Make the Most of Volunteers and In-Kind Donations
In-kind work and donations often count as match for funding, but will need to be carefully documented. Most “match” must be an approved part of a grant agreement. Scrutinize the match eligibility and documentation requirements for each type of grant. Do not assume that any particular activity can be counted as match for a particular funding stream, but do keep track of everything that your staff and volunteers and others in the community are doing. Grantors are generally willing to work closely with local governments to identify match opportunities, but have to meet their own programmatic requirements.