“Navigating Budgets in Social Work Leadership: Creating a Comprehensive Budget for a Rural Transportation Project”

Introduction
If you have never taken a course in budgeting and finance, how are you to create a comprehensive budget for your project that will meet the funder’s requirements? As a social work leader, you will find yourself in administrative positions, and many of these require knowledge of budgets. There is a saying in social work that you do not always have to know the answer, but you have to be willing to find it. That analogy works with budget education. There are many grant templates that address budgets. The funding source may even provide a template for their purposes.
As you prepare to create your legitimate budget for your Week 8 assignment, where are the areas that align well with your existing agency budget and where are their conflicts? Consider whether new staff will be hired. Who will be responsible for the benefits part of the salary. If salary is not covered in the grant requirements, how will you ethically reassign existing staff to the grant positions? How else might you fund some of the expenses your new project will require so that you can claim matching funds? When money is involved, the need for ethical practices is required. How will you ensure ethical use of grant monies? Share both your experiences and your future concerns with colleagues. Cite all sources of information.
The project is: Transportation for needy families in the rural Mississippi delta.