Money in – money out. A budget is an important tool for any business. A budget helps you prioritize purchases against expected income and fixed expenses. Be realistic. What income are you sure of, and what do you expect? Can you make a big investment this year, or should you wait?
Download the template below, and start your budget journey.
Download template (xls)Funding opportunities
Ireland:
- Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht
- Údaras na Gaeltachta
- Pobal
- Rethink Ireland
- Local Enterprises Offices
- Western Development Commission
- Local Community Development Committees
- Social Entrepreneurs Ireland
- County Councils
Norway
- Municipalities and The State Administrator
- Tilskudd.no – An overview of public grants for non-profit and voluntary organizations
- Grasrotandelen
- Spleis.no
- Local banks and businesses
- Legacies – check out Legathåndboken, which gives an overview of different legacies
- Ferd
Budgets for social entrepreneurs in Europe
We have experience through the MERSE project that support and funding for social entrepreneurs are very different from one European country to another. In some countries, there are special grant schemes, tax benefits and investment funds for social enterprises, while in others they are treated more like ordinary businesses or charities.
This means that access to public funding, social investors and long-term agreements with the public sector can be very good in one country and almost missing in another. Because of this, social entrepreneurs must adapt their business model to the national system they work in – for example how they earn money, who they partner with, and how much financial risk they can take.
Social enterprises need to handle two things at once: create real social change and have enough money to keep going. That means using a few basic budgets and not letting costs run wild.
It helps to think in four budgets: one for the founders’ own living costs, a start-up budget for the one-time stuff when you’re getting started, an operating budget for what comes in and goes out over a year, and a cash-flow budget to check that there’s enough money in the account each month.
These budgets should make it easy to see how the money turns into actual results, like how many people you support or how many peer support hours you offer, so funders understand what they’re paying for.
A “budget-friendly” setup keeps fixed costs low (shared office, online delivery, peer workers), brings in money from different places (fees, public contracts, grants, donations), and clearly shows what public services gain from it.
Common problems are only planning a few months ahead, relying too much on project money, and not spending enough time on financial routines—but some basic budgeting skills and regular check-ins on the numbers can make social enterprises much more stable.
