Grant Indirect Cost Rate Calculator (De Minimis, MTDC & Budgeting)

How it works

MTDC = salaries + fringe + other direct + first $50,000 of each subaward (excluding equipment, rent, tuition, participant support, patient care); indirect = rate × base; total = TDC + indirect; fit to award: variable direct = (award − excluded) ÷ (1 + rate × base share)

Indirect (facilities and administrative) costs — rent, utilities, finance, HR, IT — cannot be tied to one project, so grants recover them as a percentage of a base. Federal rules in 2 CFR 200 let any organisation without a negotiated rate charge a de minimis 15% (raised from 10% in October 2024) of modified total direct costs, a base that deliberately excludes big-ticket items such as equipment, the part of each subaward above $50,000, rent and participant support so the percentage is not inflated by pass-through money. Foundations often cap indirects at 10–15% of direct costs, which leaves a gap the organisation funds from unrestricted money — the under-recovery that drives the nonprofit starvation cycle. Budgeting backwards from a fixed award means scaling the direct lines so that direct plus indirect equals the award.

Worked example

A budget with $180k of salaries, $54k fringe, $36k other direct, $20k of equipment, a $120k subaward and $15k of rent has total direct costs of $425k but an MTDC base of only $320k (equipment, $70k of the subaward and rent are excluded). At the 15% de minimis rate indirects are $48,000 — 11.3% of total direct — for a $473k budget; a funder capping indirects at 10% of direct would pay $42,500, leaving $5,500 unrecovered.

Frequently asked questions