Multiyear Grant Issues

Budgets

Detailed line-item budgets for the entire multiyear grant period must be submitted for specific projects. The budget should present each year of the project separately. General purpose budgets should be shown for each grantee fiscal year and should not be aggregated for the entire grant period. A statement as to whether future budgets are expected to be similar or differ greatly from the available year should be included.

Budget Revisions

It is not necessary for grantees to submit budget revisions to the Foundation unless there are substantial changes to their budget or unless a change would be contrary to the signed commitment letter. In most cases, minor variances between budgeted amounts and actual expenditures can be explained in the financial report submitted to the Foundation. If, on the other hand, funding levels change dramatically, the submission of a revised budget may be warranted.

If the Mott Foundation is the only funder of the project or provides substantial partial funding (one-third or more of the total project budget), the commitment letter will state that the grantee must notify the Foundation and receive approval for the addition of new line items to the budget. The commitment letter may also restrict actual expenditures charged to particular line items, such as equipment and indirect costs. The grantee must contact the program officer if it anticipates a problem regarding these line items.

When a new budget is deemed necessary, the grantee should submit the new budget along with an explanation of the reason for the changes to the program officer. Once the program officer has reviewed the new budget, it will be forwarded to Grants Administration. Once approved by Grants Administration, the program officer will notify the grantee in writing of the approval.

Reports/Payments

Some reports for multiyear grants require receipt and approval by the Foundation before additional payments can be made. If the grantee needs future payments of grants by certain dates, it should discuss this with the program officer prior to the grant being approved, so the Foundation can determine the proper report/payment schedule to include in the commitment letter. The Foundation prefers that requests for a grant extension or budget revision be addressed in a separate letter, rather than being included in the narrative of the report.