Indirect Cost Recovery for Nonprofit Organizations - Some Assembly Required

The true costs of administering a federal grant include those necessary for the overall operation of the recipient or subrecipient organization but that are often difficult to assign accurately. That’s why, for decades, the federal government has permitted nonprofit organizations to craft a financial device to identify their “indirect costs” and charge them to benefitting activities in an equitable way.

The device is called a negotiated indirect cost rate agreement — a NICRA, and the policy behind a NICRA is relatively simple. The federal government should pay its fair share of the facility, administrative, and other allowable indirect costs that support the operation of grant-funded projects. But for many nonprofits, that’s where the simplicity ends.

So, this practical webinar will translate into understandable terms the federal instructions on how nonprofit organizations can prepare a successful indirect cost rate proposal. We’ll cover:

• What do the federal rules say about who makes decisions to charge costs indirectly?
• What are the realities of federal agency indirect cost cognizance?
• Under what circumstances are federal agencies and pass-through entities forced to recognize federally negotiated rates?
• What kinds of discretion do pass-through entities have about indirect cost rate negotiation?
• What options are available to nonprofit organization subrecipients to recover their indirect costs?
• What are the procedural steps involved in developing and presenting defensible rate calculations?
• How does the de minimis indirect cost rate work, and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
• What federal resources are geared specifically to helping nonprofits recover their indirect costs?
• What role does an organization’s single audit report play in indirect cost recovery?

Who Will Benefit: 

• Grant and contract managers
• Sponsored projects administrators
• Federal program managers
• Finance directors
• Accounting staff
• Internal auditors
• External auditors
• Federal agency grant officers
• Pass-through entity officials
• Sub-award managers