Find Money for Your Project(s)

Some Projects or Ideas have it all: great potential, great teams, and excellent support but no funds. For a lot of Project Managers, this is a reason to stop. The general idea is that if there is no money then the organization is not ready or not willing to execute the project.
I can relate to that way of thinking but there is also another side to it.

FIND MONEY FOR YOUR PROJECT(S)…

First of all, you need to analyze WHY there is no budget assigned to your Project. By figuring out the WHY you get the direction for WHERE to collect funds, and then the HOW is easy enough.

IT IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK. GIVE IT A TRY…

Ask at least on 3 levels WHY the budget is not available, e.g. at your CFO, your Project Sponsor, and at a Project Manager on your own level. Interview them in order to obtain as much information as you can. Ask open questions and try to avoid making assumptions.
Take your time to (double) check your conclusions because these are the starting point for the next step.

When your conclusion is “internal problem, my project was not (properly) presented at the budget commission” then you have your work cut out: create an elevator pitch, put your Project on the agenda of the budget commission and prepare a hell of a presentation.

If your conclusion is “external problem, there is not enough money incoming”, then you look outside the organization e.g. subsidies, gifts, contests, fundraising… In all cases, you have to do the same preparation: the elevator pitch, the presentation, and really know all the ins- and outs of your Project needs and the situation the organization is in.

Does this work?

Yep, it does! We won a contest and collected €500.000, we applied to a fund and raised €175.000, we got salaries paid from a subsidy… Be creative, be brave, and just go for it. Money is always available when you look in the right places. Always.