Cat Plein, Development & Communications Director at Forth and Josh Rodriguez, Program Director for Environment at AASHTO gave this presentation at Forth Design and Fund Equitable Electric Mobility For Your Community workshop on April 17, 2024.

1. Building A Budget
Cat Plein | Development & Communications Director | Forth
Josh Rodriguez | Program Director for Environment | AASHTO
04/17/2024
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2. AGENDA
● Overview of Budgeting for Federal Funding
● Key Components for Building A Budget
○ Guiding Questions
○ Match Considerations
○ Personnel Considerations
○ Partner Considerations
○ Anticipating Potential Roadblocks
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3. FEDERAL BUDGETS - 30K FEET
● Is Federal funding right for my organization?
● Project readiness
● Considerations for compliance when drafting your
budget
● Guiding principles and rules of Federal funding
○ 2 Code of Federal Regulation(CFR) 200:
Uniform Guidance
○ Title 23: Governing Statute of Federal
Highway funding
○ State Procurement Rules and Regulations
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4. NATIONAL HIGHWAY INSTITUTE - 2 CFR 200
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5. DOT NAVIGATOR & PROJECT READINESS
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6. KEY COMPONENTS FOR BUDGETS
● Guiding Questions
● Match Considerations
● Personnel Considerations
● Partner Considerations
● Anticipating Potential Roadblocks
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7. GUIDING QUESTIONS
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● How does the budget illustrate your
values? What’s in, and what’s excluded?
● Who benefits and who is burdened?
● Are there unmet needs that our budget
could address?
● Have we built in “wiggle room” to account
for delays and other variables?
● Have we considered the impacts of
inflation?
● Have we created opportunities for staff and
the community to identify needs and
prioritize them?

8. POTENTIAL ROADBLOCKS
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● Limited capacity to manage large federal
grants
● Can be challenging to
compensate/subcontract with smaller
organizations
● Indirect rate may be low or capped
● Costs may be hard to predict for “pilot”
projects and new technologies
● Partners may work on different timelines
● Limited staff with programmatic or lived
experience
● Match can be hard to identify especially in
rural and low income communities

9. MATCH CONSIDERATIONS
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● Take match seriously!
● Match can strengthen programs, but requirements can create barriers
● Some programs have lower requirements for historically underserved
communities
● Seek match from organizations that share your goals, objectives, and values
● Match can generally be cash or in-kind
● Cash match does not need to flow through you
● Don't forget about in-kind match options such as volunteer hours, equipment
already on hand, and donated items, space, services, or equipment

10. PERSONNEL CONSIDERATIONS
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● Ensure adequate staff time is covered so
workloads are reasonable and fairly distributed
● It always takes more time than you think
● Plan for inflation and raises to keep options open
● Budget for special skills, knowledge or lived
experience
● Don’t forget to include “support” staff like
marketing, communications, management, etc.
● Make budgets accessible to staff and others
impacted by budget decisions

11. PARTNER CONSIDERATIONS
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● Discuss your partners’ budget needs openly and include adequate funding for them
● Make sure partners are clear on match commitments
● Include time and staffing for your team to train, support, and monitor subgrantees -
and their time to comply with the CFR
● Pay for expertise - including lived experience. Compensate for time and travel at
listening sessions, etc.
● Travel can be a barrier - budget for travel costs and complement with online
engagement.
● Budget with respect for the cultural norms of partners - for example, Native
populations

12. QUESTIONS?