Budgeting and Financing for Web Products and Services

By Eric Johnson, World Bank Institute (WBI); Sherine Ghoneim, Economic Research Foundation (ERF); Margaret Nyrambura Ndung'u, EcoNews Africa; Sangeeta Gupta, The Energy and Resources Institute (formerly the Tata Energy Research Institute) (TERI)
May 2001

Goals must be realistic in order to be useful. It is not particularly helpful to state that a module aims to transform international climate change policy unless the organization(s) involved has the resources to undertake such a task. Most organizations new to the Web spend a considerable amount of time assessing and acquiring the technical resources necessary to establish a Web presence. They ensure that they have access to a Web server and software for the creation and uploading of files. They also seek to secure the services of an individual or corporation with coding and graphic design experience able to create Web files.

Often, however, they forget to spend equal time assessing the resources necessary to undertake all stages of work including research, writing, graphic design, marketing and responding to inquiries. Budgeting for Web products and services must take all human and technical resource costs into account.

Financing Web projects for CSOs is a real challenge. Although there is a growing interest in establishing the presence of emerging CSOs on the Internet, determining and allocating financial resources on a timely and continuous basis requires further attention.

Financing Web projects can either be pursued through:

• Conventional sources: donor agencies (multilateral, bilateral, foundations), or
• Alternative sources: consulting services, e-commerce, subscriptions, advertising

The mix of these options will depend primarily on whether the Web development is part of a larger project or not, as well as the ongoing costs of maintaining the content.

Issues Index

• Budgeting For Human Resource Costs
• Budgeting For Technical Resource Costs
• Institutional Funding and Management Commitment
• Conventional Sources of Financing
• Alternative Sources of Financing
• Challenges of Web Products vs. Web-Only Products
• Sustainability of Web Products