Grant Budgeting and Finance

1 Stretching the Grant Dollar: The Players and the Process.- Who Is Responsible for Stretching the Grant Dollar?.- The Project Director..- The Grant Administrator..- The Program Officer..- The Grant Officer..- The Support Staff..- What Happens to the Grant Dollar?.- The Proposal Decision..- The Proposal Budget..- The Project Award..- Grant Procedures..- Spending the Award..- Expenditures to Avoid..- Cash Management..- Funding-Agency Contacts..- Gamesplaying..- Your Role..- 2 The Proposal Decision: Should You Apply?.- How Much Will the Application Cost You?.- What Are Your Chances for Success in Receiving an Award?.- Talk to Funding-Agency Representatives..- Use Proposal Prospectuses..- Talk to Your Competitors and Colleagues..- What Cost Sharing Will Be Required If You Receive an Award?.- Does the Project Fit with Your Organization’S Mission?.- Do You Have (or Can You Get) the Resources Necessary to Carry Out the Project?.- Who in Your Organization Decides Whether or Not You Should Apply?.- 3 The Proposal Budget: Asking for the Right Amount.- How Much Do You Need?.- How Do You Know What They’ve Got?.- Never Pad a Budget.- When to Pad a Budget.- What Do You Include in a Budget?.- Direct Costs..- Indirect Costs..- Program Income..- Cost Sharing..- How Do You Develop a Budget?.- Read the Grantor Program Guidelines and Application Forms..- Estimate Grantor Funds Available..- Identify Resources Needed to Accomplish Project Goals..- Price the Resources and Provide for Flexibility..- Prepare the Management Budget..- Transfer Management Budget Costs to Grantor Budget Forms..- Prepare Specialized Budgets as Appropriate..- Prepare a Budget Justification..- What Are the Characteristics of a Well-Prepared Grant Budget?.- Who in Your Agency Approves Grant Budgets?.- 4 The Project Award: Negotiating the Best Deal.- Negotiation: The Basic Ingredients.- Observations of Experienced Grants Getters and Givers.- Who Participates in a Grant Negotiation?.- What Are the Topics?.- How Should “Take-It-or-Leave-It” and “Best-and-Final” Offers Be Handled?.- Why Are Awards Decreased?.- Why Are Awards Increased?.- What Are the Methods of Negotiation?.- How Do Grant Negotiators Prepare?.- What Are Grant Negotiators’ Needs?.- Who Has the Bargaining Power?.- What Strategies Are Useful to Grantees in a Grant Negotiation?.- What Are the Characteristics of an Effective Grant Negotiator?.- 5 Grant Procedures: Putting Your Act Together.- Why Are Grant Policies and Procedures Important?.- How Do You Monitor the Technical and Fiscal Progress of Grant Projects?.- What Grant Policies Do You Need?.- Personnel and Payroll..- Fringe Benefits..- Purchasing..- Travel..- Consultants..- Cost Sharing..- Patents and Copyrights. Equipment Inventory..- Indirect Costs..- Other Policies..- How Can You Develop Grant Policies Effectively and with Minimum Effort?.- 6 Spending the Award: Getting More for Less.- The Purchasing Decision: Comparing Alternatives.- Task-Related Alternatives..- Cost-Related Alternatives..- The Purchase Itself: Paying Less.- Donations..- Trades..- Bids for Competitive Prices and Terms..- Discounts..- Timing of Purchases..- Negotiations..- Buying Foreign..- Tax Avoidance..- Detection of Overcharges..- Save by Using Grantee Buying Power.- Quantity Institutional Buying..- Quantity Consortium Buying..- Acquisition of Surplus Property..- Save by Using Grantor Buying Power.- Federal Excess Property..- National Technical Information Service..- Data-Processing/ Computer Facilities..- Federal Telecommunications System..- General Services Administration Purchasing..- Other In-Kind Contributions and Discounts..- Advice and Examples of Savings from Experienced Grants Spenders.- Advertising..- Air Conditioning..- Alterations..- Books and Periodicals..- Child-Care Costs..- Communications..- Computer Costs..- Construction..- Consultants..- Contracts..- Customs and Import Duties..- Duplication..- Equipment..- Equipment Maintenance and Repairs..- Fringe Benefits..- Insurance..- Land..- Meals..- News Releases..- Overtime..- Personnel..- Publications Costs..- Travel..- Tuition and Student Costs..- Indirect Costs..- Obstacles to Saving and How to Get around Them.- Lack of Time..- Immediate Need..- Too Much Paperwork..- Not Enough Information..- Few or No Incentives..- 7 Expenditures to Avoid: Over-, Under-, Unallowable.- How Do You Avoid Overexpenditures?.- An Accounting System with Encumbrances..- Transfers between Line Items..- Requests for Supplemental Funding..- How Do You Avoid Underexpenditures, and Why Should You?.- An Accounting System with Encumbrances..- Expenditure Projections during the Grant Period..- Requests for Carryover Funding..- Requests for No-Cost Extensions..- How Do You Avoid Unallowable Expenditures?.- A Knowledgeable Grant Administrator..- Updated Funding-Agency Regulations..- Recognizing Unallowable Costs..- The Importance of Documentation..- A Word about Political Pressures..- Do You Hold Project Spending Meetings?.- 8 Cash Management: Timing Your Dollars In and Out.- How Fast Can You Collect the Grant Funds?.- Letter of Credit..- Advance Payments..- Progress Payments..- How Advantageously Can You Pay Out the Grant Funds?.- Credit from Suppliers..- Favorable Payment Terms..- How Efficiently Can You Invest Idle Cash?.- Cash Forecasting..- Short-Term Investments..- What Are the Obstacles to Effective Cash Management?.- Does Your Organization Have a Cash Management Policy for Grants?.- Who in Your Organization Is Responsible for Cash Management?.- 9 Funding-Agency Contacts: Letting Them Help.- Let Them Help You Decide Whether or Not to Apply.- Preliminary Idea Review..- Interpretations..- Let Them Help You Write the Proposal.- Let Them Help You Ask for the Right Amount.- Let Them Advocate Your Proposal.- Let Them Give You Advance Information.- Let Them Create an RFP Based on Your Idea.- Let Them Solve Potential Problems before the Award.- Let Them Tell You Why You Didn’t Win.- Let Them Help You Negotiate the Best Deal.- Let Them Help You Get More for Less.- Let Them Help You Avoid Under-, Over-, and Unallowable Expenditures.- Let Them Help You with Cash Management.- The “Politics” of Contacts.- Formal Lines of Communication..- Informal Lines of Communication..- Recommended Lines of Communication..- Inappropriate Lines of Communication..- When to Make Contacts..- When Not to Make Contacts..- How to Make Contacts..- 10 Gamesplaying: An Obstacle to Cost-Effective Grant Spending.- What Are the Conflicting Needs of Grant Players That Lead to Adversary Relationships?.- Who Plays the Games?.- What Are Some Typical Game Scripts?.- The “New” (Previously Funded and Completed) Research-Proposal Game..- The Bid-Low-but-Get-Lots- More-Later Game..- The Submit-the-Proposal-without -Institutional-Review Game..- The Let’s-Cut-the-Indirect-Costs Game..- The Creative-Budgeting Game..- The It’s-a-Rush! Game..- The You-Can’t-Do-That (and-Here’s-Why-Not) Game..- The Do-It-First-and-Ask-Later Game..- The It’s-Okay-to-Do-That Game..- Why and How Should Gamesplaying Be Stopped?.- 11 Your Role: Organizing for the Grant $ S-T-R-E-T-C-H!.- Who in Your Organization Is Responsible for Each Grant-Optimizing Activity Mentioned in This Book?.- Is There Someone in Your Organization Responsible for Each Activity?.- If Several Persons Share Responsibilities, Are Their Activities Coordinated?.- Do the Responsible Employees Have the Knowledge They Need to Get the Most out of Your Grant Dollars?.- Is There a Better Way to Combine Tasks and Positions to Get the Most out of Your Grant Dollar?.- What Can You Do?.- Appendix A Definition of Terms.- Appendix B Sample Purchasing Policy and Forms.- Appendix C Sample Travel Policy and Forms.- Appendix D Sample Consultant/Independent Contractor Forms.- Appendix E Federal Excess Property Program Regional Offices.- Appendix F Acquisition of Excess Government Personal Property by National Science Foundation Grantees.- References.