Foundation, Corporate,
and Government Relations

Submitting Your Proposal at Hamilton

Proposals seeking external funding for projects must be reviewed and approved by your department chair, Dean of Faculty, and the OFCGR before submission.

1. Contact the Office of Foundation, Corporate, and Government Relations as early in the proposal development process as possible. At a minimum, please alert us to any funding sources you may be considering contacting to insure that the College's contacts with external funding sources are a coordinated effort. Alerting the Office to deadlines you must meet well in advance of that date will allow the Office to make the appropriate arrangements in a timely manner and will minimize the possibility of last minute delays.
2. If you have yet to find a funding source, but have an idea for a proposal, please contact the OFCGR. It would be most helpful for you to have prepared an outline of your idea, any timelines you may have, and an estimate of the amount of funds your project will require.
3. Begin drafting your proposal as soon as possible. Successful proposals are often critiqued by a number people, so recruit colleagues from within and outside your field to review your work. Ask them to specifically focus on content, clarity, and overall relevance and be sure to provide them with any programmatic guidelines required by the funding source. The OFCGR is also available to review drafts of your proposals.
4. During this time, be sure to notify the OFCGR of your intent to apply. We will notify the Dean of Faculty's office and the Business Office of your intentions. Specifically, we will need to know what agency you will be applying to, an estimate of the amount of funding you are requesting, the deadline, potential requests for matching funds, possible space and/or renovation issues, plans for employment of students, and other related issues. While these issues and dollar amounts do not have to be finalized, we would like to be aware of any issues that may surface well in advance of your deadline.
5. Make appointments with the appropriate people to discuss your project. In all cases, proposals must be reviewed and approved by the Chair of your department, Dean of Faculty's office, and by the OFCGR. In certain cases, additional review may be required of the Human Subjects Institutional Review Board, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, or the Radiation Safety Committee. The Hamilton College Grant Proposal Endorsement, which must be attached as a cover sheet to all proposals during this review process, requires signatures from the aforementioned College officials. Please plan accordingly to insure that travel schedules or other potential conflicts do not hinder your ability to obtain their approval and signature. The Proposal Endorsement Form is an internal document and is not to be submitted to the funding source with your proposal.
6. Beginning January 1, 2008, the DOF will require you to adhere to the following schedule for proposal review and endorsement::
   • All proposals must be submitted with a completed Hamilton College Proposal Endorsement Form. The endorsement form must be completed in full and deposited with the OFCGR prior to proposal submission.
   • Requests for college support (cost-sharing, etc.) should be initiated with the DOF at least three weeks in advance of the deadline.
   • Endorsement will only be given when an advanced draft of budget, advanced draft of text, and detailed requests for college support are submitted to DOF and OFCGR a minimum of one week in advance of the deadline for review.
   • Proposals will be submitted only when the final budget, advanced draft, and completed endorsement form are with OFCGR 48 hours before the deadline
7. We will proofread your proposal, check your budget, review the RFP or programmatic guidelines, and handle other administrative duties as needed.

Policies and Procedures for Management and Reporting of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Funds

ARRA awards and proposals are subject to the same policies and procedures as other Hamilton College contracts and grants.

ARRA awards are also subject to additional requirements that are addressed by the following policies and procedures.

Quarterly Reporting

The College is following all guidance issued by the Office for Management and Budget (OMB) and the sponsoring agencies from which it receives ARRA funds. The reports required under Section 1512 of the Act will be submitted beginning in October 2009 and will contain detailed information on the projects and activities funded by the Recovery Act. The College has registered at www.federalreporting.gov for submission of these reports.

The Office of Foundation, Corporate, and Government Relations will be responsible for completing the appropriate data elements and submitting reports no later than the 10th day after each quarter.

Expenditure data will be posted in and reports will be derived from the College’s financial accounting system (My Grants) in the same manner as with other sponsored projects.  University jobs data, if applicable to that grant and contract in question, will be calculated from payroll and other data in the University’s payroll/HR system.  Subrecipient, and any qualifying vendor/ jobs data will be obtained from that entity’s administrative contact.  To ensure accuracy and timely submission of data, the best available financial and jobs data will be reported.  This data will primarily be as of the quarter end for which the College is reporting.  In cases where quarter-end data might be incomplete or inaccurate, the most current, accurate data available will be reported.  As reports are cumulative, any information for the previous quarter not reported by the 10th day after the end of that quarter will be included in the next quarterly report.

Subrecipients are informed of reporting requirements in the subaward from the College.  Subrecipients delegated reporting authority will provide job data (see above) directly to the College and will enter “Subrecipient Data Elements” at Federalreporting.gov.  This data will be subject to the same day 11-21 review as the University’s data.  Subrecipients to whom the College does not delegate reporting authority will be required to submit the best available data to the College, which will be included in the College’s quarterly reporting.

“Project Status” and, when appropriate, “Quarterly Activities/Project Description” will be updated based on information received from each project’s Principal Investigator (PI). The Office of Foundation, Corporate, and Government Relations will be responsible for contacting the PIs prior to the end of the quarter and will receive assistance from the Dean of Faculty’s Office if information is not received in a timely manner.  PIs may also be contacted for assistance if the Office of Foundation, Corporate, and Government Relations does not receive timely information from its subrecipient(s) or if information provided by a subrecipient does not correspond to the subrecipient’s awarded budget, including personnel categories.

During the ten day correction window, the data will again be reviewed by the Office of Foundation, Corporate, and Government Relations. Any needed adjustments will be made by the Office of Foundation, Corporate, and Government Relations or the delegated sub and rechecked and by OFCGR before the 21st.

If an agency identifies an issue during its day 22-29 review and opens a report for edit, the College will make corrections to the report as instructed.  Any data issues identified beyond the date of publication (day 30) will be corrected or addressed in the next quarterly report.

Training:

The Office of Foundation, Corporate, and Government Relations is responsible for monitoring sources for OMB, State, and Agency guidance related to ARRA funding.  The College’s ARRA policies and procedures are maintained by the OFCGR its website, https://my.hamilton.edu/ofcgr and are reviewed and approved by the Dean of Faculty’s office.

The Office of Foundation, Corporate, and Government Relations will read the guidelines for all proposals before submission to ensure the College’s compliance. The OFCGR is responsible for identifying when the potential funding source for a proposal is the Recovery Act.  The OFCGR flag ARRA proposals in its grants tracking spreadsheet and inform the PI of the special requirements.

When an ARRA funded award is received, the Academic Business Manager will identify new ARRA in the College’s opening memo, usually noting ARRA in the formal title. The OFGCR will contact the PI and direct him or her to the College’s ARRA policy and will act as the point of contact for ARRA issues. The OFCGR also contacts the PI directly to provide a reminder of the additional requirements, including the importance of conducting the ARRA funded project in a timely manner to meet the objectives of job creation and economic stimulus.

ARRA Segregation:

Each ARRA award will have a separate set of accounts that has been established within the financial accounting system.

PIs are responsible for all aspects of management of their projects, including financial oversight.

Subrecipient Monitoring:

The College is responsible for ensuring that its subrecipients comply with all the requirements of the prime funding source including, when applicable, ARRA reporting requirements. Along with these policies and procedures, for ARRA funded subrecipients the College will:
1. If reporting is delegated, OFCGR will request the financial information prior to the subrecipient’s federal reporting, via e-mail or fax.  This will allow a review of the financial information, giving the College an opportunity to compare to invoices and other information for reasonableness.
2. If it is not delegated, subrecipient and any qualifying vendors will be required to report financial and jobs information to OFCGR.  OFCGR will review this information for reasonableness, consulting with the PI as needed, and will include this information in its quarterly reporting.

William Billiter, Director
(315) 859-4384

Amy Lindner, Associate Director
(315) 859-4678