In-kind Contributions for BEAD Grants

The process of winning Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program grants is expensive, and grant applicants should do everything possible to lower out-of-pocket costs for winning a grant. One of the most interesting ways to lower the cost of accepting a grant is through the use of in-kind matches. In-kind contributions recognize non-cash benefits of property, goods, or services that will benefit a BEAD project. In-kind matches can be used as part of the process of calculating the matching funds being provided by a BEAD grant applicant, and many other grant programs also allow for in-kind matches. To use a simple example, if a grant applicant must provide a 25 percent grant match, then any approved in-kind matches can be used to satisfy a portion of that match requirement. If a grant applicant can justify 5 percent of the cost of the project as in-kind contributions, then the cash matching in this example would be reduced to 20 percent. Calculating in-kind contributions is worth pursuing because almost every BEAD grant project will benefit from some existing assets or services that can be classified as in-kind contributions. Every dollar recognized as an in-kind contribution reduces the cash contribution needed for the grant matching.