1. Budgeting and Resourcing for Executive
Directors
April 29, 2014
TTI PEC Africa workshop - Nairobi
Courtney Tolmie (Results for Development Institute)

2. 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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3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. 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

13. 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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14. 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

15. 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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