First a little background. What are the CARES Act Funds? The CIL CARES Act funding went to the federally funded (Part C) centers for direct response to the COVID-19 crisis among people with disabilities in their service area. They have
A follow up question on policies supporting your CARES Act decisions
The questions started as soon as the money did. ACL has published a comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions document that covers most of them. If you go to our site it is an alphabetical list of resources under ACL FAQs. Everything
CARES Act funds for Part C centers — Spend wisely
The CARES Act funds for COVID-19 relief became available to Part C centers this past week. I would like to suggest some things to think about before you begin spending. If you plan well, your reporting and documentation will be
Are Advertising and Public Relations costs allowed?
How can I distinguish between unallowable advertising and outreach? Can I call promotional giveaways outreach? While advertising is one of those categories that is on the list of those not allowed with federal funds, not all advertising is unallowable. Uniform
Exciting News and an Introduction
I am pleased to announce that John Heveron is joining us as an expert contributor to this blog. John has worked with us in providing financial training and technical assistance to CILs and SILCs for a number of years. He
New fiscal director’s questions
As the new finance person for a center, I have some questions that have come up over the past few weeks that I’d appreciate getting your input on. Currently allocations are based on wages paid by the grant that the
Can a center or SILC earn interest on federal funds?
The CILs are allowed to collect interest on federal funds, but if there is interest, the money isn’t being applied to its purpose, so that is discouraged. The expectation is that the money passes through just in time to pay
Can we buy T-shirts with our grant and sell them?
Question: Do you know of any rule or federal law that prohibits us at the State level (SILC) from selling T-shirts or doing any other type of fundraising or collecting donations to our organization. Our funding is minuscule and we
Are indirect costs the same as administrative costs?
Question: I am interested in your thoughts on something. I know we’ve always said that the indirect costs are not the same as G&A. However, when we submit the proposal we have to include the statement of functional expenses from
Are Resource Development Costs direct or indirect?
First a refresher — while fund raising costs are not typically allowed with federal dollars, the Rehabilitation Act specifically requires centers, and allows SILCs, to conduct Resource Development. Rule number one, always call your activities to increase your resources (including