Grant Agreement Amendments and Work Plan Revisions

Procedure is required action to be followed: Procedure is the established way of doing something; a series of actions conducted in a certain order; and/or steps necessary to meet the terms of a grant agreement.

Guidance is supporting information or recommended action: Guidance consists of recommended best practices; helpful context; and/or tools, resources and examples.

Effective Date: 7/1/2025
Applies to grants executed on and after July 1, 2025. See archived Grants Administration Manual for grants executed prior to July 1, 2025.

The content of a grant work plan and terms of a grant agreement may be adjusted under certain circumstances. Depending on the scope, adjustments can be made through a work plan revision or grant agreement amendment. Limited adjustments to the work plan budget may be made at grantee discretion, depending upon the amount of change requested. 

The scope of the proposed changes will guide the approval process and documentation needed. BWSR reserves the right to require documentation for approval of any work plan changes.

Work plan budget adjustments are cumulative. For some grant programs, such as DRAP, a work plan budget may consist of a BWSR approved project list. Grantees are allowed to adjust their grant work plan budgets by up to 10% of the grant award amount at their own discretion without BWSR Grant Manager approval. Cumulative budget adjustments of greater than 10% of the grant award amount require a work plan revision approved by BWSR. See work plan revision procedure section below for more information on timing of revisions requests. An approved work plan revision creates a new work plan so past budget adjustments are “reset” at that point. The necessary changes to a work plan to facilitate the “linking” of activities from other BWSR grants are not counted as budget adjustments.

A grant agreement amendment is required for any changes in the scope of the grant (ex. change to the resource or water body of concern or significant change in the originally proposed grant outcomes from the grant application and/or approved work plan). The grantee must contact their Grant Manager to discuss all proposed changes to the work plan to determine if a grant agreement amendment is required.

Required information to process requests

Grantees need to consult their Grant Manager to verify whether proposed changes require a work plan revision or grant agreement amendment. Requests must include the following:

• The fiscal year and grant name;
• eLINK activity name(s), if applicable;
• The purpose and extent of the request; i.e., extension to the grant period, change to an approved budget amount, or a modification to the project;
• Explain why the current work plan or grant agreement cannot be completed as approved, in consideration of the “Criteria for requests” section of this chapter;
• Describe how the work plan revision or grant agreement amendment will affect the originally proposed grant activities and/or outcomes which will be achieved; and
• A brief narrative of the new grant activities proposed, if applicable.

Grantee discretion revision procedure

The grantee has discretion to make cumulative work plan budget adjustments by up to 10% of the grant award amount without BWSR approval, as long as the changes do not impact the scope of the grant. Documentation of the changes made must be reflected in the grant reporting within eLINK. 

Work plan revision procedure

Changes to an approved work plan which require BWSR work plan revision approval include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Cumulative work plan budget adjustments of greater than 10% of the grant award amount.

• A change to the work plan activities that is not considered a change in scope of the grant by the Grant Manager.

When proposing a revision to the work plan, the grantee must ensure that all costs be incurred within the grant period. Approval of work plan revision requests must be obtained from BWSR prior to the expiration of the grant agreement. If time sensitivity does not allow for a grantee to seek preapproval of a revision to the work plan, the grantee must retroactively request and receive BWSR approval within 30 days of the grant expiration date. If approval is not granted by BWSR, the grantee must follow the current work plan and is responsible for unapproved, incurred costs.

The procedure to revise a work plan is as follows:

1. The grantee should consult the Grant Manager for guidance as early as possible after the need for a potential work plan revision is identified.
2. The grantee must provide a written request to their Grant Manager. See the “Criteria for requests” and “Required information to process requests” sections of this chapter.
3. BWSR staff will review the request and select from the following:
   1. If the request is approved, the Grant Manager will provide approval distributed via eLINK to the grantee. See the paragraph above regarding the necessary timing of approvals.
   2. If the request is denied, the Grant Manager will provide documentation of the denial distributed via eLINK to the grantee.
4. Following approval by the Grant Manager distributed via eLINK, the grantee may begin utilizing the revised work plan.

Insufficient eLINK documentation of spending shifts or deviations from these procedures will delay grant payments, report approvals, and grant closeouts.

Grant agreement amendment procedure

Changes that require an amendment to the grant agreement include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Changes in the scope of the grant or significant changes in the originally proposed grant outcomes from the grant application and/or approved work plan. BWSR reserves the right to require a grant agreement amendment based on any proposed changes.

• Extension to the grant period.

• Changes to the grant awarded amount or payment schedule.

• Changes to the fiscal agent for the grantee.

All grant agreement amendments must be finalized prior to the expiration of the grant agreement. Be sure to submit requests to BWSR three to six months prior to grant expiration. Grant agreement amendment requests received after the expiration of the grant agreement must be denied.

Figure 1: Grantee steps for requesting a grant agreement amendment

The procedure to submit a grant agreement amendment request is as follows:

1. The grantee should consult the Grant Manager as early as possible for guidance and at least 3-6 months prior to the end of the grant agreement.
2. The grantee must provide a written request for a grant agreement amendment to the Grant Manager. See the “Criteria for requests” and “Required information to process requests” sections of this chapter.
3. If submitted with sufficient time for review, BWSR staff will review the grant agreement amendment request and select from the following:
   1. If the request is approved, BWSR staff will generate an official grant agreement amendment document distributed via eLINK and DocuSign for grantee Board review and approval. The document is required to have a grantee Official Signature. All signatures on the grant agreement amendment must be obtained prior to expiration of the grant agreement.
   2. If the request is denied, BWSR staff will provide documentation of the denial distributed via eLINK to the grantee.
4. Once the grant agreement amendment has been completed and signed by the grantee, the signed document is returned to BWSR for processing via DocuSign.
5. The fully executed grant agreement amendment will be uploaded by BWSR St. Paul staff into the eLINK “Attachments” section for the grant.

Criteria for requests

The criteria BWSR staff uses to consider requested changes to the work plan and/or grant agreement include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Project delays due to inclement weather, contractor pullout, staff vacancies/illness, unanticipated landowner situations or changes, timelines associated with additional project funding sources, or other circumstances beyond the grantee’s control.
• Unanticipated environmental conditions which require a project modification, such as unexpected soil conditions or circumstances not part of the preliminary design of the project.
• Whether the requested change continues to fit the original intent of the grant. For example, adjusted project meets the eligibility requirements of the funding source, outcomes and activities are similar to the original project, life expectancy of the project is substantially the same or greater, etc.
• Cost changes from originally approved budgeted amounts such as shifts in spending from originally approved budget including match. Work plan budget adjustments are cumulative.
• Resource of concern changes from the original targeted project work plan resource of concern.
• Pollutant of concern changes from the original targeted project work plan pollutant of concern.
• Match expenditure changes which will substantially change the activities and outcomes.