Grant Amendment Request Template
What This Template Is For
A formal amendment request is a letter to your funder asking, in writing, to move an award's end date, change its scope or revise its budget. Funders commonly sort these into three kinds: extension, change of scope and change to the budget. One funder's no-cost extension letter is signed by the grantee's authorized organizational representative; check who signs under your agreement.
This page gives one structure for all three. If your funder has no form, send it as a letter. If the funder has a form or an online system, draft your answers here first.
Nothing changes until the funder says so in writing. Under one funder's rules, a change is not authorized until the funder issues an amended award document, and verbal authorization does not count as approval. Check yours.
How to Fill It In
- Contact the funder's grants administrator before you draft anything. For a complicated case, also talk to the program contact.
- Read your agreement and the funder's guidance: which kind of request applies, what it must include, and whether you need one at all. Minor changes in method that help reach the objectives may not. Budget moves can: some private funders want one when more than 10 percent of the total award shifts between categories, or for certain new expenses such as equipment or real estate, or an indirect rate change. One government funder requires an amendment once reallocation within a budget period passes 25 percent of the approved total budget or $250,000, whichever is less.
- Check that your financial and programmatic reporting is current.
- Prepare the supporting documents first: revised budget, budget narrative and, for an extension, an updated timeline and a work plan. Add any backup the funder asked for.
- Get internal approval if your own organization requires it.
- Have the person your agreement names as authorized sign and submit the request in writing before the funder's deadline. Each funder sets its own. For a no-cost extension, one government funder asks for the request 60 days before the project period ends, another at least 45 calendar days before, another no later than 30 days before. One foundation accepts requests as early as 90 days before the end date but none once it has passed. For a scope or budget request, ask your grants administrator how early it must arrive. Your agreement has the final word. Reread the letter before signing: one funder's system does not let the submitter alter a request once it is signed and submitted.
When it approves an extension, one funder tells the grantee the new reporting due dates, so reporting dates move with the end date.
The Template
Delete the rows that do not apply. Where a scope change and a budget revision come together, one funder accepts a single scope change request and needs no separate budget request; ask yours which it wants.
| Field | Applies to | What to write |
|---|---|---|
| Award number | All | The funder's identification number for the award. |
| Organization name | All | The name of the grantee organization. |
| Kind of change | All | Extension, scope change, budget change or a mix. Say whether the budget changes and whether the award total goes up; at least one funder uses those two answers to decide the request type. |
| Proposed new end date and explanation | Extension | One specific date, and why the project goals were not completed in the award period. Funders may cap extensions: one foundation allows up to two no-cost extensions of no more than 12 months each, at its discretion. |
| Explanation of new scope | Scope | What the new scope is and why the change is necessary. |
| Reasons and basis for the change | All | The reasons and basis for the change, plus any data that helps the funder judge it. Give notice promptly. |
| Effect on budget and aims | Scope | What the change does to the budget and to the project's aims, plus any unique circumstances that affect meeting expectations. |
| Revised budget and narrative | Budget | The approved line-item budget beside the revised one, in the original format, showing where funds move from and to. Follow it with a narrative giving the calculations behind each revised amount. |
| Remaining funds and work plan | Extension | The estimated amount of remaining funding to be used in the extension period, and a detailed work plan showing how unfinished activities will be completed by the proposed end date. |
| Updated timeline | Extension | New completion dates for each activity. |
| Objective assurance | Budget only | A statement that the approved objectives, goals and purposes will not change. |
| Supporting documents | All | A list of what is attached, including anything the funder requested. |
| Signature and date | All | Signed and dated by the grantee's authorized organizational representative, as in a no-cost extension letter. Check who signs under your agreement. |
Filled Example
An illustration only. The case is invented, and amounts and dates are placeholders. A small health NGO runs community clinic rounds in a flood-prone rural area and asks for a no-cost extension with a small budget move.
Proposed new end date and explanation: [New end date]. Seasonal flooding left the roads to the remote villages impassable during the planned rounds, so the remaining clinic rounds and the final evaluation were not completed in the award period. Our field logs record the closures and are attached.
Remaining funds and work plan: [Amount] remains. It will pay only for the rounds and the evaluation already in the approved work plan. No new activities are added. The attached plan shows each round finished by the new end date.
Objective assurance: The approved objectives, goals and purposes will not change.
Revised budget and narrative:
| Line item | Approved | Revised |
|---|---|---|
| Field travel | [amount] | [amount] |
| Supplies | [amount] | [amount] |
Revised field travel is the approved line plus the extra fuel and vehicle hire needed once the roads reopen. Supplies falls by the same amount, so the award total does not change.
Common Mistakes
Trusting a verbal yes. A friendly answer on a call is not approval. Wait for the amended award document and file it.
Acting before written approval. Some government funders require approval before you implement any change to the information on the award notice. Where pre-approval applies, you need written confirmation first.
Asking for time to spend leftover money. Some funders refuse an extension whose main purpose is to use up an unobligated balance. One funder says a no-cost extension cannot be used to complete new activities that were not already approved. Justify it with approved work that is unfinished.
Filing with overdue reports. One funder requires financial and programmatic reporting to be up to date before a revision request is submitted. File any late reports first.