Every public-media grant report asks you to break down expenditures by functional category. The standard three-way split — programme services, management & general, and fundraising — is the same structure used on the Form 990 and most CPB compliance reports. Getting the split right is not optional: the reviewer checks that the three categories sum to Total Expenses, and that the ratios are reasonable for your station's size and format.
This guide explains what goes into each category, where the arithmetic typically goes wrong, and how Grantforge checks your figures before the reviewer does.
This is the largest category for most stations. It includes every expense directly tied to producing, acquiring, scheduling, and delivering content to the audience. Common items:
Common mistake: classifying engineering staff as programme services when their work covers both content production and general infrastructure. If an engineer maintains the transmitter and also maintains the office network, their salary should be reasonably allocated between programme services and management & general. The allocation does not need to be exact but it must be defensible.
Management & general (often abbreviated M&G) covers the overhead and administrative functions that support the station as a whole, not any single programme. Common items:
Common mistake: reporting all staff costs under programme services and leaving management & general understated. Grant reviewers expect management & general to represent a meaningful share of total expenses — rarely below 8% for a station of any size. A figure that rounds to zero will be questioned.
Fundraising expenses are those directly incurred in soliciting contributions, membership dues, underwriting, and other revenue. Common items:
Common mistake: classifying underwriting production costs as programme services when they are fundraising. If a video is produced specifically to sell underwriting, the production cost belongs in fundraising, not programme services.
The three functional categories must sum to Total Expenses. That is the simple check. The less obvious check is that the ratio of each category to total expenses should align with your station's operations. A station that reports 2% in management & general but 70% in programme services will trigger a consistency inquiry — not because the ratio is impossible, but because it is atypical enough to warrant verification.
Grantforge runs the arithmetic check on every expense category against the total, and flags when the expense-to-revenue ratio falls outside an expected range. The output includes each category subtotal, the percentage of total expenses it represents, and any finding from the consistency review.
Enter your programme services, management & general, and fundraising totals into the form. Grantforge computes Total Expenses, checks it against each category, and compares the total against your revenue. The report output includes a complete Expenses section with all derived totals and findings, ready to attach to your filing.