Shared staff are often essential to delivery, yet a bare “20% finance manager” line tells a funder little. The useful explanation is not longer for its own sake; it shows what work the person performs for the grant and why the proposed share is proportionate.
Connect effort to responsibilities
List grant-specific duties such as monthly reconciliations, partner expenditure checks, payroll allocation and donor reporting. Then relate expected effort to a sensible period: days per month, hours per reporting cycle or a documented full-time-equivalent percentage.
Apply the same basis across salary and related benefits. If pension or medical contributions use a different percentage, explain the policy behind that difference rather than forcing the figures to look uniform.
Watch for double recovery
Compare allocations across active grants and unrestricted funding. The combined share should not exceed the person’s available time. Keep an internal allocation schedule even when the application only requests a summary.
Some funders cap personnel or indirect costs. A clear allocation does not override that rule, so check the call before finalising the total.