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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Financial FAQs: Grant Funds


This week's Financial FAQ

Q: The College receives funds from a number of grants. Tell me about them: what are their purposes and restrictions? 

A: The College administers approximately 140 grants, totaling $6,000,000, annually.  The majority of our grants come from federal, state, county, and city funds as well as private foundations.  The time frame for most grants is one year or less.

A grant’s funds can only be spent in support of the grant and as described in the grant application or contract. Grant funds must be spent by the end of the grant term, unless the funder approves an extension. Even with an extension, the restrictions that were in place on the original funds continue so these funds cannot be used for other purposes. Any funds that are ultimately unspent are returned to the granting organization.

Although grant funds are not part of the College’s operating budget, some grants can have an indirect effect on the operating budget.  For example, some grants fund equipment purchases for classrooms.  Should these grant funds not be available, the College would need to fund such equipment from its operating budget.  This would result in either reducing expenses elsewhere in the budget or increasing revenues (perhaps through a tuition increase).  Other grants may include personal services (counseling, tutoring, etc.) which may result in certain positions being funded partly by the College’s operating budget and partly by the grant.  And in some cases, granting organizations allow the College to charge administration and overhead costs associated with the project to the grant.

Perkins and AmeriCorps are examples of grants administered by the College.  Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, our Perkins g
rant provides counseling, advising and tutoring to students enrolled in career and technical education programs. This grant also purchases equipment for these programs.  AmeriCorps is federally funded via the Corporation for National and Community Service.  Participants in this program volunteer locally for a minimum of one year (1,700 hours).  Participants who complete the program earn a tuition waiver (fixed dollar amount) that can be used at any college in the United States. 

If you have a financial question that you would like answered, send it to marcom@monroecc.edu . Administrative Services and College and Community Relations will work together to answer your questions in upcoming issues of the MCC Daily Tribune.

Heze Simmons and Cynthia Cooper
Administrative Services and College and Community Relations
01/28/2009