Manchester University - Grant Writer's Glossary

Abstract: a brief overview of a project; usually 1/2 page or less immediately following the face page or cover sheet. May be called an executive summary.

Administrative Costs: see Indirect Costs.

Amended Proposal: a proposal modified after it has been submitted but prior to the time the award is made; may be initiated by either the submitting organization or the funding source.

Application: a request for funds; may imply the use of a special form supplied by the funding source. See proposal.

Boilerplate: sections of a proposal applicable to a variety of requests; e.g., organizational descriptions, professional resumes, etc.; often maintained by organizations submitting numerous proposals in order to reduce preparation time.

Budget: financial plan for conducting a project; should include whole dollar amounts only; no decimal points.

Budget Justification (budget explanation): a clarification of the budget; explains how dollar amounts were determined; not a rationale for the amounts requested.

Budget Periods: intervals of time (usually 12 months) into which a project is divided for budgetary and reporting purposes.

Capital Grant: an award that provides funds for building construction and/or equipment purchases; see Construction Grant.

Client Group: beneficiaries of any service award; sometimes called the target group.

Community Foundation: a publicly supported organization that makes grants for social, educational, religious or other charitable purposes in a specific community or region.

Conference Grant: an award made to support the costs of a meeting or meetings.

Consortium Grant: an award made to one grantee in support of a project being conducted in conjunction with one or more other formally participating organizations.

Consultant: person contributing to a project during one or more brief periods of time; not on project payroll.

Contingency Funds: funds allocated for unforeseen purposes; considered a non-allowable line item by most funding sources.

Corporate Foundation: a grant making organization legally independent from, but with close ties to, the corporation providing the funds.

Cost Sharing: financial contribution by the grantee; typically less than 1/3 of the total cost, more common to research grants; a form of matching.

Cover Letter (transmittal letter): letter of transmittal accompanying a proposal submission.

Deadline: date after which a proposal will not be accepted for review; often stated as a receipt date or a post mark date; see Post Mark Date.

Direct Costs: all costs necessary for the administration and implementation of a funded project; not included in the organization’s indirect cost rate or administrative charge.

Dissemination: how you will communicate information on your project to those who can use the information.

Discretionary Grant: an award made in accordance with legislation allowing the funding source to exercise reasonable freedom in selection the project and the grantee and determining the amount of the reward.

Duration Dates (project period): starting and ending dates of a project; define the period during which allowable project costs may be charged; see Grant Period and Expiration Date.

Effective Date: date award is made; allowable project costs may not be charged to the project until this date.

Equipment: definition varies; usually considered as any item having an approximate unit value in excess of $500 and an estimated usefulness of more than two years; e.g., file cabinets and microscopes.

Evaluation: a quantitative assessment of what was, or was not, accomplished by a project; a comparison of project objectives and actual project outcomes; an increasingly important part of proposal writing and project management.

Expiration Date (termination date): last date of a project; no charges may be made to a project after this date; see Duration Dates and Grant Period.

Face Page (cover sheet): first page of a proposal; identifies project title, sponsor to whom proposal is submitted, project director’s name, title, address, project duration, total dollar request, submitting organization’s name and address, and the name, title, and signature of a person authorized to sign for the organization.

Family Foundation: an independent grant making organization; decision may be made by donor or donor’s family, by an independent board of directors, or by a bank or trust officer acting on donor’s behalf.

Fellowship: an award made directly to an individual in support of specific educational pursuits; recipients may be subject to service and/or payback requirements after the fellowship terminates.

Final Report: may be programmatic, technical, financial, or any combination thereof; a summary of project implementation including an evaluation of the degree to which objectives have been met; required by most funding sources and appreciated by all others; a necessary courtesy if future funds should be desired.

Formal Application: a proposal to which an authorized signature has be affixed; contrasts with an informal inquiry that constitutes a request for information only; see Authorized Signature, Proposal, and Application.

Foundation: organization established to disburse funds for philanthropic purposes; usually privately owned.

Fringe Benefits: payments in addition to base salary for such things as social security, hospitalization, retirement, etc.

Goals: general statements of anticipated project outcomes; usually more global in scope than objectives and not expected to be measurable; if used, goals should be supported by well-stated objectives; see Objectives.

Grant: an award of financial or other assistance that does not hold the grantee to a rigid work plan; more flexible than a contract; grantee or grantee’s client is usually the beneficiary.

Grant Period: begins on the effective date and ends on the expiration date; the period of time agreed upon by the grantor and the grantee during which a funded project is in operation; allowable project costs may be charged to the project only during this time; see Duration Date and Expiration Date.

Grantee: any legal entity that receives an award and assumes responsibility for fiscal accountability for managing awarded funds, supervision of grant-supported activities, and submission of final reports.

Grantor: funding source that has agreed to provide financial support in the form of a grant.

Grantsmanship: the process of procuring grants; a modernization might be "grantspersonship".

Guidelines: directions to follow in the preparation and submission of a proposal; usually but not always provided by the funding source; more commonly available from government sources or larger foundations.

Indirect Costs: overhead or administrative charges related to a project but not easily and separately identifiable; e.g., utilities, clerical, office space, accounting, library, and custodial services necessary for proper implementation of the project; usually assessed against the project as a predetermined rate established according to standard accounting procedures.

Informed Consent (statement): a written description provided by project staff, agreed to and signed by project participants, which describes the activities (including the possible benefits and risks) in which the participant will become involved; required by the federal government as a condition of accepting an award for projects involving research on human subjects.

In-Kind Contribution: a service or item donate in lieu of dollars to the operation of a funded project; usually given by a third party; e.g., donated equipment or guest speaker’s time; should by referenced in budget as real direct project cost but designated as in-kind; must be auditable with letter of agreement.

Inputs (resources): items you will need to carry out the objectives or activities (surveys, money, staff time, volunteer time, etc.)

Letter of inquiry (LOI): initial contact with a funder to find out if a full proposal would be welcome. Typically includes a brief summary of your organization, its mission, the need you want to address, the program you want to implement, the cost, and the amount you are requesting.

Maintenance and Service Contracts: an agreement with a supplier to service and repair equipment sold or rented to a project; cost should be included in proposal budget; typically applies to office instruments such as copy machines, word processors, etc.

Matching (funds): financial contribution by the grantee; common to capital and/or equipment grants when grantee and/or grantee’s client is primary beneficiary; typically 1/3 or greater; a form of cost sharing.

Multi-Year Budget: budget representing the cost of a project of more than one year’s duration; a separate budget is prepared for each year, with a budget summary presented preferably at the beginning of the budget pages; see Multi-Year Funding.

Multi-Year Funding: financial support expending beyond one year; may require submission of annual request for continuing support even though grantor approval has been tentatively given for the anticipated multi-year grant period; see Multi-Year Budget.

Objectives: specific statements of anticipated project outcomes or products; should identify clearly what will be produced as a result of the project having been funded; not a definition of project activities to be conducted during the project; should be measurable and directly related to project evaluation, need statement, and budget; see Goals.

Outputs: direct products from program activities (number of service units, number of participants, products developed, curricula developed, etc.)

Overload: project responsibilities that, when added to other professional responsibilities for which a person is normally paid, constitute more than 100 percent time; normally not allowable by a funding source.

Paper Trail: an auditable financial record; may also apply to administrative procedures and records.

Peer Review: process of evaluating proposals for funding; usually involves experts representing the same general fields or disciplines as the proposal topics.

Planning Grant: an award made in support of the planning stages of a future project.

Preliminary Proposal (draft proposal): occasionally required by a funding source as a first step in the submission process; a proposal containing only the essentials necessary to convey the idea to be proposed more formally at a later date; see Prospectus.

Prime Contractor: organization that receives the funds and implements a project funded under a contract.

Principal Investigator (PI): project director or program director; individual designated by the grantee and approved by the funding source to direct the grant supported activities of a project; responsible to grantee officials.

Prior Approval: written documentation of a permission to alter any aspect of a funded project; includes programmatic and fiscal changes; may be obtained within grantee organization or from grantor depending upon the case in point and grantor policy.

Private Foundation: a nonfederal funding source; established to make funds available for purposes consistent with the desires and interests of the person or persons responsible for acquiring the funds, or consistent with the objectives of the founding group.

Program Officer (project officer): funding source staff member officially responsible for the technical, scientific, and programmatic aspects of funded project.

Project: all activities described in an approved grant application whether or not the funding covers or only a portion of the necessary financial support.

Projected Costs: all approved costs (direct and indirect) incurred during the budget period of a grant-supported project.

Project Period (duration dates): time included within the approved project duration dates; includes any extensions of the termination date.

Proposal: definition of project conditions and expenses prepared by a potential grantee and presented to a potential grantor; see Application.

Prospectus: a brief, written project overview; draft proposal; see Preliminary Proposal.

RFP (request for a proposal): announcement distributed by a funding source to potential grantees defining in a general way the type of project proposals desired; often pertains to applied research that is in the interest of the grantor or contractor or its clients; can result in either a grant or contract; same as Request for an Application (RFA).

Rubric: a way of presenting evaluation criteria that helps the judge score your grant proposal.

Seed Money: a small grant for the purpose of getting a project started; it is assumed that the project will be able to attract additional external funds following the "seed grant" period.

Senior Project Staff: usually includes project director, associate director, and any full-time professional project personnel having major responsibility for administering and/or implementing project activities.

Site Visit: a final step in the review of some proposals; involves a team of evaluators designated by the funding source who examine the project facilities and other resources on location; includes review of project plan and objectives with key personnel; an encouraging sign to the project director; occasionally conducted during the life of a project.

Solicited Proposal: a proposal responding to a project concept originated by the funding source; usually the funding source invites all eligible organizations to submit such a proposal.

Stipend: periodic payment, similar to an allowance, made to an individual; normally intended for living expenses associated with participation in some phase of a funded project such as a fellowship or training grant; usually related to academic studies.

Subcontract: a secondary agreement in which a third party agrees to perform some of the activities or services defined in a primary proposal; agreed upon by the grantee and service provider at the time of submission but not consummated until after the award has been made to the organization submitting the primary proposal.

Supplemental Grant: an award made to cover expenses incurred beyond those requested at the time the original was submitted; additional funds become a part of the original award.

Target Group: somewhat worn out term used in referring to the primary beneficiaries of a project; see Client Group.

Tasks (also called activities or actions): specific steps you will take to achieve the objectives in the grant.

Terms and Conditions: legal requirements imposed upon a grantee as conditions for accepting an award.

Three-Column Budget: a budget that identifies in three distinct columns the amount requested of the funding source, the amount to be contributed by the grantee, and the total project cost; only necessary when matching or cost sharing is involved.

Timeline: a schedule that includes every activity you must undertake to establish, implement and evaluate the program.

Training Grant: an award to support costs of furthering the education of personnel, often students.

Unsolicited Proposal: proposal for which the initiative for defining the project concept and submitting the proposal rests solely with the applicant organization.