Hawaiʻi Blue Schools Hui Budget Guide

At a Glance

The goal of our budget guide is to help you successfully submit a clear and concise budget for your grant award. The grant money awarded to schools is funded by the PRADA Group and requires an in-depth description of the use of funds. Each school is awarded a total of $4,500 in Year 1, and $3,000 in Year 2.

Key Budget Elements: 

• Itemized Grant Budget 

• Budget Overall Totals 

• Budget Justification

Step 1: Itemized Grant Budget

Step 1 for putting together a clear budget is to decide what materials and partners will be included in your specific project. Categories for this section include but are not limited to supplies/ field equipment, transportation, and external partners/ programs. 

External partners/ programs are required to facilitate a community project, keep in mind however, that these partners are here to help you find ways to teach lessons in the classroom that you will be responsible for sustaining in the future. We encourage you to contact local community organizations ahead of time so you can budget more accurately.

If you are adjusting your budgets in the spreadsheet because you have more or fewer items than the example, please adjust your cells using these instructions:

Calculating Item Total Cost (per category)
=multiply(Individual item cost, # needed) 

Calculating Category Total Spent
=sum(Item Total Cost: Item Total Cost) 

The number of “Item Total Cost” cells included will depend on how many items you need. If you use more/ less be sure to include these cells by highlighting them in your calculations.

Step 2: Overall totals

The total grant awarded to selected schools for Year 1 is $4,500. Budget to spend the entire amount in Year I, and then you can apply for an additional $3,000 in Year II. The timeline begins in May 2025 when schools are selected and return project agreements, and ends in Summer 2027.

Use the budget spreadsheet to help you plan your budget. The spreadsheet may need to be adjusted if you use more rows then the example. 

To adjust your cells in the spreadsheet, please use the following calculation: 

Calculating Overall Total Spent:
=sum(category total spent: category total spent) 

There will be a total of four Category Total Spent cells added together because there are four categories, if you do not use supplies that would be listed in “Other”, then there are three Category Total Spent cells.

Step 3: Budget justification

Justify each line of your budget to explain how it will be used to implement your project. 

Example of justification for Supplies/ Field Equipment: One set of beach and stream exploration equipment (1 seine net, 2 hand nets, 2 hand lenses) for 5 schools in the district. 

Example of justification for Transportation: School bus transportation for one day for 50 students and teachers from school to a park for a community beach cleanup, cars to carry supplies that would not fit on the bus.

These justifications explain how many items are needed, who is using the item(s), and why they are needed.

Thank you!

For taking the time to use our budget guide. All Hawaiʻi Blue Schools Hui resources are meant to lead you towards a successful application and impactful project. Please reach out with any questions to: anuschka@hawaii.edu