Budgeting and Resourcing for Executive Directors

April 29, 2014

TTI PEC Africa workshop - Nairobi

Courtney Tolmie (Results for Development Institute)

Starting with a question

What are the biggest challenges that you face in budgeting and resources for PEC as an executive director?

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Budgeting for PEC – Project versus Organization Budget

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Like with PEC strategies and M&E plans, think tanks should think about Project-level communications budgets and Organization-level communications budgets

Project Level Organization Level

Both should be tied to objectives from your strategy

Generally shorter term Generally longer term

Tied to specific activities More strategic

Where does an organization PEC budget fit in the process?

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1 • Identify target audiences

2• Determine the PEC objective(s) for each audience

3 • Select the PEC channels

4 • Design the message

5• Establish the communications budget

6• Decide on communications mix

7• Measure PEC results

From Ray Struyk – Managing Think Tank Practices (second edition)

Main Categories of Budget for PEC

Staff salaries and fringe Staff training and capacity

building Communications

planning/strategy Branding “Products”

Events Publications (print) Online communications Other media (video, etc)

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Your Costs +Consultants

Budgeting for PEC Staff

First step – identifying the model that works best for you:

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Executive Director

Researcher Researcher Researcher

Communications

Lead/Director

Budgeting for PEC Staff

First step – identifying the model that works best for you:

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Executive Director

Researcher

Communications Officer

Researcher

Communications Officer

Researcher

Communications Officer

Budgeting for PEC Staff

First step – identifying the model that works best for you:

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Executive Director

Researcher (with PEC duties)

Researcher (with PEC duties)

Researcher (with PEC

duties)

Budgeting for PEC Staff

In groups of 3, share your PEC staffing model with your group

Discuss the Advantages and Disadvantages of your model 5 minutes per person

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Building Resources for PEC Staffing

Project budgets versus Organization (Core) budgets

Project budget Can (and should) build part of PEC staff time into project

budgets Covers some cost – but difficult to stretch this to consistently

cover full salary

Core budget options: TTI budget Other core funding

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Main Categories of Budget for PEC

Staff salaries and fringe Staff training and capacity

building “Products”

Events Publications (print) Online communications Other media (video, etc)

Communications planning/strategy

Branding

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Staff training and capacity building

Resources TTI Phase 2 – opportunities for capacity building TTI PEC – for remainder of program Others?

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For PEC Staff For Researchers

Topics – particular skills, programs, etc that can help your PEC effectiveness

Motivation for PEC Staff Listen to your team

Topics – talking to the media, writing for broader audiences, blogging

Especially valuable if moving to a CGD-like model

Listen to your (PEC and research) team

Main Categories of Budget for PEC

Staff salaries and fringe Staff training and capacity

building “Products”

Events Publications (print) Online communications Other media (video, etc)

Communications planning/strategy

Branding

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Products

We often think of products with projects – but there are strategic products as well:

Resource mobilization If you can budget in core, great. However often can cover costs for these through project

budgets.

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Website Newsletters,

Magazines

Videos or promotional

materials

Events

Revisiting the Challenges and Take Aways

What challenges have we not covered?

What opportunities are there for the TTI partners to support each other?

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