eLINK Guidance: Terminology | MN Board of Water, Soil Resources

Terminology	Description
Activity	An activity is an action (or group of actions) funded by a grant that is categorized by an Activity Category. Under each Activity, there may be multiple Activity Budgets and Activity Details.
Activity Budget	Each Activity contains at least one Activity Budget, or funding source. The Activity Budgets may represent funds provided by the Current State Grant, Federal, Landowner, or Other State Funds that are used to complete an Activity.
Activity Category	Activity categories are used to filter Activity Details in the system and to create summary reports of activities of a similar nature. Note: Not all categories are eligible activities for all grants.
Activity Details	Activity details are equivalent to best management practices (BMPs) Activity details capture information such as indicators and installed dates.
eLINK User Role	Determines different permissions Contacts > Contact and User Management > Contacts screen > eLINK User Role dropdown.
Grant	A grant is a single fiscal year of a fund awarded to a specific organization or a funded grant application. Many grants may be included within a single grant agreement. New Grant records are created and available to a grantee user after either a competitive application or RFI response is awarded or the unexecuted grant agreement for a formula grant is made available to the grantee. Active grants are available on the user’s Grants page. Closed grants can be found through a search on the Grants page when the “Include Closed Grants” button is checked.
User	A user is an individual who has access to view and/or modify information within eLINK. A user has access only to information related to the user and the user’s organization(s). A user may have access to Grants outside the user’s organization if assigned as a Team Member for the grant by a user within the grant recipient organization.
Team Member	Team members must be registered users within eLINK. They are automatically assigned to any Grants that are awarded to their Organization.
Results	Results Answers the questions: What have you completed to date under this Activity? What have you completed since the last report?
Grant Progress Report	The Grant Progress Report is a summary report of a single grant record that is automatically generated whenever a progress report is submitted by the user and added to the attachments of a grant record.
Practice	Methods and techniques for protecting, managing, and sustainably using natural resources like soil and water.
Source Type	e.g. Current State Grant, Landowner Fund, Federal Funds, etc.
Source Description	User-entered description of specific funding source, e.g. "Joe Landowner".
Expenditures	Captures individual expenditures under an Activity Budget
Action	Column label for action icons
Linking	Terminology used for associating new grant money with an Activity started under another grant. We ideally want this to be a more seamless process so the idea of “linking” becomes invisible/seamless to the user.
Work Plan	Work plans establish and organize a grantee’s goals, activities, timeline, budget, and proposed measurable outcomes/deliverables tied to the grant. BWSR uses the work plan as a grant monitoring tool to track the grant deliverables and grantee’s management of the grant funds. For most BWSR grants, a work plan is developed by the grantee after the grant is awarded and is approved by the BWSR grant manager prior to the execution of the grant agreement.
Generate Reports	Contains the following: Grant Progress Report Application Expenditures Report Returns Funds Report Work Plan Report
Funding Request	This feature is used to collect user-driven requests for funding for competitive grants.
Competitive	User-driven request for grants. Used at the Allocation level.
Formula Grants	Formula grants are awarded based on a distribution formula assigned to eligible entities using an allocation determined by a program’s authorizing legislation and/or the Board. These grants are generally used for activities of a continuing nature. Grant awards are ultimately approved by the BWSR Board directly or through delegation for staff authorization. Certain formula grant programs may include a request for interest (RFI) process that is used to verify interest in participation by an eligible entity and allow them to request an up-to amount.
Budget (Create Funding Opportunity screen)	Refers to amount for the Budget for the Proposed Activities.
Activity Budget (Manage activity screen)	Refers to funds allotted for a specific activity highlighting what is Spent, Unspent and Budgeted amounts. Source type of funding is also included e.g., Current State Grant etc.
Indicators	Used as pollution reduction estimates for a given practice. They are entered on the Activity Details page.
Progress Reporting [tab]	Narrative of progress to date and feature to submit the report for review.
Primary Grant Contact	The Primary Grant contact is the user that receives the eLINK system generated email(s) for each “individual” grant. There can be a different Primary Grant Contact on each “individual” grant if that is how the organization(s) wants to manage/monitor their grants. The Primary Grant Contact is updated by the grantee(s), not BWSR staff. This individual is the first point of contact for any questions regarding administration of a grant, including grant agreement execution, workplan development, and reporting. This person must be part of the organization under which the application or grant record is created.
Day-to-Day Contact (D2DC)	The Day-to-day contact (D2DC) is separate from the Primary Grant Contact and the D2DC can only be changed by internal BWSR staff. There can only be 1 D2DC per organization. The D2DC is the one person from the organization that receives the Grant Agreements via DocuSign.
RFI	Request for Interest. The process that is used to verify interest in participation by an eligible entity and allow them to request an up-to amount.
RFP	Request for Proposal. A notice of grant opportunity or request for proposal is a document that notifies grantseekers of a competitive grant opportunity and includes information on grant requirements, selection criteria, timelines, and process.
Grant Agreement	A written instrument or electronic document defining a legal relationship between a granting agency and a grantee when the principal purpose of the relationship is to transfer cash or something of value to the recipient to support a public purpose authorized by law.
Grant Agreement Amendment	An addition, deletion, or change to a fully executed grant agreement.
Executed Grant Agreement	A grant agreement that has been signed and dated by all parties.
Executed Date	The date of the last signature by all parties on an agreement. Except when provided by the individual grant program requirements, work may not begin under the grant agreement until it is fully executed.
Match	Services, materials, or cash contributed to the accomplishment of grant objectives. Specific programs may have stricter requirements for what may be used as match.
Allocation	An “Allocation” represents a grant program (which may or may not be reoccurring) for a specific fiscal year, under which individual grants are issued. When an allocation is established in the current system, a number of shared attributes for child grant records are established. This includes whether a grant is awarded competitively (through a Request for Proposals), awarded through a Request for Interest (RFI), or awarded noncompetitively; the match requirements, and flags for whether it will be pulled into certain queries. There is a Statute and Appropriation Citation drop down (accordion menu) with two fields for Legal Citation & Appropriation Language.
LCC Reporting	Legislative Coordinating Commission. A legislative requirement to report how many grants that are awarded with Clean Water Fund money and what they have achieved.