Federal Grantmaking Reforms Coming

September 12, 2012 -The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is expected - within the next two weeks - to propose comprehensive reforms to the federal grantmaking procedures. These reforms are designed to:

• reduce audit requirements,
• modify cost reimbursement rules,
• and reform complex administrative rules for federal grants to nonprofits and other entities.

The reform effort is part of the President’s red-tape review initiative designed to increase efficiency and effectiveness of grant programs by eliminating unnecessary and duplicative requirements. Once the proposals are published, the public will have 60 days to submit comments, and then the OMB will finalize the new guidelines, presumably by early next year.

Using the research of the Government Accountability Office as its guide, the National Council of Nonprofits has been advocating for language in the forthcoming grants reform notice that addresses the problem of state and local governments retaining for themselves federal funds that Congress has allocated for the indirect costs of nonprofit contractors and sub-grantees.

For more information on the indirect costs reimbursement issue, view the Council of Nonprofits webinar  and read comments on indirect costs filed with OMB in April .

Reprinted with permission from Nonprofit Advocacy Matters, a publication of the National Council of Nonprofits, your national network.