Full cost recovery calculator

This calculator helps you work out the true cost of a project by adding a fair share of your charity’s core costs to its direct costs — so a funded project does not quietly run at a loss. Enter your direct project costs and your overheads, and choose how to share them.

How to use it

1. Enter the direct costs of the project (staff, activities, materials specific to it).
2. Enter your charity’s total annual overheads (management, premises, finance, governance).
3. Choose how to allocate overheads — by share of staff time, headcount, or direct costs.
4. Read the project’s true full cost.

The method and its sources

• Full cost = direct costs + allocated share of overheads.
• Allocated overheads = total overheads × the project’s share (for example, if the project uses 30% of staff time, allocate 30% of relevant overheads).
• There is no single mandated formula; the principle, supported by NCVO and funder guidance, is a reasonable, consistent and explainable allocation of core costs to the work that drives them.

Source: sector full-cost-recovery guidance (NCVO and funders). This is an accounting approach, not a statutory rate. Verified as current practice, 10 July 2026.

How to read your result

This is guidance, not advice. The full cost is what the project really costs your charity; whether a given funder will pay all of it depends on their rules. Use the figure to price bids honestly, to know your true position even when a funder pays only part, and to protect your reserves. Keep your allocation method consistent across projects.

CharityIQ can apply your overhead allocation across projects automatically, so every bid reflects the true cost — with a person reviewing the figures.