ACPEN: Indirect Cost Rates 2026: What Nonprofits Must Know to Build NICRA-Proof Proposals

Overview

Indirect costs are an important aspect of obtaining full cost recovery on grants and cooperative agreements. An indirect rate is a mechanism for recovering allocable indirect costs. Have you struggled to understand how indirect rates work? We will show you Uniform Guidance theory and the mechanical aspects of how indirect rates are constructed. This session will cover the two of the most widely used indirect cost rate proposal templates to obtain Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreements (NICRA) for both the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and U.S. Department of Interior (DOI).

We will address: • Fringe and indirect rate examples, • The power of an indirect rate multiplier, • What is an ideal indirect rate, • Mandatory requirements for constructing an indirect rate, • The importance of the Statement of Functional Expense, and • Understanding the HHS and DOI model templates.

Highlights

• Impact of Fall 2025 Shutdown and DOGE on HHS Cost Accounting Services
• Maneuvering in the new HHS ICAS Portal
• What to do if your provisional indirect rate expires
• Thinking out of the box

Prerequisites

None

Designed For

Public accountants performing Single Audits; consultants, grant or subaward recipients as nonprofits, hospitals, institutes of higher education, Federal, state, local and tribal units of government, and commercial entities that have awards; grants administrators, principal investigators, program personnel, legal, accounting and finance personnel.

Objectives

• Understand the fundamentals of direct and indirect cost
• Present basic indirect rate mechanics
• List the items needed to prepare an indirect rate
• Take a deeper dive into the four methods of allocating indirect costs

Preparation

None