Earning the Grant Dollars

You have a federal grant award with an approved budget and you have verified that your spending plan includes only eligible costs. Now you can just draw down and spend, right? Not quite. The reality is that you have to earn the right to draw down those awarded dollars.

Years ago, a friend of mine who was new to grants held a similar view. He had a $120,000 one year grant award and simply divided the grant by 12 and drew down funding at the set rate of $10,000 a month. At audit time he was hit with an audit finding for making “blind draw-downs”. A blind drawdown is a request for funds that is not directly tied to incurred costs associated with your awarded dollars. Before you can draw down grant funding, you’ve got to incur the costs.

Learn how to tame the rules and regulations, focus on excellence, and embrace accountability in the Grant Management Essentials training.

— Henry Flood, Senior Advisor for Grant Administration

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