How much should a grant-funded digital project cost?

Budget for the whole life, not just the build

The most common mistake in a funding bid is costing only the build. You win the grant, the thing gets made, the funding period ends, and then the hosting bills and licence fees keep arriving with nothing behind them. A year later, the project you were funded to create quietly switches off.

A good digital budget includes what it costs to run after the grant ends, and a plan for who covers that. Funders increasingly ask about this, because they have all seen projects they paid for vanish the moment the cheque cleared.

What to put in the budget

• The build itself: designing and making the thing.
• Getting it going: moving your data in, setting it up, and training your people to actually use it, which is where a lot of funded projects fail, not the technology.
• Running costs, for the funded period and beyond: hosting, licences, any fees.
• A sensible amount for changes and support once it is live, because you will always learn things once real people start using it.

Spelling these out does two jobs: it makes the project actually survive, and it shows the funder you have thought it through, which makes the bid stronger.

Make the money go further

Grant money is precious, so it is worth building in a way that does not saddle you with heavy ongoing costs. I lean on free and low-cost tiers wherever they fit, so that when the funding ends the running cost is small enough to carry yourself. A project built on an expensive platform can trap you in fees you cannot afford the moment the grant is gone.

It is also worth asking whether you need to build at all, or whether the grant is better spent setting up and tailoring something that already exists. Funders respect that kind of honesty, and it makes the money stretch further.

Own what the grant paid for

Because public or charitable money paid for it, it matters even more that you own the result: the code, the data, the accounts, all in your name. If a supplier keeps the keys, you have spent grant money on something you cannot fully control or move, which is a hard thing to explain to a funder later. Everything I build is handed over and documented, in your name.

So what should it cost?

Whatever the build costs, plus the honest running and support costs for the funded period, plus a realistic plan for after, all written down clearly. That is the figure that both wins the bid and survives it. If you are putting a project into an application and want a straight, defensible number to use, that is exactly the sort of thing a short call can sort out.