Budget Guidance

We have provided a budget template on our website for you to complete for your project, please do so using this guidance below. 

Please note that we are not able to fund 100% of activity costs. While we do not have a set percentage requirement for match funding, we expect to see box office income and other partnership support - whether in cash, volunteer time, or other in-kind contributions - included in the budget.

There are two sections in your budget, the income, and expenditure. Your budget will need to balance, so that the total income and expenditure are the same.

The calculations section at the bottom of the sheet will indicate whether your budget balances, and whether you’ve allocated all your requested amount from Film Hub Midlands.

Income

This is for you to include any income that will help you deliver your activity.

Please include all income you anticipate or have confirmed, including grants from other sources. This helps us understand the overall scale of your activity.

Income falls into two categories: 

Cash Funding:

• The support from Film Hub Midlands that you are applying for.
• Box Office. Anticipated income from ticket sales at your film events. Please feel free to be ambitious here, but crucially be realistic and include your workings in the notes.
• Additional grants. Any cash applied for or confirmed from other sources such as Local Authorities, Arts Council England, other charities, and further.
• Sponsorship. Any cash funding from sponsors.
• Cash from your organisation.
• Please add any other sources of cash income if not covered in above categories.

In-Kind support from your organisation and partners:

• Staffing. Please approximate the cash value of any staffing provided by your organisations or partners that is not covered by the cash income.
• Venue Support. Please approximate the cash value of any venue hire provided in kind by partners.
• Marketing. Please include any additional marketing support from partners/sponsors that isn’t purely staff time.
• Please add any other sources of In-Kind Support if not covered in the above categories.

Expenditure

This is where you list all of the expenditures that will enable you to deliver the activity. We have included some broad categories to help you indicate your expenditure. Feel free to add and amend these as suitable.

You will notice there are two columns ‘Total’ and ‘amount requested from FHM’. 

The ‘Total’ column should include both the FHM support and all other income and in-kind support listed in the previous sections. 

Please ensure this second “amount requested from FHM” column includes only the cash income from FHM and where you intend to spend it. This is the most important part of the budget, as it tells us where you plan to spend our financial support.

Eligible expenses:

Each organisation and project will have its individual needs - however, broadly speaking, we can support the following costs.

• Film rights and print transport
• Activity-specific staffing costs - for example curation, marketing, or project management expenses
• Venue hire and activity-specific equipment hire
• Marketing, Advertising, and PR campaigns
• Event costs for enhanced screenings - for example speaker, talent, or artists fees
• Volunteer and evaluation expenses.
• Accessibility costs - for example creating accessible supporting materials, subtitling fees.
• Outreach and community inclusion costs - for example providing transport for isolated audiences.
• Audience development expenses - for example young programmers’ workshops.
• Rights clearances and curation fees for screen heritage materials.
• Costs related to online activity such as web platforms or hosting fees.

This list is not exhaustive and other items may be considered. 

Ineligible Expenses:

All proposed spend should contribute to the activity proposed. Beyond this, there are some areas not suitable for our support. These include:

• Filmmaking costs (including workshops), support for filmmakers to develop or distribute their own work, or for programmes that exclusively engage filmmaker audiences
• Capital costs covering building repairs, equipment purchase, additional health and safety measures required due to Covid-19 including the purchasing of PPE.
• Programmes entirely comprised of free events, unticketed events, or screenings where audience numbers cannot be reported.
• General running costs of organisations not specifically related to the activity.
• Activity that should be covered by statutory education, including events taking place on school grounds/in school hours.
• Events not primarily focused on film exhibition.
• Activity covered by existing funding arrangements.
• Programmes that duplicate provision in the same area.
• Activity taking place in a venue not open to the public - for example members only venues.
• The set-up of new film clubs and opening of new cinema venues.