Making the Business Case: Presenting Your TPRM Budget to the C-Suite

You’ve built the framework. Defined the roadmap. Clarified the policies, procedures, and objectives. Now, the spotlight is on the final act before execution: the Budget. 

Presenting a Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) budget isn’t just a numbers game, it’s a strategic dialogue with your C-suite. Each leader sees risk through a different lens. Your job is to make sure TPRM isn’t seen as a cost center, but as a business-critical function that protects brand value, operational continuity, and long-term growth. 

When you step into the room, or join the Zoom, come prepared not only with accurate data, but also with a tailored approach that speaks each executive’s language when presenting your TPRM budget proposal. 

Below is a sample budget submission for a Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) program using estimated figures for a mid-sized organization with around 1000 third parties, 20% of which are high or critical risk. This submission can be tailored for formal budget meetings, especially when speaking to a C-suite audience. 

Sample Budget Example:

TPRM Budget Submission: FY2026  

Prepared by: TPRM Program Office/Officer 

Submitted to: Executive Leadership Team (CEO, CFO, CRO, CIO, COO, & CMO) 

Date: June 6, 2025 

Program Scope: Covers third party onboarding, due diligence, ongoing monitoring, issue remediation, and exit/termination processes across 1000 third parties. 

Executive Summary 

This budget supports the implementation and maturity growth of our Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) program. It is designed to mitigate increasing third party risk exposure while enabling operational efficiency, regulatory alignment, and long-term resilience. 

After aligning our budget with peer business units (e.g. IT, Procurement, etc.) to ensure no overlapping, we are requesting $1,240,000 in total TPRM program funding for FY2026, broken into the categories below. 

TPRM Budget Breakdown 

Category	Detail	Estimated Cost (USD)
Personnel	3 FTEs (Manager, Analyst, Coordinator) + 1 contract assessor	$450,000
Automation/Tools	TPRM automation platform (e.g. onboarding, workflow, risk rating, etc.)	$225,000
Training & Certification	3 staff attending TPRM conference & obtaining or maintaining certifications	$15,000
Consulting Services	External maturity model assessment and roadmap facilitation	$50,000
Operations	Supplies, licenses, report, software, translation of vendor assessments	$10,000
Travel	Site visits to top 10 critical third parties	$20,000
Risk Monitoring Services	Third party financial, cyber, ESG monitoring subscriptions	$150,000
Contingency Reserve	For incident response or unplanned third-party reviews	$50,000
Program Development	Internal awareness campaigns, playbook updates, policy refresh	$25,000
	Total	$1,240,000

Maturity Model Alignment 

This budget enables us to progress from a TPRM Level 2 “Defined” to TPRM Level 3 “Integrated” maturity in the next 12 months. We will formalize our processes, integrate toolsets, and implement real-time monitoring with key risk indicators. 

Supporting Attachments [Exhibit A-E] 

• Risk Appetite & Control Gap Analysis 

• Financial Risk Avoidance Estimator 

• Industry Peer Benchmarking 

• Sample ROI from Process Automation 

• 5-Year Third Party Incident Tracker (Regulatory + Financial Impact) 

TPRM to Corporate Alignment 

This budget aligns to each of our organization’s six corporate goal: 

1. Strategic Enablement 

2. Risk Avoidance ROI 

3. Risk Appetite Alignment 

4. Efficiency Gains 

5. Cyber & Operational Resilience 

6. Brand Protection & ESG 

As CEO, I recognize one of your primary goals is Strategic Enablement: 

• Supporting secure scaling of partnerships, M&A, and outsourcing 

• Demonstrating proactive governance and leadership integrity 

“As such, here is how TPRM aligns with our enterprise strategy and growth trajectory."   

Every initiative in this budget supports not just compliance, but resilience and reputation. If we want to expand into new markets, partner with innovative vendors, and build customer trust, we must ensure that our third parties don’t introduce vulnerabilities. This budget enables proactive oversight that protects our ability to scale with confidence. 

As CFO, I recognize one of your primary goals is Risk Avoidance ROI: 

• Helping to avoid regulatory fines averaging $1.4M per incident (source: IBM/Ponemon) 

• Automate savings of ~$100K/year in reduced manual review hours 

"So, Let’s talk about cost avoidance and value protection."   

TPRM doesn’t generate revenue, but it shields it. Consider the financial impact of a third party data breach, regulatory fine, or supply chain disruption. We’ve included an incident impact analysis and a financial risk mitigation model. Tools like automation platforms may have upfront costs, but they reduce FTE hours and shorten due diligence cycles, providing long-term savings. This budget protects the bottom line. 

As CRO: I recognize one of your primary goals is Risk Appetite Alignment: 

• Providing real-time risk visibility across 1,000 vendors 

• Improving response time to regulatory inquiries and audit findings 

"As such, this is risk management at scale."   

Our roadmap supports maturing the program to keep pace with emerging risks—cybersecurity, ESG, concentration, and geopolitical instability. With this budget, we gain visibility across the supply chain, build consistency in due diligence, and drive risk-informed decision making across the enterprise. Risk appetite isn’t just a principle, it’s operationalized here. 

As COO: I recognize one of your primary goals is Efficiency Gains: 

• Accelerating vendor onboarding timelines by ~30% 

• Reducing disruptions due to unknown vendor risks 

"As such, TPRM budget plan enables operational efficiency and reduces friction."   

Every tool and resource in this plan contributes to smoother onboarding, faster assessments, and fewer surprises post-contract. We’ve mapped resources to real operational demand, based on our third party portfolio’s inherent risk tiers. With the right investment, we reduce bottlenecks and improve our vendor lifecycle management without overburdening your teams. 

As CIO: I recognize one of your primary goals is Cyber & Operational Resilience: 

• Detecting risk in data access and system integrations pre-contract 

• Supporting zero-trust third party architecture  

"This budget strengthens our IT risk posture through third party visibility and integration support."  

In today's interconnected ecosystem, our third parties don't just support the business, they connect to our systems, access sensitive data, and influence our security perimeter. This budget funds the tools and intelligence we need to proactively assess those relationships before they pose a risk.  

Specifically, it supports: 

• A TPRM platform that integrates with ITSM and procurement tools for seamless intake and tracking 

• Ongoing cyber risk monitoring of vendors handling sensitive data or system access 

• Risk scoring tied to our internal architecture and controls, improving alignment with zero-trust and defense-in-depth strategies  

By investing here, we’re ensuring that third party risks don’t undermine the protections we’ve worked so hard to build internally. It’s not just about compliance, it’s about maintaining system integrity, business continuity, and trust in our infrastructure. 

We’re already seeing regulatory expectations shift toward shared accountability in third party breaches. This budget helps us stay ahead of those trends, and aligned with frameworks like NIST, ISO 27001, and the updated SEC guidance. 

As CMO: I recognize one of your primary goals is Brand Protection & ESG:  

• Assessing vendors for reputational risk, DEI, and ESG performance 

• Avoiding headline risk from third party failures 

"We know that Brand trust is built on vendor integrity." 

In a world where consumers and regulators scrutinize supply chains, a single third party misstep can create reputational headlines. Our TPRM budget supports robust assessments of vendors that touch customer data, brand experience, or ESG commitments. This is not only a risk measure, it’s a marketing safeguard. 

Overall 

What’s included in this Budget (and Why It Matters): 

• Resources: We’ve forecasted FTE and contractor needs to meet expected assessment volumes and maintain SLA targets. 

• Operations: This includes daily workflow support and practical tools to run an efficient program. 

• Training & Travel: To keep our team skilled and informed, and to support onsite reviews for critical third parties. 

• Maturity Investments: We’ve aligned our asks to our current maturity level and the next step in our TPRM evolution. 

• Technology: We’ve assessed ROI for tools that reduce manual workloads and drive consistency. 

We’ve also included benchmarking against peer organizations and a review of industry incidents and fines over the last five years to contextualize our ask. This isn’t “nice to have.” This is “mission critical.” 

Bottom Line:  This is a proactive investment in resilience. It’s a shield for our brand, a hedge against regulatory and operational exposure, and a step toward a smarter, more scalable enterprise. I’m not just asking for budget, I’m asking for buy-in to protect what we’re building, the way we build it, and deliver it. 

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 Author Bio

Heather Kadavy

Senior Membership Success Coordinator

Heather Kadavy joined the Third Party Risk Association (TPRA) in 2023 as the Senior Membership Success Coordinator. In recent year(s) Heather has been providing freelance TPRM consulting work to various organizations after retiring from a Nebraska financial institution after nearly 35 years where she oversaw and managed critical programs of the organization including Third Party Risk Management, Information Security,

Physical Security, Safety, Business Recovery, Financial Crimes, Model Risk Management, and Enterprise Risk Management.  In her TPRM role she had oversight of over a thousand third party relationships, systems, due diligence reviews and contract management activities.  She developed, facilitated, and implemented training programs for thousands of employees over the years.

Heather is a natural born connector of people and values relationship building at the cornerstone of her career.  She encourages you to connect with TPRA and herself via LinkedIn to join in the "TPRM Global Conversation".