Meeting Match Requirements

VOCA requires you to include a 20% non-federal match of the total project cost in your project budget. That means if you need $100,000 from VOCA, this must be 80% or less of your total project budget ($125,000). The other $25,000 can come from other funding or the in-kind value of donated time and goods.

The important thing is to keep documentation of each matching item. In your budget narrative, you will need to explain each matching item. See the sample VOCA Application Budget in the Appendix for a detailed explanation.

Remember, there is no match requirement for federally recognized American Indian or Alaskan Native Tribes, or projects that operate on tribal lands and U.S. Territories (except for Puerto Rico).

Examples of in-kind matching items:

If your VOCA project includes any of the items below, but you are getting them donated instead of buying them with VOCA funds, the donated value can be counted towards the match. For clarity, a donated item can be an item donated from another program within your organization, or paid for with non-federal funds instead of VOCA funds.

Quick tips on determining the value of donated items:

• If the items are donated during the grant period, count the full value of the donated item.
• If the items were purchased or donated prior to the grant period, count their current value, not the original price paid.

Donated equipment: telephones, printers, computers used for the program.

Example: if you purchased a laser printer three years ago for $600 (with non-federal funds), but a new VOCA-funded staff person will use it 50% of the time, you can estimate the current value of the printer ($300 for example) and count 50% of that (or $150) as a VOCA in-kind match.

Donated office supplies and furniture: Paper, staplers, notepads, chairs, tables, desks etc. Anything directly needed and used for the program.

Example: If you have a staff person that handles victim compensation claims, and another staff person that assists with emergency food services, and both share a donated desk (50% each), then 50% of the value of the desk and chair can be used as a VOCA in-kind match.

Donated printing and materials: classroom or workshop materials, information guides, pamphlets etc., and the costs to print those materials, if you are not using VOCA funds to pay for them.

Donated space: If you use a free room in a church or community center to hold a group therapy or counseling session, for example, then the value of that room can count towards the match as many times as you use it. The value of the space may not exceed the fair rental value of comparable space as established by an independent appraisal of comparable space and facilities in privately-owned buildings in the same area. For more info on determining fair rental value, go to www.huduser.gov.

Volunteers: Since volunteers are an eligibility requirement for VOCA, the time spent by volunteers who are providing direct victim services as part of the VOCA project can be used as a matching item.

There are two ways you can determine volunteer time:

1. Using the Independent Sector Rate: The 2015 estimated value of volunteer time is $23.56 per hour according to Independent Sector, a coalition of charities, foundations, corporations and individuals that publishes research on the nonprofit sector. If you have “non-professional” volunteers, you can use this rate to calculate volunteer time.

   Example: Your organization has two volunteers who each contribute 20 hours per month to assist victims of crime. You can include an in-kind match of $11,308.80.

   2 volunteers x 240 hours each =480 annual volunteer hours @$23.56/hour= $11,308.80

2. Professional Volunteer Time: The “salary” rate you use to calculate volunteer time must be consistent with rates paid for similar professional work in the labor market in which the project operates (within victim services) or the current minimum wage.

   Example: A volunteer licensed clinical therapist volunteers 10 hours per week every week for a year to counsel crime survivors within your VOCA project. If you would normally pay a therapist $40/hour to do that job, then the value of that volunteer’s time is $20,800 ($40/hour x 10 hours x 52 weeks). That full $20,800 counts towards your in-kind match.

Contributed services: Monetary value of time contributed by professionals and technical personnel and other skilled and unskilled labor, if the services they provide are an integral and necessary part of the funded victim services program.

Example: You have partnered with another non-profit organization that has a licensed therapist on staff. This therapist provides group therapy to crime survivors within your program as part of their community-based work. They are paid by the organization to do this work. Because they are contributing their services at no cost to your organization, this is can be calculated as a match.

Examples of purchased matching items:

In addition to in-kind donations, if you pay for any of the above items with non-VOCA funds, those costs can count toward the match. Let’s see how this works using a few examples from above:

Example 1 – Rent: If you have other sources of income to pay your rent, then the portion of your rent that is used to provide new VOCA-funded services can be considered part of the match. Let’s say you pay $100/month for rent or $1,200 for the year. But you already pay that rent with other funds, so you don’t need VOCA funds to pay for any of your rent. Now let’s say that your new VOCA-funded staff positions will use 50% of your space, so 50% of your rent is allowable under VOCA. That means $600 counts towards your match.

Example 2 – Furniture: Remember that desk that was shared 50/50 between the VOCA-funded staff person and the emergency food services staffer? Let’s say instead of getting the desk donated, you need to buy it. The funds for your emergency food services program can pay for the whole desk instead of just half of it. The half of the desk’s cost that was allowable under VOCA becomes part of your in-kind match.

Examples of income matches:

In addition to donated or purchased items, you can try to raise cash for your victim services program. Some examples include:

Grants: Any non-federal awarded grants (such as a United Way or private foundation grant) that will be used to fund a part of the victim services described in your application, no matter the amount. A combination of small grants can potentially add up to that 20%. Special exception: Federal Community Development Block Grants can be used as a source of matching funds

Individual Donations: Do community members make donations to support your work? Make sure you are tracking who gave, the amount, when, and for what purpose. If you can use any of those donations to cover part of your victim services project, then they count for the match.

Earned income: Do you sell t-shirts or any other items or materials to generate income? Do you have a fee-for-service for some programs (not victim services) where a portion of proceeds can go towards funding the victim services program? Any income generated by the VOCA funded project needs to be approved In advance by the State VOCA agency and is subject to special requirements.

All of these can be counted as a match.

Check with your state before you prepare your budget. Some states may request OVC to waive some or the entire match requirement.

How to show the match in the budget:

Each state’s budget form is a little different, but most of them will be a variation of this basic idea. Here is a simplified version with just a few line items to show what it looks like.

In this example, your total VOCA request is $57,000. That means you also need $14,250 in matching funds, or 20%. In the example, you have $5,850 worth of volunteer victim advocates, $5,000 worth of administrative volunteers who will provide allowable VOCA record keeping services, and you can pay for the VOCA advocate’s portion of your phones and rent with non-federal funds. That adds up to $14,250.

A more detailed example is included in the Appendix.

Download EJUSA VOCA Toolkit, updated Jan 2017