Reimbursement
A disbursement method where the recipient spends first and is repaid against receipts. It changes the cash-flow requirement of an award more than any other field: a $500,000 reimbursement grant requires an organisation that can carry $500,000 of spending before the first payment arrives.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Reimbursement grant · Cost reimbursement
In detail
Reimbursement is the default for most government awards and it is rarely stated prominently, because to the agency it is unremarkable. To a small nonprofit it is often the single fact that decides whether an award is usable at all.
Some programs mix methods across phases — an advance to start, reimbursement thereafter — and some allow a request for working capital in advance under stated conditions. Where a notice describes a mixed arrangement, the record stores the arrangement rather than picking the simpler label.
Against an advance
An advance pays before the spending happens; a reimbursement pays after. The award size is identical and the cash requirement is not remotely the same. We store the disbursement method as its own field for exactly this reason, and a record whose notice is silent reads Not stated rather than defaulting to the common case.
How GrantTrove stores it
- Disbursement method is a stored, filterable field, not a phrase buried in a description paragraph.
- Where the source states a reimbursement schedule or a documentation requirement, that wording is kept with the field.
Common questions
How long does reimbursement usually take?
It varies by agency and we do not publish a figure we have not measured. Where a notice states a payment window, the record carries the notice’s number; where it does not, the field reads Not stated.
Can I get an advance on a reimbursement grant?
Some programs allow it under stated conditions. It is a per-program rule and the notice governs.
Why does this field matter more than the amount?
Because an award you cannot pre-finance is not money you can use. Organisations regularly win reimbursement awards they then have to decline.