Guidance on Grants to Community Health Boards

Major community health board funding sources in Minnesota (PDF): This brief provides an overview of different funding sources available to community health boards.

Financial guide for MDH grants to community health boards (PDF): This guide provides a high-level overview of the administration of Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) grants to community health boards (CHBs) and general information and resources regarding MDH grants management.

Community health boards will be reimbursed for travel expenses on all MDH grants according to the current State of Minnesota Commissioner's Plan (Chapter 15, page 125) for allowable grantee travel expenses, as required by the community health board master grant contract (Clause 3). Grantees may be reimbursed for expenses in the amounts actually incurred. Reimbursement may not exceed the maximum amounts listed in the Commissioner's Plan. All maximum rates for meals include tax and a reasonable gratuity.

Out-of-state travel requires prior approval from the State's Authorized Representative.

Contact your MDH grant manager with any questions.

Indirect cost guidance for community health boards (PDF) provides guidance to community health board regarding the implementation of the Minnesota Department of Health policy on indirect and administrative costs. Community health boards incur certain "costs of doing business" that are not easily identified with a particular grant or activity. The purpose of this guidance document is to help community health boards adapt to the MDH policy, differentiate between administrative and indirect costs, and how to properly report each.

In 2014 MDH implemented alternate plan for financial review of community health boards that involved a general ledger review of one invoice per grant cycle for every grant over $50,000. In 2018 we implemented a new state policy that allows for the MDH to monitor a sample of grants when a granting agency (MDH) has multiple grants with the same grantee (community health board).

With this new sampling plan, each community health board will now receive a general ledger review on one invoice, every other year, on one grant from MDH. The results of these general ledger reviews will be made available to all MDH grant staff. MDH grants currently included in this sampling plan include:

• State Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP)
• CDC Federal Infrastructure Grant
• Title V/MCH Block Grant
• Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP)
• Response Sustainability Grant (RSG)
• Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
• Women, Infant and Children Program (WIC)
• Strong Foundations Grant

What has not changed?

• WIC will continue a financial review every other year on every community health board receiving WIC funding. However, some of these reviews will count toward this sampling plan (i.e., no other grant will be reviewed).
• As before, no general ledger review will be required of the Local Public Health Grant.
• Individual MDH grant programs may review additional invoices outside of this sampling plan if they identify concerns related to their specific grant or the community health board.

Every five years, MDH enters into a master grant contract with all community health boards. There is no funding attached to this contract; it serves as the legal foundation for subsequent grant project agreements with community health boards for all MDH grant program funding.

The current master grant contract expires on December 31, 2024. The master grant contract was amended in 2016 to address changes in federal auditing requirements.

Sample master grant contract with current amendment language: Minnesota Department of Health master grant contract for community health boards - sample (PDF)