___ County
County Grant Process Flowchart
Pre-Award
From time of idea to seek funding until county
receives funding from source such as federal
government, state legislature or foundation
State authorization OR
County Board authorization
Application creation/ proposal
Staff assignment
Post-Award
County’s implementation of work plan through closeout of funds and
activity
Distribution of funds (if part of implementation plan)
Set up codes in financial systems
Administration (approvals)
Closeout of funds/Final report to funder
Report to funder
Overview of Grant Process
If grants are given out
Pre-award
RFP Development
State Register Announcement
Review submitted proposals
Select vendor
Negotiate contract
Post-award
Execute contract
Monitor contract
Close out contract
Administration (approvals)
Find funding opportunities
Funding opportunities are frequently found either through informal contacts/through web site lit servers/legislative proposals
Get approval to apply for a grant
The benefit/cost of the grant application is determined as well as the project fit with the County’s mission, goals, and priorities. This step may also include assigning staff to complete the rest of the process.
Review application
The application may go through multiple levels of review within the County. The _______ Director provides the official submittal of the application.
Write application and develop spending plan
Depending on the grant topic or complexity, a wide variety of staff (in terms of function or hierarchy) may complete this step. This step may also include finding partners and determining what to do with the funds.
Get signatures and submit application
The level of signature often depends on delegation agreements within the agency and value of the grant/contract.
Obtain legislative authority for program
Send copy of application and policy note to __________; and go through ______ process when required (i.e. urgent request).
Negotiate with funder
Engage in budget and workplan negotiations with funder when necessary.
Receive award
Receive award letter (who receives letter depend on funder and application).
Pre Award General Process Flow
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Acceptance Process
• Acceptance letter/application is checked for accuracy and logged by county’s grant coordinator • Acceptance letter/application is reviewed by grant manager
• Acceptance letter/application is reviewed by division director
• Acceptance letter/application is reviewed by financial officer/ codes set-up • Project/award is included in agency budget by budget manager
• Acceptance letter is signed by County Administrator or delegate (typically division director)
• Acceptance letter/project/grant is reviewed for changes in grant conditions, reporting requirements, liability, etc.
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Accept Award
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3
Refine spending plan developed in step 3
RFP/Distribution process
• Types: Competitive, allocated (formula), known recipient, entitlement or hybrid grants
• Type of grant may also be defined by the type of information collected through the application or progress report • Notification (may include State Register, web site, and other, such as list servers)
• Application creation
• Legal, financial, and managerial review of RFP • Application review
• Advisory/supervisory boards • Documentation
• Auditable, transparent review criteria • Federal requirements
• Electronic rank/score • Staff review • Conflict of interest • Grantee selection
• Usually based on ranking with applicants being funded until the agency uses all funds • Politics: executive decisions, geographic considerations, legislative intent
• Retention schedules important
Implement Spending Plan
Other award-related activities
• Implement other items in spending plan submitted to the funder
• Respond to inquiries from funder about project(s)
•
Provide programmatic and financial reports as needed10
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12
Negotiation with recipient
• Determine if full funding or partial funding • Work plan and budget changes
• Indirect cost vs. administrative costs as separate line items • Allowable indirect rate may be part of RFP
• State staff may review what is included in indirect cost requested by applicant • Applicant may have negotiated indirect rate with the federal government
• Notification to all applicants - need to watch most recent changes in Minnesota law
Legal documents
Program staff define grantee duties. Program staff or central administrative staff also create legal documents using ______ Division templates, although the templates may be customized for specific purposes.
• Grant templates
• Different templates based on grantee type, value of grant, fund source, program type, etc. • Master contract in certain situations with work orders for specific programs
• Annual Plans for activities costing $_______ or less
• Grant award letter (doesn’t go through signature process/non-encumbered) • Mostly for allocations, pass-through grants that are linked to state statute • Provider letters
• Boilerplate language may be included in the RFP
Encumbrance
• Encumbrance set up in Financial System. Encumbrance may be set up solely by accounting staff or by contracts division.
Document processing
• Agency staff mail out contract to grantee for signature. Grantee returns grant contract to program staff. • Agency staff check signatures and forward to finance staff.
• Finance staff change pre-encumbrance to encumbrance.
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Evaluation
• Program evaluation by grantee is reviewed
Monitoring
• Financial and programmatic monitoring are both done, including periodic site visits
• Financial monitoring and tracking is frequently done with Excel spreadsheet, Access database, or contracts database • Level of detail required from grantees varies
• Budget revisions
Auditing (in a general sense)
• Conduct internal audits on grants; it may be on a random sample or on all • Site visits, desk reviews, audits
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Advances
• Advances are available in most agencies depending on the program guidelines and what is reasonable for a particular grantee. • If advances are made and interest is earned, the grantees are supposed to report interest and apply the interest to the program.
Payments
• Payments may be made based on a specific form (financial status report) or a written invoice.
• Program staff approve individual invoices and provide the purchase order and purchase order line number to the finance staff to make payments.
• Formula and entitlement grants may be an automatic payment with, for example, 1/12 of the annual amount issued each month without program staff intervention.
• Generally payments are metered out for up to 90% of the total grant and then the grant is reconciled.
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Project Closeout
• Advances are reconciled.
Funding Source Closeout
Grant File Closeout (Record Retention Observed)
Amendment/Revisions
• Amendments are required for time (grant term) or budget changes
• Most agencies have thresholds for budget revisions based on the amount budgeted for a particular category • Federal government guidelines call for them to be notified of a 10% change in a budget line item.
• Workplan changes may trigger an amendment or a revision • An audit exception may cause a budget revision.