Grants talk:Processing/Changes

Budget line-item variances

Hi AWang (WMF), I have a question about this policy:

"Grantees receiving grants through the Project and Event Grants or Individual Engagement Grants programs that are equal to or over US$15,000 or its equivalent in another currency need to request permission in advance for changes to line items greater than +/- 10% of that line item.

"Grantees receiving grants through the Project and Event Grants or Individual Engagement Grants programs that are under US$15,000 or its equivalent in another currency need to request permission in advance for changes to line items greater than +/- 20% of that line item."

This seems very restrictive and burdensome for small line items. If we have a line item that we budgeted at $20, is it truly necessary to have us obtain advance permission in writing if it costs $25? Reserve funds are requested for a reason, and it seems to me that requiring advance written permission for small dollar value variances is a suboptimal use of everyone's time. I would like to instead suggest that line item variances that are equal to or exceed 15% of the total value of the grant, or $500, whichever is less should require advance written permission.

What do you think? --Pine^✉ 10:42, 22 January 2015 (UTC)