How much of my EEE sub-grant may be used for administrative costs?
A. The grant guidelines from the U.S. Department of Education for the EEE Program limit administrative costs to not more than 5% of the sub-grant award. This 5% cap applies to a combination of both direct administrative costs and indirect costs. Direct administrative costs are project expenditures not specifically related to carrying out the project activity itself. Indirect costs are general organization costs that can not be readily identifiable with any one specific project or activity of the organization (these are sometimes referred to as “overhead.”) With regard to direct administrative costs, the general rule of thumb is that expenditures not specifically related to carrying out direct project activities are most likely to be considered administrative. The key issue is determining what activities constitute a direct project activity. For example, in some cases, preparing a report might be considered administrative. In other instances, a reporting requirement might be considered
