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 the audit which breaks out G&A and also 990 which breaks out the G&A. I assumed they compare the indirect cost proposal to those G&A figures, so I’ve always made sure they match. Is that not the case?
Response: The proper answer is that indirect does not always match general and administrative, but in many cases it will.
Sometimes there are direct costs that are minor and for practicality get combined with indirect (copies as an example).
Sometimes there are indirect costs like accounting or insurance that may be required to a much greater extent, for a specific program, so those are directly allocated.
In the absence of those unusual situations indirect will equal general and administrative