Three Favorite FAQs For Indirect Costs

In a past article, we posed the question, “Do the Uniform Guidance FAQs Really Matter?” As promised, in this article, we’re going to do a deep dive into the world of indirect costs and some of the “unintended consequences” that surfaced in the FAQs from OMB. Indirect costs continue to be a source of confusion […]
Decoding Grant Management-Success Tip: Record Retention
Are you facing the “Goldilocks Dilemma” of record retention? Is your record retention too much? Not enough? Or just right? Wondering which records to keep for your federal grant record-retention requirements and which ones can be tossed? (Inadequate supporting documentation is an area that gets many federal grant recipients into trouble.) Let’s walk through the […]
5 Ways to Reduce the Risk of a Conflict of Interest

In a previous post, we looked at 6 questions you should ask to tell how safe your federal grant is from conflicts of interest. In today’s post, we’ll look at what you can do to reduce the risk of a conflict of interest affecting your organization’s federal funding. Here are 5 Ways to Reduce the Risk of […]
What is Prior Approval

When you work with federal grants, it’s just a matter of time before someone says, “We need the prior approval of the funder” to do this or that. But this vague term “prior approval” may leave you wondering two important questions when you manage grants: When does 2 CFR Part 200 aka, the Uniform Guidance, […]
Grant Management: Do You Make These 10 Mistakes?

Sometimes, we get lost in the jargon of internal controls and grant management and forget the role of strong checks and balances in increasing trust with our funders, employees, and the general public. (I shared this message on how internal controls can increase trust with federal grants at an AICPA Not-for-Profit Industry conference in Washington.) How to […]
How Safe is Your Grant from Conflicts of Interest?

Good grants management requires grantees to use their federal funds in the best interests of their federal grants and not have a conflict of interest. But when the people put their personal best interests before the best interests of the federal program, the result can shatter trust-both with the funding agency and within the organization. […]