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Documenting In-Kind Contributions

by Sharon Gherman, AFE President

I used to dread having to track and document in-kind contributions for grant projects that required matching funds. Do you know that feeling?

One time I was managing statewide 4-H grant programs, and one of our projects involved teachers and students. The grant required a 100% match (which means a contribution of at least the amount of the awarded funds from “other eligible sources”). To meet the requirement, I needed to document at least $300,000 a year from our teachers.

But when I asked participants what they had spent in time, supplies and money on their local project, they had a hard time estimating what they’d used. Then I hit upon a solution that sent our documented contributions through the roof. It was a simple solution:

I made up a one-page sheet that could be faxed to every teacher. On it I included a brief note reminding them of our need to collect in-kind data for the grant project, the deadline for sending the form back to me, and a sample list of contributions they and their school districts may have made on the project in the past year. For this particular project, the list included:

• Amount of time spent by the teacher during and after school on preparation and delivery of the project, multiplied by their hourly pay rate
• Amount of ‘heated classroom space’ used for the project, which the school district accounting office tracks for budgeting purposes. This was pro-rated for the amount of time spent in the space for either project preparation or project delivery.
• Estimated number of copies made for students working on the project, multiplied by what a single copy would cost me to make at the local copy shop

• Value of any equipment or supplies used for the project
• Miles traveled by the teacher (translated into cost) in conjunction with the project that were not reimbursed by the grant

For each of these categories, I created little formulas so they could easily fill in the blanks, do the calculation, and come up with a cost in each category. I also included several blank spots after the sample list for them to add other contributions made by the teacher and their district. Once filled in, teachers simply signed the form and faxed it back to me.

This method was simple and quick, and I found participants responded more quickly and required less follow-up (nagging) to collect the data. But the most gratifying part was the result – once we began using this method, we began to document from 300% to as high as 500% match each year on this project.

Give it a try – I think you’ll find that providing a simple way for participants to report in-kind data can make your grant reporting much easier!