3a, 4a, & 5a. FY15-FY17 FDR - Additional Guidance

National Endowment for the Arts

TIPS FOR FY15 - FY17 FINAL REPORTS
(15-xxxx-xxxx, 16-xxxx-xxxx, or 17-xxxx-xxxx)

Rev. 11.30.17

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Grantees with an award number starting with 15-xxxx-xxxx, 16-xxxx-xxxx, or 17-xxxx-xxxx must use one of the FY15 FY17 Final Descriptive Report (FDR) forms. Earlier versions of the FDR will not be accepted.
There are three distinct FY15 - FY17 FDRs: Standard, Livability, and Arts Education. Pick the right one! Arts Education
grantees (xx-5100-xxxx) must use the Arts Education FDR. All other grantees should use the report appropriate to their
selected primary outcome (noted on your grant award letter and also at www.arts.gov/mygrant). Grantees who selected
the Creation, Learning (except Arts Education grantees, as noted above), Engagement, or Understanding outcome will
use the Standard FDR. Grantees who selected the Livability outcome will use the Livability FDR.
Final Report forms and instructions can be found at https://www.arts.gov/grants/manage-your-award/fy15-grants-toorganizations, including a Final Report Checklist to help you track your required final report documentation. In addition
to the FDR, a complete Final Report will include a Federal Financial Report, a work product (if required), and a payment
request (if funds remain).
To verify receipt of the required reporting elements, go to My Grant at a Glance: www.arts.gov/mygrant. If you do not
see a report marked as received within three business days of submission, please contact us. Questions about final
reporting should be directed to (202) 682-5403 or FinalReports@arts.gov.
FORMATTING YOUR FDR
It is imperative that your FDR be properly formatted, or we will not be able to upload it to our final reports database.
We cannot accept a scanned or improperly formatted FDR. Follow these instruction exactly to avoid common mistakes:
1. Save the FDR form to your desktop as a PDF file without opening it first. (Right-click on the FDR link on the NEA
webpage, and then select "Save target as...")
2. Open Adobe Reader (version 9.0 or higher) on your computer. If you don't have this software, it can be downloaded
for free from the Adobe website. Only use Adobe Reader 9 or later.
3. From within Adobe Reader, open the FDR form and complete it.
4. Save the file and rename it. Follow this naming convention: "FDR" followed by the award number and your
organization's name (for example, FDR, 15-xxxx-xxxx, Art Organization).
Verify that your report is properly formatted by checking the Document Properties. Our FDR currently shows the PDF
Producer as Microsoft Office Word 2007, like this:

If you haven’t properly formatted the report as described, you will see a different PDF producer and your report will not
upload. None of the FDRs with the properties shown below could be accepted.

Do not use Mac Preview
National Endowment for the Arts

Do not distill the document

Do not use other PDF producers
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TIPS FOR COMPLETING YOUR FDR
Organization Information
"Period of Performance" is a new term used across the Federal government. It means the same thing as "period of
support" or "grant period." It does not mean the dates of any actual performances.
The contact should be a person who can answer questions about the contents of the FDR; it does not need to be the
Authorizing Official for the grant.
Part I: Project Narrative
The project narrative must give us a full sense of the activities and accomplishments of the approved project. Even if
you have previously submitted a progress report, the FDR must account for the entire period of performance.
Include dates when describing major project activities.
Receptions or other activities that are unallowable under the terms of your grant, or activities that took place before or
after your period of performance, must not be reported at all. See the General Terms & Conditions for a list of
unallowable costs.
Your response to each narrative question is limited to 3,000 characters, with a few exceptions. (The character limit is
noted with each question.) You may want to compose your narrative answers in a Word document and then paste them
into the form. Please note that the PDF form will eliminate any “fancy” formatting such as indent, bold, italics,
underline, or “&” but will accept standard bullets and auto-numbered lists.
Part III: Geographic Location of Project Activity (GEO) – Online module
The GEO FAQ has answers to many common questions: http://apps.nea.gov/GEO/GEO_Docs/GEO%20FAQ.pdf
A GEO report will only show as received on My Grant at a Glance if it has been "finalized." This is an automatic process
for grantees with activity only at their primary address, but if you entered multiple addresses you must finalize your
report. Click on "Finalize Report" and follow the prompts.
TIPS FOR COMPLETING YOUR FEDERAL FINA NCIAL REPORT (FFR)
Section 8: Project/Grant Period
The dates must match the grant period (aka period of performance) including approved time extensions, and encompass
all NEA-approved project activity. If you were unable to finish the project within the period of performance, see the How
to Manage your NEA Award Handbook regarding a possible time amendment.
Section 10: Transactions
The expenses reported on your FFR should be consistent with the line items in your approved project budget. (This may
be the budget submitted with your application, or a Revised Project Budget if we have approved one more recently.)
During our review of your budget, we may have made adjustments to bring the costs into compliance with the terms of
your grant. Any adjustments were noted on the Project Budget page sent with your award letter or budget amendment
approval; take note of these when compiling figures for your FFR.
We understand that the application budget or revised budget was your best estimate at the time of submission,
however, for the FFR you must report actual expenditures, based on supporting documentation such as invoices,
contracts, receipts, checks, transaction reports, and bank statements. Review your accounting and supporting
documentation and report only actual, documented costs on the FFR. It is very common that costs will fluctuate since
the time of budget approval.
All costs (including the match) must be incurred within the period of performance, though you have 90 days to liquidate
expenses after the period of performance ends.
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Lines shaded dark gray do not need to be completed.
Receptions and other unallowable costs must not be included at all on the FFR. It is not sufficient to say that they were
paid from your share of the project cost; all project funds are considered co-mingled and so unallowable costs must be
excluded entirely from the FFR. (Pay for those expenses with funds you are not reporting on the FFR.) See the General
Terms & Conditions for a list of unallowable costs that must be kept separate from this project budget.
Include the value of documented in-kind expenses when calculating the total project cost.
The FFR represents the final project accounting, regardless of any outstanding payment requests. For the purpose of the
FFR, presume payment of requested grant funds.
Line 10j represents your share of the final project cost (aka the match), based on actual expenditures.
• The NEA grant amount is not included in this line.
• Unless non-matching was indicated on the award letter, you must show at least a 1:1 match. For most grants, the
actual amount of the match will be more than 1:1. To determine your match, subtract the NEA grant amount from
the final, allowable project cost.
FFR Example A: If you had a $10,000 grant and incurred $26,352 in allowable project costs, Section 10 of your FFR
might* look like this:

*Some grantees may meet or exceed the 1:1 match but still only use a portion of the NEA funds. If you
will not be requesting all of your grant funds, follow Example B, below.
FFR Example B: If you had a $10,000 grant but only incurred $16,240 in allowable project costs, you have not met the
required 1:1 match. The NEA can support no more than half of the total project cost. Use Lines 10e and
10g to show the reduced NEA share of costs, and Line 10h to show the unspent grant balance. Verify
your intent with a note in Section 12. Your FFR might** look like this:

** If your grant had no matching requirement, this does not pertain. Follow Example A, above.
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Section 11: Indirect Expenses
Report Indirect Expenses only if such costs were part of your approved project budget as a de minimis rate or as a result
of an Indirect Cost Rate Agreement negotiated with a Federal Cognizant Agency. The Indirect Cost Rate Agreement must
be Final or Predetermined for the period of performance; a Provisional rate will not be accepted for final reporting.
Section 13: Certification
Type the name and title of the Authorizing Official who approved the report, as well as their phone number and e-mail
address. A signature is not required.
PAYMENT REQUEST TIPS
If you have not yet requested all of your grant funds, submit a NEA Payment Request form. The Payment Request form,
instructions, and a video tutorial are available at www.arts.gov/manageaward.
When requesting funds after the period of performance has ended, Section 9 of the Payment Request and Section 10 of
the FFR should reflect the same final project cost.
WORK PR ODUCT TIPS
Any work product requirements will be noted on the blue Reporting Requirements sheet that was sent with your grant
award package. That page may also indicate whether we will accept an electronic copy.
Products must be sent directly to the Grants & Contracts Office, so we can mark them as received and review them with
your Final Report. Sending products to other offices may delay them from being properly logged, jeopardizing your
ability to receive future awards.
You must include the grant number and your organization name on the product or we may be unable to match it to the
correct grant.
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR FINAL REPORT
A complete Final Report will include:
• FDR (including online Geographic Location report)
• FFR

•
•

Payment Request—if funds remain
Work Product—if required

Save each document using this naming convention: document name, award number, organization name
(for example, FFR, 15-xxxx-xxxx, Art Organization)
Email the Final Report to FinalReports@arts.gov. Paste a completed Final Report Checklist into the body of your e-mail
to help us track the various elements of your Final Report. We prefer to receive everything together, but you can send
documents separately if necessary.
Indicate the grant number and organization name, as well as the documents that are attached, in the email subject line.
Many products need to be sent as a hard copy. We accept deliveries at:
Grants and Contracts Office
National Endowment for the Arts
400 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20506
Please note: First-class and Priority mail sent to Federal agencies may be irradiated to protect against biological
contamination. Products (e.g., CDs, DVDs, publications) put through this process suffer irreversible damage. Use an
alternative delivery service if you are sending these kinds of materials.
National Endowment for the Arts

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