Having reserves and contingency margins are a good and
necessary
thing, but I agree with Anthony that it is generally more honest for
non-profits to declare what there reserves and margins are rather than
rolling them into the larger budget in black box fashion. In the
large public sector projects I've worked with contingency funds were
always an explicit part of the budget, and it certainly helped to know
where things really stood as funding and expense realities evolved.
I've only seen an extremely summarised budget that, for example, says
technology has budgeted $2,705,000 for the year. I don't know how
that's broken down, but I expect the tech team (and Sue) have a more
detailed budget (they haven't just plucked that number out of thin
air) that may well include an explicit contingency fund.