When To Use In-Kind Matching

A lot of internet service providers (ISPs) that seek grant money take advantage of in-kind matching rules. In-kind contributions recognize non-cash benefits of property, goods, or services that will benefit a grant project. Many grant programs allow in-kind matches to be used in calculating the matching funds being provided by a grant applicant. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant process explicitly allows for in-kind matches, but in-kind matching does not automatically help a grant applicant, and in some cases, it can make it harder to win a grant. The bottom line is that in-kind matching could be a detriment in a BEAD grant application. But this depends on the specific state grant scoring. In-kind can help if a state focuses on the percent of ISP matching and can hurt if the state focuses on cost per passing.