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Glossary
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equipment
indirect costs
principal investigator
supplement vs. supplant
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Accountability - The monitoring of grant funds.
See also FSRS
Approval Request - The form on Online
Grant Information System (OGIS) used to request approval
to submit a grant application to a funder.
Approved Proposal - Approved (funded)
grant your host organization (institution, agency,
secondary school, or a combination thereof) submitted.
APR - Annual Performance Report. The
Department of Education uses this report to assess a
grantee’s (funded project) progress in meeting its
approved goals and objectives, as well as determining
prior experience points.
Award - The sum of money given by a
contracting or granting agency.
Boilerplates -
Sections of a document that have been used so often they
become standardized elements that seldom change with
each new use. E.g. institution mission statement,
college history, accreditation, etc.
Budget - A plan for anticipated
expenditures and activities stated in financial terms.
Types of Budgets:
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Line Item: Budget
formatorganized in tabular and narrative form,
in which expenditures are listed as items, each
on their own lines, that describe expenditures.
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Performance: Budget
format in which costs of performing sets of
interrelated activities are aggregated.
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Program: Budget format
in which costs are related to outcomes and
expenditures.
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Budget Narrative - Also referred to as
a budget justification, this document provides an in
depth explanation of the expenses (and in somes cases
revenues) of the accompanying line-item budget.
For example, the line-item budget shows travel expenses
that will be incurred, and the budget narrative will
explain why the travel expenses are necessary to the
project.
The format of the budget narrative
should follow the listing of items on the line-item
budget (top to bottom), and can vary depending on the
funder.
Budget Period - EDGAR 77.1 defines as
an interval of time into which a project period is
divided for budgetary purposes. Also known as Project
Year.
Capital Expenses -
Funds for purchases of equipment (over a certain
amount), real property, building renovations and
construction.
CDFA - Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance.
CEDA - Clearwater Economic Development
Council.
Challenge Grant - Challenge grants are
offered by a funder with express stipulation that the
grantee organization must locate another funder (or
collection of resources) who will share a percentage of
the project costs. Federal grant programs use this
provision to assure the participation of local resources
in grant programs.
Cognizant Agency - The cognizant
federal agency is the agency from which the institution
receives the greatest amount of funds. This is the
agency the hosting institution negotiates the Indirect
Cost Rate Agreement with.
Community Foundation - A 501 (c)(3)
organization which makes grants for charitable purposes
in a specific community or region. Funds are usually
derived from many donors and held in an endowment
independently administered; income earned by the
endowment is then used to make grants.
Company Sponsored
Foundation (Corporate Foundation) - A private
foundation whose grant funds are derived primarily from
the contributions of a profit-making business
organization. The company sponsored foundation may
maintain close ties with the donor company, but it is an
independent organization with its own endowment and is
subject to the same rules and regulations as other
private foundations.
Contract - An award given for a
specific activity in which the funder has specified all
the terms (e.g. who can apply, exactly what is to be
done, and how, at what cost, and by whom.)
Contribution - Gift or donation in
various forms for which no tangible value is received.
Cost Share - Agreement in which two or
more organizations share the cost of the project. See
Matching.
Direct Costs - The
specific identifiable costs of operating the grant
supported project. Usually broken down into categories
in the budget such as personnel, travel, equipment
purchase, consumable supplies, rent, etc.
DOL - Department of Labor.
Donors - Persons who make cash or
material contributions to the organization and its
programs.
EDA - Economic
Development Administration.
EDGAR - Educational Department General
Administrative Regulations. Also known as the general
regulations.
EFA - Educational Foundation of
America.
Endowment - Stocks, bonds, property,
and funds given permanently to an organization so that
it may produce its own income. Foundations use
endowments to create funds for grantmaking purposes.
Equipment (Institutional
definition) - EDGAR 74.34 (f)(1)(i-ix) defines
equipment as an article of nonexpendable, tangible
personal property having a useful life of more than one
year and an acquisition cost which equals or exceeds the
lesser of the capitalization level established by the
institution for financial statement purposes, or $5,ooo.
ESIE - Elementary Secondary & Informal
Education.
Facilities & Administration
Costs (aka F&A Costs) - OMB Circular A-21 B
(aka OMB Circular s CFR 220) identifies F&A as “costs
that are incurred for common or joint objective and
therefore cannot be identified readily and specifically
with a particular sponsored project. F&A costs are
synonymous with ‘indirect’ costs.” Also known as
overhead costs.
Federal Register - The Federal Register
is published every federal working day. Notices of
Proposed Rule Making, closing dates for applications,
etc. are all published in the Federal Register.
Fiscal Agent
- U.S. organization with tax exempt status under code
501 (c) (3) that serves as the legal applicant for a
non-tax exempt 501 (c) (3) organization. The fiscal
agent takes on all legal responsibility for the grant.
FIPSE - Foundation and Improvement of
Secondary and Elementary Ed.
Foundation - A nongovernmental,
nonprofit organization with funds and a program managed
by its own trustees and directors, established to
further social, educational, religious, or other
charitable activities by making grants.
Foundation Support - Cash support
derived from grants given for this project/program by
private foundations.
FSRS - The Federal Funding
Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) is intended
to hold the government accountable for spending, and
reduce wasteful spending. The FFATA Subaward Reporting
System (FSRS) is the reporting tool Federal prime
awardees use to capture and report subaward and
executive compensation data. For more information,
please visit the
FSRS website.
Funding Agency - The agency that awards
a grant.
FY - Fiscal year (e. g. FY12).
GEPA - General
Education Provisions Act. Section 427 of GEPA affects
applicants for new grant awards. This section requires
each applicant for funds (other than an individual
person) to include in its application a description of
the steps the applicant proposes to take to ensure
equitable access to, and participation in, its
Federally-assisted program for students, teachers, and
other program beneficiaries with special needs.
GPRA - The Government Performance and
Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) is a statute that requires
all federal agencies to manage their activities with
attention to the consequences of those activities. Each
agency is to clearly state what it intends to
accomplish, identify the resources required, and
periodically report their progress to the Congress. In
so doing, it is expected that the GPRA will contribute
to improvements in accountability for the expenditures
of public funds, improve Congressional decision-making
through more objective information on the effectiveness
of federal programs, and promote a new government focus
on results, service delivery, and customer satisfaction.
Grant - For institutional purposes, a
grant or a grant sub-contract is defined as funding
which has specific outcomes that have to be addressed
during the life of the grant.
Grant Budget - A financial description
of the proposed project. It provides an understanding of
the scale and scope of the proposed project.
Grant Contact - The person to contact
for additional information about the application.
Grant Life Cycle - Begins at the
proposal, through the project, and ends when the final
report has been submitted. Usually the end of a grant’s
life is signaled through a letter from the Funding
Agency.
Grant Request - A request for funds
that may be in the form of a short exploratory letter or
a complete proposal.
Guidelines - A funder’s statement of
its goals, priorities, eligibility criteria, and
application procedures, or those of one of its programs.
Guidelines will either tell you how to write your
proposal or they will include forms to use that will
constitute your proposal.
Hard Money - Money,
cash; rather than facilities or services.
HRD - Human Resource Development.
IERI - Interagency
Education Research Initiative.
Independent Student - Defined in
Section 480 (d) of the HEA (Higher Education Act) of
1965, as amended as the following:
Any individual who:
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1. is an orphan or ward
of the court; |
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2. is a veteran of the
Armed Forces of the United States (as defined in
subsection (b)(1)&(2)); |
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3. is a married
individual; or |
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4. has legal dependents
other than a spouse. |
Indirect Costs -
A budget category that is intended to cover those
general administrative costs of operating a project that
are hard to assign to specific project functions. These
costs can include building rent and maintenance,
depreciation, general local travel, and so forth.
Indirect costs are usually calculated as a flat
percentage of either the budget as a whole or the
personnel category alone. Also known as Overhead.
In-kind Donations - The fair market
dollar value of non-cash contributions to the project or
program which are provided to applicant by volunteers or
outside parties at no cash cost to the applicant.
Volunteer time is calculated at minimum wage unless the
volunteer is donating services which they provide as
part of their profession in which case time is
calculated at that person’s professional rate. Donated
materials should be calculated at fair market value.
Only donated items that are directly involved in the
project or program described in the application should
be included. Items or services unrelated to the project
or program, even though received by the applicant, are
not acceptable.
Letter of Support -
Written statements attached to proposals.
Leveraging -
Funding a program in a way that will enhance or
encourage grants from other private, public, or
individual sources.
Loaned Executive - A management level
employee who is granted temporary, full-time, or
part-time paid leave from their corporate duties to
serve in some capacity with a nonprofit, charitable, or
educational organization.
Matching - Grantee
contributing, such as cash or in-kind (property,
equipment, supplies, or services.)
NAHEI - Native
American Higher Education Initiative
Narrative - The explanatory prose
portion of the proposal that supplements the application
form of many grant applications.
Needs Assessment - A critical component
of the proposal, the needs assessment answers the
question, “Why is this project needed?” It should
provide a rationale for the funder’s consideration. Good
needs assessments not only point out what the needs are,
and why remedies for them are needed, but they also back
up these assertions with quantitative data.
NEH - National Endowment for the
Humanities
Non-traditional Student - A broad term
with several different definitions. LCSC defines this as
a student 26 years of age or older.
NPRM - Notice of Proposed Rule Making.
NSF - National Science Foundation.
Objectives - The
proposal’s goals must be translated into specific,
quantified targets or levels of achievement in order to
provide a set of criteria by which the success or
failure of the project can be judged. Objectives set
forth desired changes in terms of numbers of clients,
the level of activity or skill, and deadlines.
OGC - Office of Grants & Contracts.
OMB Circular A-21 (aka OMB Circular 2 CFR 220)
- The Office of Management and Budget general cost
principles as they relate to Federal projects hosted as
higher education institutions.
OMB Circular A-110 (aka OMB Circular 2 CFR 215)
- The Office of Management and Budget administrative
requirements as they relate to educational institutions
and non-profit organizations sponsoring Federal
projects.
OMB circular A-133 - The Office of
Management and Budget audit requirements for all
institutions hosting Federal projects.
Principal
Investigator (P.I.) - The P.I. is primarily
responsible for locating funding sources and initiating
projects for their program/unit of responsibility. The
P.I. submits a proposal to a funding agency outlining
the specifics of the project, the methodology of the
tasks to be undertaken and the likely completion time
for the work. Once funded a Principal Investigator
(P.I.) is responsible for providing program
administrative and compliance oversight. The PI also
supervises the preparation and submittal of all
appropriate reports for grant funded projects and
ensuring grant compliance with any applicable rules and
regulations. A P.I. may or may not also serve as the
program director.
Planning Grant – A grant that funds the
planning process of a program.
PMS - Payment Management System (used
by ETA).
Principles affecting the allowability of costs
- Reference OMB Circular A-21 C (aka OMB Circular 2 CFR
220) Basic Considerations:
1. are the expenditures reasonable;
2. are they allocable to the funded grant;
3. are they given consistent treatment; and
4. do they conform to any limitations as to types or
amounts of cost items.
Private Foundations - U.S.
organizations that have charitable, religious,
educational, scientific, or cultural purposes. When
identified as philanthropic foundations, they are
primarily in the business of funding causes, programs,
organizations, and individuals they consider worthwhile.
Program - A set of interrelated
activities aimed at the production of a service or some
other outcome.
Program Grant - Grant earmarked to fund
a specific project or program activity of an
organization rather than for general operating expenses.
Project - A program which is time bound
and has a relatively clear set of objectives.
Project/Program Director - A Program
Director works with the PI to develop and implement
guidelines and policies with the purpose of ensuring
compliance with all applicable rules and regulations.
The program director develops, implements, and evaluates
program activities, monitoring the effectiveness of the
funded project and adjusting as needed to ensure meeting
the stated objectives. Human resources duties, such as
the recruitment and training of employees, typically
also fall under the program director's list of
responsibilities, as does monitoring the project's
budget.
Project Period - Defined in EDGAR 74.2
as the period established in the award document during
which Federal sponsorship begins and ends. Usually
synonymous with Grant Cycle.
Proposal - Written request for a grant
contribution. Outlines why the grant is needed, the need
or purpose it will serve, the plan for meeting said need
or purpose, the amount of money needed, and background
about the applicant.
Query Letter - A
brief letter outlining an organization’s activities and
its request for funding sent to a foundation or
corporate giving program to determine whether it would
be appropriate to submit a full grant proposal. Many
grantmakers prefer to be contacted in this way before
receiving a full proposal.
RBEG - Rural
Business Enterprise Grants
Restricted Funds - Gifts made for
restricted purposes and held and not commingled with
current, operating, or capital funds. Most grant funds
need to be regarded as restricted funds for accounting
purposes.
RFP - Request for Proposal.
SBDC - Small
Business Development Center
Section 501(c)(3) - U.S. Internal
Revenue Service Code section that defines exempt
organizations – those organized and operated exclusively
for religious, charitable, scientific, literary,
educational, or similar purposes. Many foundations
restrict their grantmaking to 501(c)(3) organizations.
Seed Money - Charitable funds that are
used to defray start-up costs of a program.
Soft Match - Service, facilities,
equipment; anything but cash.
Soft Money -
Insecure funding. Usually available for no more than a
year.
Space Rental - Payments specifically
identified with the project for rental of office,
studios, theater, hall, gallery, and other such spaces.
STEM - Science Technology Engineering
and Math (Education)
Supplement vs. Supplant
- Federal funds may not be used to supplant, or replace
funds or services that would otherwise be provided by
state funding. Federal funds may be used to supplement,
or augment programs and services. (OMB Circular A-133)
Unrestricted Funds - Grants made without prior
stipulations as to their use, to be spent as the grantee
sees fit. Also called Discretionary Funds.
Valuation - Method of affixing value to in-kind
match.
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