Grant ABC's

By Maureen Terese McCarthy

Even seasoned grants professionals can feel overwhelmed when looking for a new funding opportunity.  Every funder, even every individual federal agency, seems to have its own language to talk about their grantmaking. Use this quick guide to some commonly used grant terminology to help you make sense of it all.

Program Announcement (PA), Solicitation, Request for Proposals (RFP)

When used by a funding organization, all these terms translate into "apply for this grant, please"! 

501(c)3 nonprofit

A term used by the IRS, this term means that the organization must be registered as a tax-exempt nonprofit.  

Cost sharing or matching

This means that your organization will need to provide some documented support to the project, whether through cash or in-kind resources (e.g., staff time).

Overhead, F & A, Indirect Costs

This refers to the "costs of doing business" or the facilities and administration costs incurred by organizations' daily operations. Some funders do not allow grant budgets to include any indirect costs; others limit the amounts that can be requested. 

Fringe

If you include salary or wage costs in a grant budget, you should also include fringe, aka fringe benefits. The fringe benefit rate will be determined by your organization, and includes the cost of items such as employer-sponsored health care, long-term disability, etc. Even when the employee in question does not receive benefits, you should always include at least the employer portion of FICA costs (7.65%). 

PI (Principal Investigator)

A term most often used in scientific grants, "PI" denotes the person primarily responsible for the success of the project. 

Subaward

Reserved for organizations with significant intellectual contribution to the project, subawards are a specific kind of subrecipient relationship that requires the execution of a subaward agreement. Subawardees are subject to all of the terms and conditions of the prime award. 

Have you encountered any other terms you'd like to have explained? Join the conversation on Twitter or LinkedIn.