Matching Funds

Most institutions that award grants do not finance 100% of each project. FEMA, for example, will only fund up to 75% of the total cost of a project, the community must come up with the final 25% of the cost. This is beneficial for two reasons.

First, communities don't waste federal dollars on frivilous projects. A community looks much closer at projects that require money out of their own pockets, than if the projects are completed virtually for free. FEMA is careful only to fund projects that truly need to be done. Communities need to scrutinize projects before they even consider applying for funding from FEMA. Trying to find the 25% matching funds for the project often times weeds out the less important projects.

The second reason matching funds is beneficial, is that requiring 25% of the total project costs is a way to leverage both community money and FEMA money. FEMA funds go much further when 75% is spent in 4 communities rather than 100% spent in only 3 communities. And communities are able to get 4 similar projects completed for the price of one.

Matching funds come in two forms: cash and in-kind. Cash is self-explanatory (for a $100,000 project, if a community can't raise $25,000 in cash to meet the match, the project is in jeopardy). Yet an in-kind match can include the dollar value of volunteer labor, the cost of labor from county employees, the cost of fuel for vehicles, the cost of telephone calls, and the cost of office supplies. Everything that is included in the in-kind match must be well-documented and used on the specific project that FEMA is funding. For example, Sweet Grass County secured a $6,620 grant from the Montana Department of Emergency Services to write the PDM Plan, and the 25% match ($1,655) will be covered by county employee time, travel, office supplies, and telephone calls. We expect to match more than the 25% in county employee time alone.