What Costs Can You Include in Your Budget?

Tamika Darden-Thomas, a member of EJUSA’s crime survivor network, with a photo of her father, Greg. He was killed when she was just five years old. “No one talked about my father,” she says. “His name wasn’t mentioned. It was too painful. If we had a chance to talk about the issues, it would have helped us so much.” As an adult, Tamika has become a powerful advocate for young people and those who are incarcerated. “There are so many young people who need to hear from other survivors who have actually experienced the kind of victimization they are going through.”

Navigating the allowable costs can feel overwhelming at first. VOCA is very specific about what they will and will not fund. If you have questions about a specific expense not listed below, we encourage you to call your state’s VOCA office and ask about it.

Here’s what VOCA will allow:

  • Salaries and fringe benefits for staff positions that provide direct services to crime survivors.
    • This can include the salaries and benefits that cover supervision of direct service providers
      (such as a volunteer coordinator), as long as you can show that it is necessary and essential to
      providing direct services to crime survivors.
    • This can also include administrative staff time to complete VOCA-required time and attendance
      sheets and documentation, reports, and statistics and to maintain crime survivors records.

    Tip: If you have a staff person who provides services to crime survivors and to others, you can include a prorated portion of his or her time in the budget. For example, let’s say you have a counselor who spends half of her time leading support group for families of murder victims and half of her time working with students who are not crime survivors. You can include half of her salary and benefits (50%) in your budget.

    Remember, you’ll need to maintain adequate records to document that the staff costs you request are for the exclusive use of the program supported with the VOCA grant.

  • Operating expenses essential to providing direct victim services, such as pro-rated costs of supplies, rent, copying, printing, postage, brochures, equipment, travel, etc.

    Tip: If you rent space at a community center and 25% of the time that you rent the space it’s used to hold intake meetings with crime survivors in order to refer them to external services, then you can include that 25% of the rent as an operating expense needed to provide direct services.

  • Direct costs of implementing the core eligible services (for example, transportation costs for victims to receive services, local travel expenses to accompany a crime survivor to a hearing, food or clothing to provide immediate health and safety services, etc.).

Understanding Direct Costs

  • Direct costs are those that are directly used and charged to the program. For example, if you need to buy
    four pencils for a victim support group, those four pencils are a direct cost.
  • If you have a reasonable way to allocate an expense, then it is a direct cost.
  • There is a new federal rule that allows for indirect costs. Speak to your VOCA Administrator about how to
    calculate this for your group.
  • When in doubt, it’s safest to try and justify the expense as a direct cost instead of an indirect one.
Remember, if an item is not used exclusively for the VOCA project, the grant funds can only cover the prorated portion of that item (say, 50% of a shared computer that is used half and half by a VOCA staff member and another program)
  • Training for staff and volunteers who provide victim services, if you show that it is necessary to provide victim services and there is no other source of support for them. These costs can include training fees, costs of training materials, and costs of travel to trainings. This is a great opportunity to adequately train new and existing staff so they can do an even better job serving crime survivors. An example of a relevant training is one focused on how to respond to a victim in crisis. Staff that participate in VOCA-funded training do not need to be funded under VOCA as long as they provide direct services to crime survivors.
  • Furniture and equipment if it is used to facilitate the delivery of direct services to crime victims, for example computers, video cameras for interviewing children; or furniture for shelters, work spaces, victim waiting rooms, or children’s play areas.
  • Public awareness and presentation costs only if those presentations are designed to identify crime survivors and provide or refer them to needed services. These costs can include printing presentation materials or advertising the event.
  • Transportation costs for victims to access services and to participate in criminal justice proceedings.
  • Prescription and non-prescription medicine, prophylactic or other treatment to prevent HIV/AIDS infection or other infectious disease, durable medical equipment and other healthcare items needed on an emergency basis, when a state’s compensation program, the victim’s (or in the case of a minor child, the victim’s parent’s or guardian’s) health insurance plan, Medicaid, or other health care funding source, is not reasonably expected to be available quickly enough (typically
    within 48 hours of the crime) to meet the emergency needs of a victim.
  • Technology-related costs, including such things as grant management systems, social media platforms, victim notification systems, and other automated systems, as well as hardware such as computers, copy machines, cell phones, etc. For technology purchases, you must describe how the equipment will enhance services to crime victims.
  • The costs of evaluating specific project in order to determine their effectiveness, subject to any state limitations.
  • Leasing or purchasing vehicles essential to providing direct services. Maintenance, repair or replacement of essential items that contribute to the maintenance of a healthy or safe environment for victim services.

Here’s what VOCA will NOT allow:

  • Supplantation: VOCA funds may not be used to replace state, local or other public funds that would otherwise be available for the same purpose. Instead, grant funds must be used to increase the total amount of public funds used to support services to crime victims. That means that any public funds you currently use to provide services to crime survivors may not be reallocated to other purposes so you can use a VOCA grant to pay for those same services. In other words, if you are currently providing services to crime victims that are paid for by another funding source, you cannot use VOCA funds to pay for these same services UNLESS the current funding source is being reduced or ending.
  • Crime prevention activities. (Some prevention activities may be allowable because they are also victim services. Go here for more information.)
  • Lobbying and administrative advocacy for legislation.
  • Fundraising activities.
  • Activities directed at investigating or prosecuting someone accused of a crime.
  • Supplementing of crime victim compensation awards.
  • Development of training manuals or extensive training materials. (VOCA will, however, pay the costs to print training materials.)
  • Any activities involving systems/policy improvement. (VOCA is explicitly for direct services to victims.)
  • Services to people who committed the crime.

Again, if you are unsure of a cost, talk with your VOCA Administrator

Getting Your Budget in Order
Putting Everything into a Budget Document

Download EJUSA VOCA Toolkit, updated Jan 2017