What is a co-contribution?
Lots of grants require you to put in some of your own resources in order to be eligible for funding. Usually, the larger grant programs (i.e., upward of $1m awards) will require a co-contribution. This can take a few forms – most commonly, its either cash, or an in-kind contribution:
Cash
Depending on the grant guidelines, this can come from a few different places – your own coffers, a separate grant, or from one of the project partners. Grant guidelines will stipulate clearly where this cash can be sourced from.
Usually, this must be cash that is strictly reserved for the project, not committed by your organisation for parallel or adjacent projects. For example, an applicant may believe ‘our organisation pays staff already for duties that are similar to ones that will be performed in the project’ OR ‘we already provide significant cash contributions to the lead applicant for a similar project, so that can count as our co-contribution, right?’ Wrong. Unless these resources will be allocated directly to the proposed project, they will not be eligible as a co-contribution.
