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Budget | Grants

A step-by-step guide to building your budget.


Direct Costs

Direct costs are expenses that can be clearly linked to a specific grant-funded project.

Salaries and Wages

Salaries and Wages. Grant funding must cover the cost of all salaries and benefits. Benefit eligibility for a grant-funded position is determined through consultation with the Grants Office and the Director of Human Resources. If necessary, the Director of Human Resources will consult with the College’s Chief Financial Officer.

Hiring of personnel for grant-funded positions must follow normal College procedures re: creation of job description, advertising, recruiting, offers of employment, rate of pay, etc. Advertising for grant-funded positions will be charged against the grant.

The appointment letter for administrative staff hired for grant-funded positions may not be issued by faculty. Letters of appointment are issued by the President.

Summer Salary. Faculty members may request salary/stipend support for summer months calculated as allocated by the program for which they are applying. The total figure budgeted for the salary/stipend should include the employer-paid fringe benefits. For example, a $1000 salary/stipend including employer-paid benefits would be included in the budget as $1350.

Requesting Sabbatic Pay. Proposals which include sabbatical leave or leaves of absence must be requested by October 1 of the year preceding the leave (see Faculty Handbook for more details on sabbatical leave). Faculty members are encouraged to begin the proposal process early in order to facilitate approval.

For more information regarding salaries and wages you can refer to the Wabash College Grants Manual and the Wabash College Faculty Handbook.

Fringe Benefits

Fringe benefits are specifically identified to each employee and are charged individually as direct costs. When preparing the proposal budget, the Grants Office and Human Resources Office can assist you with accurate calculations based on proposed personal. The directly claimed fringe benefits include: FICA, Medicare, Unemployment, Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Tuition Remission (not calculated in the MTDC), Disability Insurance, and Retirement.

Grant-funded positions which are of a six-month duration or more, and which are scheduled for half-time work or more, should be considered benefit eligible unless at the time of the grant award it is established that benefits specifically are excluded.

For more information regarding fringe benefits you can refer to the Useful Facts and Rates Page, the Wabash College Grants Manual, and the Wabash College Faculty Handbook.

Equipment and Other Capital Expenditures

All major equipment awarded to the College through external funding remains the possession of the institution, unless otherwise negotiated. Decisions concerning individual cases will be handled as they arise.

Participant Support

The WISE (Wabash Internships & Student Employment) Program provides students with the opportunity to work on campus during the academic year. All on-campus student employment positions are listed in Handshake. When listing Wabash College student workers, budget for the entire salary expense.

Student research assistants should be budgeted at a total stipend of $3,516, representing forty hours per week for eight weeks. Include an additional 7.65% of the salary for FICA expenses for summer student workers. Remember to budget for summer housing for students for at least $25 per day.

For more information regarding participant support, you can refer to the Wabash College Grants Manual and the Useful Facts & Rates page.

Travel

Investigators also must disclose the occurrence of any reimbursed or sponsored travel (i.e., that which is paid on behalf of the Investigator and not reimbursed to the Investigator so that the exact monetary value may not be readily available), related to their institutional responsibilities; provided, however, that this disclosure requirement does not apply to travel that is reimbursed or sponsored by a Federal, State, or local government agency, an Institution of higher education as defined at 20 U.S.C. 1001(a), an academic teaching hospital, a medical center, or a research institute that is affiliated with an Institution of higher education.

For more information regarding travel, you can refer to the Wabash College Grants Manual and the Treasurer’s Office webpage.

Materials and Supplies

Any proposal that requires Wabash College materials, personnel, facilities and/or commitment of matching funds must be negotiated with the proper internal administrative officials and the Grants Office before approval for submission will be granted.

Wabash has a Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC) Base consisting of all direct salaries and wages, applicable fringe benefits, materials and supplies, services, travel and up to the first $25,000 of each subaward (regardless of the period of performance of the subawards under the award).


Indirect Costs

Indirect Costs, also referred to as “Facilities and Administration Costs” or overhead, support the College's efforts to create an environment conducive to faculty research and curriculum development. Indirect Costs are defined as costs that are incurred for common or joint objectives, and therefore cannot be identified readily and specifically with a particular sponsored project (e.g., library services, facilities maintenance, utilities and administrative support). The College negotiates the Indirect Cost Rate with the Department of Health and Human Services, and it is used for all grant applications unless another rate is specified in the guidelines.

When indirect costs are an allowable expense on a grant proposal, the budget must reflect the maximum allowable amount up to our negotiated rate. Indirect cost recovery compensates or offsets the expenses related to the administration and completion of sponsored and programmatic activities which are not readily attributable to an individual grant or contract.

The current Indirect Cost Rate can be obtained from the Useful Facts & Figures webpage.


Matching Funds and Cost Sharing

Funders may require institutions to contribute to the cost of the project through either matching or cost-sharing funds. Matching funds are generally defined as a cash amount (i.e., a percentage of the cost of a piece of equipment) and are either supplied by the institution or by other, usually private, funding sources.

Cost sharing occurs when the institution makes an in-kind contribution towards a project's required resources. Faculty salary, fringe benefits, computer use and indirect costs are often proposed for cost-sharing.

Any proposal that requires Wabash College materials, personnel, facilities and/or commitment of matching funds must be negotiated with the proper internal administrative officials and the Grants Office before approval for submission will be granted.


Subawards

Typical sub-award situations include arrangements in which two (or more) qualifying legal entities/institutions are working collaboratively on a grant project. Each institution has its own PD/PI; however, one of the collaborating institutions takes on the role of prime awardee with the funder. Sub-award agreements are made in the form of a legally binding agreement generated by the prime awardee, which is also referred to as the lead organization.

If you are interested in participating in a subaward, please contact the Grants Office for more information.

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