scf-budget-builder

SCF Budget Validator

Overview

Validates submission budgets against funded project benchmarks. Used during the review process to assess whether a budget is proportional to scope, properly broken down, and realistic.

Budget Benchmarks (from 215 funded Build Awards)

Category	Median	Middle 50% Range
Applications	$85,000	$60K–$118K
Developer Tooling	$75,000	$35K–$99K
Financial Protocols	$109,000	$94K–$144K
Infrastructure	$116,000	$62K–$143K

Rate Benchmarks

Role	Typical Range
Smart contract developer (Soroban/Rust)	$2,500–$5,000/week
Backend developer	$2,000–$4,000/week
Frontend developer	$1,500–$3,500/week
Full-stack developer	$2,000–$4,000/week
UI/UX designer	$1,500–$3,000/week
DevOps / infrastructure	$2,000–$4,000/week
Technical writer	$1,500–$2,500/week
Project management	$1,500–$2,500/week

Tranche Structure

SCF Build Awards use a 10% / 20% / 30% / 40% tranche structure:

Tranche	% of Total	Milestone
T0	10%	Automatic on award approval
T1	20%	MVP — core Stellar/Soroban integration
T2	30%	Testnet — full functionality, audit readiness
T3	40%	Mainnet — production launch, UX, documentation

Red Flags

• Total exceeds $150K without strong justification
• Any line item over 40% of total budget without explanation
• Marketing line items (SCF funds building, not marketing)
• Audit costs as a line item (covered separately by Audit Bank for eligible projects)
• Legal fees or entity registration (ineligible)
• Contingency over 5%
• Rates significantly above benchmarks
• Top-down budget that doesn't trace to deliverables
• Budget significantly above category median without proportional scope

Strengths

• Every line item traces to a specific deliverable
• Rates and effort are explicit
• Tranche allocation roughly follows 10/20/30/40
• Budget proportional to scope complexity
• Audit costs excluded from budget (covered separately by Audit Bank for eligible projects)
• No ineligible expenses

Reference Links

• SCF Handbook
• Build Track
• FAQ