2/3 - Defining the financial scope

DEFINING THE FINANCIAL SCOPE aims to estimate the financial volume and potential funding sources of your plan and its projects.

Before a Funding Coordination Officer/Team can start the search for funding, they need to have a good understanding of the overall plan and its projects. This will provide relevant information for the search for funding opportunities about what type and how much funding will be needed for the various projects.

The estimation of the overall financial volume provides vital information for developing the Funders Map and to begin the scanning for funding opportunities. The more complete the design of your plan and its projects is, the more refined the estimation of the overall cost volume can be and the more focused the search for funding opportunities can become.

In this context it is relevant to at least outline the expected project costings and to determine the Funding Mix of projects. This will make the work of the Funding Coordination Team more effective.

The tool is a simple mapping tool in the form of a spreadsheet.

 Click on the stations to navigate throught the Strategy line!

Key challenges of the step

• Estimating the financial scope while the project plan is still in development is a challenge. As such flexibiltiy is needed and the ability to work with rough outlines and broad estimates. However, it will be benefitial if projects that can be implemented early (even before the plan’s completion) are prioritised and costed in more detail. This will enable the Funding Coordination Team to start looking for funding even before the full financial scope is known. Flexibility and an open mindset are essential to take advantage of arising funding opportunities and to be able to react quickly if they do.

Main risks

• Being unaware of the financial scope and set up of your plan and its projects will make the work of a Funding Coordination Officer/Team much less effective.
• To miss funding opportunities for lack of information provided to the Funding Coordination Team is a key risk.

Helpful tips

• Don't plan the financial scope of your plan in isolation. Engage with your Finance department or (if possible) with the Funding Coordination Officer/Team early on and keep them informed about the planning progress and project ideas.
• Inform and engage senior management in the planning of your plan and its projects to gain their interest and support which will be advantageous when project plans become ready for implementation and in need of decision making to access funding (in-house and external).
• Stay alert when in-house municipal budgets are being designed and approved. Ensure that the relevant members of funding committees are aware of your project implementation plans from an early stage onwards. Maintain close relationships with your Finance and Funding staff to inform them about the increasing investment-readiness of your projects and activities.