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Reporting Requirements

All grant recipients must submit financial status reports and narrative progress reports as specified in the grant notification award form. Submit only the original of each report to the NHPRC. Please make certain that the reports are signed by the appropriate official(s) of the sponsoring institution.

What financial reporting is required?

• Financial reports must be submitted on Standard Form 269 (see Payment Instructions) and signed by the grantee's authorized representative or by an appropriate institutional fiscal officer.
  
  
• Be sure to refer to the project budget when preparing the SF 269 to see if costs were in line with the information on the original or revised budget form. In particular, if cost-sharing figures are 20 percent less than anticipated on the project budget, explain the reason for the difference. Please feel free to call upon the Commission staff for help in completing the financial report form.
  
  
• Also, send one copy of each narrative report to the state or territorial historical records coordinator if the Board reviewed your project proposal.
  
  
• Other projects should send courtesy copies of narrative reports to state or territorial coordinators whose states or territories are involved in or affected by the project. Please indicate the names of individuals to whom copies of the report have been sent in a cover letter when submitting the original report to the Commission. Please note that all reports are Federal records, and are subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

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What should be included in narrative reports?

• Briefly discuss the objectives of your project. Outline the project activities that were scheduled to take place during the reporting period. Final reports should cover the entire grant period. Include enough detail to acquaint the reader with your project without requiring a re-reading of your proposal.
  
  
• Include a summary of project activities undertaken during the reporting period. Indicate whether the project is proceeding on schedule, or if there is a need to revise the work plan, staffing pattern, or budget. If the project has established a web site, please provide the URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
  
  
• The most important part of your report is the record of your accomplishments. Analyze in detail the goals met during the reporting period. Note any goals for the period that were not accomplished (documentary editing projects should explain how this will affect the anticipated completion date of the project). Also, note significant developments, such as the publication of volumes or the completion of finding aids, as well as any work that is pending with publishers.
  
  
• Project directors are encouraged to offer frank assessments of their projects. Were the goals set in the original proposal realistic? If not, what alternative goals might have been accomplished during the grant period? Did the project staff face unexpected problems? If so, how were the problems solved, or how could they be avoided in the future? Has the project led to unanticipated benefits? If so, what were they? Are you generally satisfied with the results of the project? If not, why not? A full discussion of these matters in your narrative report will aid the Commission in assessing future grant applications and providing guidance to other projects.
  
  
• Discuss the project's impact, if any, on the grant-receiving institution or others who may have used project materials or benefited from the project. Mention any publicity or interest generated as a result of the project. Please note project-related publications, speaking engagements, or professional development efforts undertaken by the staff during the grant period or planned for the future. We urge grant recipients to prepare and distribute their own information releases regarding their NHPRC grants. Please indicate how assistance by the Commission or the State Historical Records Advisory Boards was acknowledged. Attach copies of any newspaper or other printed media coverage of project activities or reviews of publications to project narrative reports.
  
  
• In your final report, indicate whether all or part of the project activities will be continued after the end of the grant. Also, indicate whether any of these activities will be supported by institutional funds or by grant funds, and if the NHPRC grant was instrumental in obtaining these funds.

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What additional information should be submitted to the NHPRC?

• The results of any work supported by a grant or award by the Commission may be published. Publications or other written products resulting from the project must acknowledge the assistance of the Commission.
  
  
• For records-related projects, grant recipients are required to send the Commission 3 copies of any finding aids, reports, manuals, guides, forms, and other materials produced by the project at the time that the final narrative report is submitted. These products then can be shared with others interested in similar projects and can be used in evaluating more fully the results of projects supported by the Commission.
  
  
• Documentary editing projects should send the Commission 3 copies of any book edition unless support for their publication was provided by an NHPRC subvention grant. For these volumes, presses rather than projects are responsible for submitting 5 copies to the NHPRC and 10 copies to the project director or editor. Somewhat different requirements apply to microform editions.
  
  
• The Commission encourages grant project directors and staff members to submit articles on the project to appropriate journals and newsletters (including the Commission's own newsletter, Annotation), especially when the methodology or results of a project might be of broad interest. The project director should inform journals and newsletters of the completion of the project and of any publications, reports, finding aids, and manuals produced through a grant. Such announcements should mention the availability, whether by loan, purchase, or complimentary copy, of these written products, and the address from which they may be obtained.
  
  
• For use in its publicity, the NHPRC would welcome copies of one or more photographs (preferably 8 x 10 inch black-and-white "glossies") of project activities or historical photographs relating to the project's work.

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