Supplement Budget Considerations KM Strategy

Budget Considerations
As you move forward with developing a KM strategy, a corresponding budget and budget
narrative should also be developed. As with the strategy in general, your budget will depend on
the technical scope, timeframe, and existing resources. There are several items that you will need
to plan for regardless of the size of your strategy.
Salaries
A significant portion of your budget will be allocated towards salaries.. Consider the skills you
are seeking in staff as well as the time commitment, duties, and responsibilities. These factors
will affect the salary range(s) that you should plan for. KM salaries often depend on the degree
of specialization of the skills you are seeking as wells the candidate’s salary history. The donor
and type of funding may also dictate a maximum amount that can be paid for salaries. Since KM
is a relatively new field, there are still few professionals with explicit KM skills. Use skills in
related fields as a proxy for identifying appropriate candidates.
KM activities typically require some level of effort from the following HR categories: monitoring
and evaluation, technical writer, graphic designer, ICT specialist, project manager
Fringe benefits
Salaries include fringe benefits which often include vacation, health care, and parental leave.
These costs vary from organization to organization. This budget item will not be unique to KM
work.
Consultants
Consultancies are used to complete tasks that current staff does not have the skills or time to
complete themselves. Consider the skills needed, number of days, and expected rate of
compensation. KM strategies employ consultants to complete needs assessments, write and
editing KM documents, and implement select activities including those focused on digital
health, ICT, and promotion and dissemination. The type of funding also limits the maximum
daily rate. USAID funded project require that consultants complete a form showing salary
history known as a1420.
Supplies
You will need to list the supplies required to support the identified KM activities in your KM
strategies. Common supplies for KM work include flash drives for sharing electronic documents,
and paper for printing of hard copies. Computers, copiers, scanners, and flash drive writers may
also be needed. Justify each item by explaining how it is needed to complete the corresponding
1
This material is part of the Knowledge Management Training Package, made possible by the support of the American
People through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and created by the Knowledge for Health
(K4Health) Project under Cooperative Agreement #AID-OAA-A-13-00068 with the Johns Hopkins University. The contents
of this material may be adapted and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the U.S. Government, or the Johns
Hopkins University. The original material can be found on www.kmtraining.org.
activity. In USAID projects, items that costs $25,000 or above are classified as equipment. Most
KM strategies won’t have expenses as high as this.
Travel
Travel to meet with stakeholders are important to KM strategies for purposes of knowledge
gathering, exchange, sharing. Funding guidelines often dictate the limits on spending for hotel,
meals and incidentals such as USAID’s per diem limits. Note the purpose and number of trips as
well as the number of travelers, airfare, lodging, meals, and ground transportation.
Contracts
Contracts are like consultancies but for organizations instead of individuals; similar tools include
purchase orders, sub-awards, and partnerships. These tools are often employed for larger and
more complicated tasks. In your budget, list the scope of work, deliverables and milestone
payments, and the period of performance. KM strategies often use contracts to partner with
organizations that have specialized skills or experience managing complex work plans including
those focused on digital health or resource planning.
Indirect costs
Indirect costs include the cost of office space and office equipment (if it is not being purchased
new). Similar to fringe benefits, the indirect cost rate will vary from organization to organization
as well as the donor. USAID and others funders often use negotiated indirect cost rate
agreements or NICRA for short. Indirect rates are expressed as a percentage of total modified
direct costs. Often organizations will have different rates for their headquarters and field
offices.
Budget Template
Item Unit Rate Total

Salaries
Consultants
Supplies
Travel
Contracts
Indirect costs
Total

Supplement Budget Considerations KM Strategy

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