have their own accident and
insurance cover as well as public liability cover. If they are contracted as an employee the artist will
be covered by the school’s insurance policy and WorkCover. This second option is preferred by the
Department of Education and Training as it minimises risks.
GST
When recording both income and expenditure amounts, it is recommended to not include GST.
Amounts of GST are calculated separately and added on top of both income and expenditure.
Schools and other businesses will reconcile GST amounts with the tax office later.
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