STOP Match Waiver Request

States may petition the Office on Violence Against Women for a waiver of match if they are able to adequately demonstrate financial need.

• Waiver:
  • States may apply for full or partial waivers of match by submitting specific documentation of financial need. Documentation must include the following:
    • The sources of non-federal funds available to the state for match and the amount available from each source, including in-kind match and match provided by subgrantees or other entities;
    • Efforts made by the state to obtain the matching funds, including, if applicable, letters from other state agencies stating that the funds available from such agencies may not be used for match;
    • The specific dollar amount or percentage waiver that is requested;
    • Cause and extent of the constraints on projected ability to raise violence against women program matching funds and changed circumstances that make past sources of match unavailable; and
    • If applicable, specific evidence of economic distress, such as documentation of double-digit unemployment rates or designation as a Federal Emergency Management Agency-designated disaster area.
    • In a request for a partial waiver of match for a particular allocation, the state could provide letters from the entities under that allocation attesting to their financial hardship.
• Demonstration of ability to provide violence against women matching funds:
  • The state must demonstrate how the submitted documentation affects the state's ability to provide violence against women matching funds. For example, if a state shows that across the board budget cuts have directly reduced violence against women funding by 20 percent, that state would be considered for a 20 percent waiver, not a full waiver. Reductions in federal funds are not relevant to state match unless the state can show that the reduced federal funding directly reduced available state violence against women funds.