MDCP Applicant Tools

Make Each Page Easily Legible

For textual documents like your project narrative, a 3/4-inch margin on either side and top and bottom, and the typeface should be no smaller than 11-point. Headers and footers can lie outside the margins. Pages that are not easily legible may be ignored by reviewers.

Page Limits

• Project Narrative form has built-in limits. If you choose not to use the form, the page limit is 10
• Budget “Narrative” and attachments
  • Budget worksheets: 10 pages
  • Financial statements: 20 pages
  • Attachments: 10 pages
• Forms: 10 pages

The page limits are not fungible. Over-limit pages from one part cannot take the place of under-limit pages from another. For example, if an applicant has 8 pages of financial statements, 12 less than the limit, it is not allowed to apply these 12 pages toward other parts of the application. 

Each page counts towards the limit including cover pages. Omit irrelevant pages from financial statements, label the tops of pages instead of using cover pages, or omit reports and promotional brochures that are not necessary.

Public Release of Winning Applications and the Freedom of Information Act

ITA may make “winning” applications publicly available. This generally happens in response to requests from entities that wish to see examples of winning applications. Such requests are almost always made informally but may come pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Whether in response to an informal request or a FOIA request, ITA’s policy with regard to public disclosure of applicant information is the same. 

If your application contains information or data that you want to withhold from public disclosure: 

• Bracket information to be withheld from public disclosure with the words “LIMITED USE: BUSINESS IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION (BII) surrounded by brackets [] includes trade secrets, commercial, or financial information.”; and 
• Explain why the information should not be disclosed and mark each affected page to assist ITA in making disclosure determinations.  

Based on your bracketing, marking, and explanation, ITA will protect the confidentiality of the content of your application to the maximum extent permitted by law. 

If you receive an MDCP award and have claimed BII treatment for any of your application content, you will redact such content to create a public version that we can release upon request. 

1. Eligibility 
   No applicant may receive an MDCP award until it has first been found to be eligible.
2. Initial Review by ITA Staff  
   One or more ITA staff reviews and comments on applications using the evaluation criteria. ITA staff prepare for the merit review panel a review packet including the applications and reviewer comments.
   The initial review and program area comments afford the merit review panel the insights and breadth of experience of ITA professionals; however, the merit review panel is free to consider or disregard these comments as it sees fit.
   As part of its review, ITA may need to contact an applicant to verify technical details such as budget information or to resolve discrepancies between information formatted through grants.gov utilities and information included in attachments that were not formatted through grants.gov utilities. Applicants should not perceive that such contact from ITA means they will be selected to receive MDCP. ITA does not handle award notices.
3. ITA Program Area Review
   Relevant program areas, within I&A and GM, can review the submitted applications. These reviewers provide comments based on the evaluation criteria. This allows experts in the industry sector or geographical region to assess applicant claims.
   These reviewers provide insights into both the potential benefits and the possible difficulties associated with the applications. However, the merit review panel is free to consider or disregard the program area review comments as it sees fit. 
4. ITA Merit Review Panel
   The MDCP Director forwards all eligible applications, along with all related materials, to the merit review panel of at least three senior ITA managers. This panel is chaired by the OIE Director. The panel includes one other I&A member and at least one GM member. At their discretion, the selecting official may ask GM to designate two panel members, instead of one. If GM designates two panel members upon request, one must be from the ranks of GM’s CS unit, and one from outside CS. 
   ITA Merit Panel Scoring
   The MDCP Director gives the merit review panel comments generated from the program area review and the initial review. Each merit review panel member reviews each eligible application and assigns a score for each of the eleven (11) evaluation criteria.
   ITA maintains the scores of each panel member for each application reviewed in its files for at least seven (7) years. ITA averages the individual criteria scores to determine the total score for each application. The panel assigns evaluation criteria scores which determine which applications are recommended for funding ranked by score. 
5. Ranked Recommendations
   The merit review panel ranks applications based on the panelists’ scores. The panel forwards top-ranked applications, those with the highest total scores, to the Assistant Secretary for Industry & Analysis and recommends which organizations should receive funding. The number of top-ranked applications will be large enough that the amount of funds requested will exceed the pool of funds available; therefore, funding will not be available for all the top-ranked applications. The minimum number of top-ranked applications to be forwarded is 10. 
   The merit review panel’s recommendations will not deviate from the rank order. This means, for example, that the panel cannot recommend funding for the application ranked seventh without recommending funding for applications ranked first through sixth. The merit review panel recommendations include the panel’s written assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the top-ranked applications.

Cash Contributions

Cash contribution is a new outlay of your funds for project activity. MDCP award funds or any other federal funds are never part of cash contribution or any other portion of the match, nor are funds from any source other than you, the cooperator (MDCP award recipient). An in-kind contribution is not part of cash contribution. 

Third-party contributions cannot be counted as a cash match. However, if a third party transfers funds to you, the cooperator, without stipulation to use as you choose. Otherwise, expenditures for goods and services contributed by a third party are in-kind contributions. 

Match Requirements

You must contribute at least $1 for each federal dollar received. Half of this minimum contribution must be cash. In other words, of the total project cost, the federal share will be no more than 50%, at least 25% must be cash match, and the balance of the non-federal share (match) can be either cash or in-kind contribution.

You will need to demonstrate how you will meet match requirements.

Example 1: Matching funds are to come from cash on hand, so you refer to funds identified in your financial statements that will be the source.

Example 2: Matching funds are to come from a state or local government appropriation, so you provide an authoritative statement from the government that the amount of matching funds are or will be available. 

Pledged Support

If a significant source of cash or in-kind support is coming from any entity other than your organization, provide evidence that such support will be forthcoming if you receive an MDCP award.

Examples of evidence of such support include a letter from an official in a position to pledge support, line items in official budget documents, and public laws.

Public Official Letter of Support

Letters of support from public officials are welcome but are not required or expected. The exception is when a public official has pledged substantial financial or in-kind support for the proposed project. In this case, please include a letter of support.

1. Include the support letter as an attachment in your application.
2. Address the letter “To the MDCP Merit Review Panel:”
3. Do not include support letters from your local Commercial Service office or any other ITA officials. 

ITA officials have the opportunity to comment on applications as part of the review and selection process.

Financial Statements

Get a pdf of your most recent audited financial statements to include as an attachment as part of your application. At a minimum, these should include auditor notes, a balance sheet, and a statement of income or revenue. 

In this regard, note the following:

1. Include your attached financial statements in your MDCP application even if you recently provided them to ITA as part of an eligibility determination request.
2. If your organization is a sub-unit of an audited entity, in addition to the financial statements of the audited entity, provide financial statements at the most specific level available, whether or not these are audited. 
3. If your most recent financial statements are not audited, attach in your application the most recent unaudited financial statements and a statement indicating whether you have an auditor and when you plan to issue audited financial statements. 
4. Alternatives if you have no audited financial statements:
   1. Form 990 or your most recent federal tax filing 
   2. Pro-forma financial statements

Program Income

Any income generated by project activity must be used for project activity and claimed as a cash match.

You may be able to claim amounts firms participating in your project expend and count it as program income. For example, if you create a participation package for a project event where you arrange hotel accommodations, a joint pavilion, booth space, and reception then charge participating firms instead of having them make such arrangements and pay directly to the providers themselves, you claim it as program income, and cash match.  

When these firms pay you it is in recognition of the value you add by creating a project element of value. If these firms were to make all their own arrangements and pay the providers themselves, you could not claim the amounts as program income and match. Doing it themselves this way would not constitute the same acknowledgment of project value as when you do it. 

Previous MDCP Winners: Comparison of Projects

If you have ever received an MDCP award, you will need to include in your application a table comparing current or past MDCP projects to your proposed project. In your comparison table, include, for each project, prior or proposed:

1. Two to six major project elements 
2. A rough estimate of the dollar value in the project budget per element
3. Industry focus
4. Target market focus

List these so as to facilitate a comparison to judge the creativity of your proposed project with prior MDCP-supported projects.

Budget Summary Worksheet

The Budget Summary is a worksheet in ITA’s Budget Excel file. Data your enter in your Personnel, Non-Personnel Direct Expenses, and Benefits worksheets are summed in the Budget Summary.

From here, your budget information flows to populate an SF-424A worksheet. This worksheet is not a form recognized by grants.gov, but you can use the Excel worksheet to identify what numbers to put in which blanks in the official SF-424A that you will upload on grants.gov.

You are not required to use ITA’s Budget Excel file. But if try without using our Excel file, you will find it very difficult to try to figure out on your own which numbers go where on the SF-424A.

Personnel

The Personnel worksheet is in ITA’s Budget Excel file. Here, enter the compensation of employees, the percent of their time to be spent on MDCP project activity, and planned pay increases over the three to five-year project term. The summary is already set up on the worksheet and flows into the Budget Summary worksheet. 

Non-Personnel Direct

The Non-Personnel Direct worksheet is in ITA’s Budget Excel file. Enter all other expenses that directly result from project activity like travel, contractual expenses, and supplies. Build your planned expenses based on your work plan. For example, the name of the event, location, airfare, lodging, number of days, number of travelers, etc. Sums from this worksheet flow into the Budget Summary worksheet. 

For travel, you can base per diem costs on your organization’s own pre-existing policies or you can use the GSA per diem for domestic travel or the U.S. State Department per diem for international travel.

It may make sense for you to include a provision in your budget to pass on complementary services offered. Doing so will likely simplify the administration of your budget during a funded project. If you are, for example, planning to bring several firms to a trade show, you are likely to be offered “comp” hotel rooms. If this or any other type of comp is likely (e.g. familiarization tours), you should include a comp services provision in your budget. 

Include a Comp Services provision for each relevant activity in your budget. If, for example, you plan to bring company delegations to six trade shows where comp services may be offered to you, do the following on the six lines in your budget where you tally the cost of each trade show participation:

1. Include in the Non-Federal/In-Kind column the amount of likely comp services that you may be offered. 
2. In your description of the event on the row in your worksheet, note “Includes comp services that we plan to pass on to the federal project team for its support of our participation in the tradeshow”. (If other than a tradeshow, specify what the event is.)
3. In your description of the event, include the following note, which could be an asterisked note that applies to all comp services provisions:
   “If the comp service is not ultimately forthcoming, we will compensate by providing additional cash or in-kind match at least equal to the amount budgeted for comp services. In such case, the replacement for such budgeted comp services will come from _______ [“our cash on hand” or “program income” or whatever source makes sense for you].” 

Fringe Benefits

The fringe benefits worksheet is part of the budget summary worksheet. The example format shows how to find information from your financial accounting system and calculate a percentage that you can apply to your claimed personnel expenses.

ITA has an agency-approved 10%. The indirect cost rate is limited to the de minimis rate of 10%. Use this rate as you prepare your budget, even if you have a negotiated indirect cost rate with the Department of Commerce or any other cognizant agency. All MDCP applicants use the same 10% rate.

Indirect costs constitute part of the cash match. Indirect costs are included in the budget by multiplying the 10 percent indirect cost rate by the total direct costs of the project. Use the Excel budget summary worksheets, and you will see how the indirect cost rate is added to your match. You can also see the application of indirect costs in this simplified example.

The U.S. Commercial Service (CS) in ITA’s Global Markets business unit charges for several services that may make sense to include in your project work plan and budget. For example, through CS’s popular Gold Key Service, a company can get introduced to several potential foreign buyers likely to be interested in its goods or services.

You can use MDCP award funds to pay for any services you wish to include in your budget. You are in no way obligated to include such services. And you are free to use similar services offered by other vendors. Do what makes sense for your project. Find out more from your local U.S. Commercial Service office. 

ITA has created a full mock-up of each element of an MDCP application to serve as an example of what a complete application looks like. Use the documents below as a guide for creating your application.

Project Narrative

Appendices

Project Budget

Forms SF-424, SF-424A, SF-424B, and CD-511 are available on grants.gov. Include completed and signed forms in your application as well. (Note that the last two worksheets in the Budget excel file include guides to show which blanks in the SF-424 and SF-424A need to be completed.)​

Cooperator - A cooperator is an applicant organization that receives an MDCP financial assistance award. A cooperator is a “recipient” of federal financial assistance. Cooperator status is accorded for the term of the MDCP project period of performance. 

Cooperator Event - This term applies to an activity undertaken as part of an MDCP project.

CS International Office - Offices of Global Markets located outside of the United States are also known as Commercial Service posts or international offices and are based in U.S. embassies, consulates, and other locations abroad. Other locations abroad also include partner posts that the Commercial Services maintains through an active “partner post” program with the U.S. Department of State in countries and markets where the Commercial Service does not have its own operations. 

Current or Past Cooperator - An organization that has or previously had an MDCP financial assistance award is referred to as a current or past cooperator.

Domestic Field Office - Offices of Global Markets located in the United States are also known as Commercial Service domestic offices, CS domestic field offices, or simply U.S. field offices. They are also known as U.S. Export Assistance Centers (USEACs).

Educational Institutions - A cooperator must contribute at least $1 for each federal dollar received. Half of this minimum contribution must be cash. The rest, and any additional cooperator “match” can be either cash or an in-kind contribution. 

Federal Project Team Leader - A federal project team leader is an ITA employee who leads the federal project team, coordinates MDCP project activity with a cooperator, and serves as the cooperator’s primary point of contact with ITA. 

Fiscal Year - The fiscal year of the federal government is the twelve-month period from October 1 through September 30. 

Global Markets - Global Markets includes the U.S. Commercial Service (CS) and is the unit of ITA with domestic and international offices that promotes exports of goods and services from the United States, particularly by SMEs, advances and protects U.S. commercial interests overseas; and attracts inward investment into the United States. GM professionals support MDCP work by participating in federal project teams.

Goods and Services Produced in the United States - Goods and services produced in the United States must be either: 

• Produced or manufactured in the United States (of United States origin); or,
• If produced or manufactured outside of the United States, marketed under the name of a U.S. firm, and have U.S. content representing at least 51 percent of the product or service being exported. 

The cooperator must allow any U.S. firm selling goods or services produced in the United States to participate in MDCP project activity if such U.S. firm is a part of an industry that is a focus of such project activity. A cooperator organized to focus specifically on U.S. firms that are members of the cooperator’s organization in a particular geographic area in the United States may focus its MDCP project efforts on member firms or firms in the geographic area, however, such cooperator may not exclude a U.S. firm from participating because it is not a member or is not considered to be from the geographic area that is the focus of the cooperator.

Human Rights and ITA Assistance - ITA, consistent with broader U.S. government foreign policy to promote human rights throughout the world, will decline an export promotion, advocacy, and commercial diplomacy assistance when designated ITA staff determines that a product or service raises significant concerns about the potential for use or misuse to commit a gross violation of human rights or violation of civil and political rights by a foreign government or foreign government-sponsored private entities in the potential target market.

Industry & Analysis (I&A) - I&A is a unit of ITA that focuses on trade and competitiveness of U.S. industries from an industry perspective. I&A’s Assistant Secretary makes the final selection of MDCP award winners. Federal project teams are usually led by I&A industry specialists. For purposes of Grants Online coding and NOFO publication, Industry & Analysis is also referred to as “INA.”

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) - ITA’s official publication of an MDCP competition appears in the form of a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO). The complete NOFO is posted on grants.gov.

Office of Industry Engagement (OIE) - OIE is the I&A office that administers MDCP. 

Orientation - An online orientation will be held in October after MDCP awards are announced. ITA will notify selected award recipients of the details in September.

Priority Market - If ITA has foreign markets of particular interest, they are identified in the priorities section of the NOFO. You can also find information on the priorities you should address in your project on our frequently asked question page in the application section.

Project - A project is a series of activities proposed in an MDCP application or, after an MDCP award is made, in an amendment request, and approved by the Department, which occurs during the project period of performance. 

Recipient - A recipient is a cooperator, the applicant organization that receives an MDCP award.

Rural Businesses - Rural businesses are firms eligible to receive services from the U.S. Commercial Service (CS) through its Rural Export Center RAISE program. According to this definition, a rural business is one that is located more than 50 miles from the center of any of the top 100 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) measured by export value. The Top 100 MSAs are in dark and light blue in the map available here on the internet: https://www.trade.gov/ita-metropolitan-export-series. Based on this standard, most U.S. states have large areas where rural businesses are located. Such businesses are, therefore, RAISE-eligible. Under this definition, businesses located anywhere in North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, Montana, West Virginia, Wyoming, Maine, Vermont, Alaska, and Hawaii are RAISE-eligible and, therefore, are rural businesses.

Accordingly, any applicant that serves firms or proposes to focus project activities in service to any firms located in these states or other RAISE-eligible areas is considered to be proposing outreach to underserved firms. Learn more about RAISE eligibility.

To be clear, with regard to MDCP, RAISE eligibility is only a tool to determine whether or not an applicant serves rural businesses or is designing an MDCP project to serve rural businesses. Once an applicant is selected to receive an MDCP award, assistance is not limited to rural businesses. Firms that are not RAISE eligible may participate in and benefit from MDCP-supported projects.

Small- or Medium-size Enterprise (SME) - SMEs are U.S. firms with fewer than 500 employees. 

Target Market - An international market that an applicant identifies in its application as a focus of MDCP project activity is a target market. 

Team Meetings - A cooperator has regular conference calls and meetings with members of its federal project team. A federal project team leader usually requests and receives sufficient ITA administrative funds to pay for travel to the cooperator’s location for federal project team meetings every 12 to 18 months. A cooperator can make provision in its project budget to travel to Washington, D.C. for one or two meetings per project period of performance to meet with members of the federal project and to familiarize itself with resources available, both federal and non-federal. The first team meeting usually happens in conjunction with the MDCP orientation. 

Third-Party Contributions - A third party is an entity other than the cooperator or ITA. A third party’s direct expenditure for project activity is counted as an in-kind contribution. However, if the third party contributes funds to the cooperator, the funds are no longer those of the third party. They become the cooperator’s funds, which, when expended on project activity constitute cash contributions. 

United States Exporter - This term, which may appear abbreviated as “U.S. exporter” or simply as  “exporter,” means a: 

• U.S. citizen; 
• Corporation, partnership, or other association created under the laws of the United States or of any state within the United States; or 
• Foreign corporation, partnership, or other association, more than 95% of which is owned by persons described in either previously mentioned that export or seek to export, goods or services produced in the United States. 

United States Origin - In defining goods and services produced in the United States, “United States origin” describes goods or services produced in the United States that are: 

• Goods that are produced or manufactured in the United States, including technology and software; 
• Commodities of foreign origin that have been changed in the United States, including changes made in a U.S. Foreign Trade Zone, from the form in which they were imported, or that have been enhanced in value or improved in condition by further processing or manufacturing in the United States; or 
• Services that are provided: 
  • From the territory of the United States into the territory of another country; 
  • In the territory of the United States to a service consumer of another country; or 
  • By a United States service supplier, through the presence of United States natural persons in another country