Managing Public Grants
Glossary
The following definitions are derived from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor. Unless otherwise noted, the definitions are consistent among those agencies.
Accrued expenditures — The charges incurred by the recipient during a given period requiring the provision of funds for:
- Goods and other tangible property received;
- Services performed by employees, contractors, sub-recipients, and other payees; and
- Other amounts becoming owed under programs for which no current services or performance is required.
Advance — A payment made by Treasury check or other appropriate payment mechanism to a recipient upon its request either before outlays are made by the recipient or through the use of predetermined payment schedules.
Award — Financial assistance that provides support or stimulation to accomplish a public purpose. Awards include grants and other agreements in the form of money, or property in lieu of money, by the Federal government to an eligible recipient.
Cash contributions — The recipient's cash outlay, including the outlay of money contributed to the recipient by third parties.
Cognizant Agency — A single agency representing all others in dealing with grantees in common areas. For example, reviewing and approving grantees’ indirect cost rates.
Cooperative agreement — A procurement cooperative agreement under an award or sub-award, and a procurement subcooperative agreement under a recipient's or subrecipient's contract.
Cost sharing/matching — Cost sharing refers to an element of some grant programs that requires the grantee (the organization receiving the grant) to provide part of the funding for the program either in cash or by contributing facilities or other resources of value. These funds or resources are sometimes referred to as "matching funds." They usually must be raised from other non-Federal sources.
Departmental Appeals Board (HHS) — The independent office established in the Office of the Secretary with delegated authority from the Secretary to review and decide certain disputes between recipients of HHS funds and HHS awarding agencies under 45 CFR part 16 and to perform other review, adjudication and mediation services as assigned.
Equipment — Tangible nonexpendable personal property including exempt property charged directly to the award having a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more per unit. However, consistent with recipient policy, lower limits may be established.
Federal funds authorized — The total amount of Federal funds obligated by the Federal government for use by the recipient. This amount may include any authorized carryover of unobligated funds from prior funding periods when permitted by agency regulations or agency implementing instructions.
Federal project officer or program officials — Persons having both general functions regarding grant programs and specific functions regarding the programmatic administration of individual grants. They work with the grants management specialist in post-award grants administration, evaluation and closeout.
Federal share — In regards to real property, equipment or supplies, this term means that percentage of the property's acquisition costs and any improvement expenditures paid with Federal funds.
Funding period — The period of time when Federal funding is available for obligation by the recipient.
Grants management officer — Any person authorized to enter into, modify or terminate any financial assistance awards and make related determinations and findings.
Outlays or expenditures — Charges made to the project or program. They may be reported on a cash or accrual basis. For reports prepared on a cash basis, outlays are the sum of cash disbursements for direct charges for goods and services, the amount of indirect expense charged, the value of third party in-kind contributions applied and the amount of cash advances and payments made to subrecipients. For reports prepared on an accrual basis, outlays are the sum of cash disbursements for direct charges for goods and services, the amount of indirect expense incurred, the value of in-kind contributions applied, and the net increase (or decrease) in the amounts owed by the recipient for goods and other property received, for services performed by employees, contractors, subrecipients and other payees and other amounts becoming owed under programs for which no current services or performance are required.
Program income — Gross income earned by the recipient that is directly generated by a supported activity or earned as a result of the award (see exclusions in specific agency regulations). Program income includes, but is not limited to, income from fees for services performed, the use or rental of real or personal property acquired under federally funded projects, the sale of commodities or items fabricated under an award, license fees and royalties on patents and copyrights and interest on loans made with award funds. Interest earned on advances of Federal funds is not program income. Except as otherwise provided in the terms and conditions of the award, program income also does not include the receipt of principal on loans, rebates, credits, discounts, etc., or interest earned on any of them. Furthermore, program income does not include taxes, special assessments, levies and fines raised by governmental recipients.
Project costs — All allowable costs, as established in the applicable Federal cost principles, incurred by a recipient and the value of the contributions made by third parties in accomplishing the objectives of the award during the project period.
Project period — The period established in the award document during which Federal sponsorship begins and ends.
Recipient — An organization receiving financial assistance directly from a Federal awarding agency to carry out a project or program. The term includes public and private institutions of higher education, public and private hospitals and other quasi-public and private non-profit organizations such as, but not limited to, community action agencies, research institutes, educational associations and health centers. The term may include commercial organizations, foreign or international organizations (such as agencies of the United Nations) that are recipients, subre-cipients or contractors or subcontractors of recipients or subrecipients at the discretion of the Secretary. The term does not include government-owned contractor-operated facilities or research centers providing continued support for mission-oriented, large-scale programs that are government-owned or controlled or are designated as federally funded research and development centers.
Sub-award — An award of financial assistance in the form of money, or property in lieu of money, made under an award by a recipient to an eligible subrecipient or by a subrecipient to a lower tier subrecipient.
Subrecipient — The legal entity to which a sub-award is made and which is accountable to the recipient for the use of the funds provided. The term may include foreign or international organizations (such as agencies of the United Nations) at the discretion of the Secretary.
Third party in-kind contributions — The value of non-cash contributions provided by non-Federal third parties. Third party in-kind contributions may be in the form of real property, equipment, supplies and other expendable property and the value of goods and services directly benefiting and specifically identifiable to the project or program.
Unliquidated obligations — In regards to financial reports prepared on a cash basis, this term means the amount of obligations incurred by the recipient that have not been paid. For reports prepared on an accrued expenditure basis, they represent the amount of obligations incurred by the recipient for which an outlay has not been recorded.
Unobligated balance — The portion of the funds authorized by the Secretary that has not been obligated by the recipient. It is determined by deducting the cumulative obligations from the cumulative funds authorized.
Working capital advance — A procedure whereby funds are advanced to the recipient to cover its estimated disbursement needs for a given initial period.