We're at the end of a grant and have 25k left over. A manager suggested we bill an additional portion of our Comms Manager's salary to the Comms/Marketing expense line, and then issue another invoice for a pre-payment to contractor/deposit into vendor account for about 10k for troubleshooting costs for next 3 months. Is this standard grant reporting practice? It seems to lack transparency and is untruthful, unless we note these additions and explain them in the notes. I would appreciate input as the report is due tomorrow and I'm pretty sure it is wrong and we can not do that. Instead I would search to see if we missed any actual expenses that should have been charged to it. Thank you.
Grant Reporting - Ethics & Transperancy
Answers
You are right. You should NOT do that. (You can, but you should not). It is easy to do some creative stuff.
First, I would do what you said....go through the expenses and see if you have missed anything.
Second, I would go through the grant letter again and see if there are clauses/provisions pertaining to left over money.
Third. if there are no provisions, I would write a letter to the grantor and tell him about the left over money/budget (and maybe boast on how you utilized the limited $$ to achieve the goals of the grant) . This is also the time where you can tell him other organizational needs.
Good ethical practices would go a long way in your future fundraising activities and the reputation of the organization....and also it's officers.
That's what I thought - Thank you Emerson! We are going to report that we're under budget and file for an extension - per the contract.