How to Pursue Federal Government Grants for Your Nonprofit

By Stan Hutton and Frances Phillips from Nonprofit Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition

To pursue government funds for your nonprofit organization, you should look at Grants.gov. Grants.gov only covers federal grant programs. If you’re seeking personal financial assistance, follow the links on the For Applicants page of Grants.gov.

The pros and cons of Grants.gov

The bad news about Grants.gov is that it’s written in bureaucratic language and the site has so much information that it can be overwhelming.

But, the bad news is far outweighed by the good: Grants.gov is the only source you’ll need for information about all federal grants. It incorporates more than 1,000 programs representing $500 billion in annual grant awards. After you get past the initial shock of wading through the overwhelming amount of information, the site is relatively easy to search.

The CFDA to supplement Grants.gov

Federal agencies provide 15 different kinds of funding, from “direct payments for specified use” and “insurance” and “loans” to “program grants.” For information about all 15 kinds of federal assistance, turn to another federal publication, the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA).

Grants.gov is good if grant support is what you’re seeking. It will be more tailored to your needs and, perhaps, less cumbersome. However, the CFDA website is a powerful tool that you also may want to use. The two use the same catalog numbering system to identify funding opportunities.

How to begin your search with Grants.gov

As you begin your search, you want to pay attention to whether your organization is eligible to apply to a particular program. Some kinds of federal grants are available only to state and local governments, federally recognized Indian tribal governments, and other specified groups — not necessarily nonprofit organizations. So pay attention to applicant eligibility as you read Grants.gov listings.

When opening the home page of Grants.gov, you’re invited to search by

Agency (which is useful if you know you’re interested in reviewing the programs offered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Department of Homeland Security, or another specific agency)
Categories (in other words, broad subject areas such as “environment” and “health”)
Keywords

When you’re ready to move beyond browsing, select Grants.gov’s Advanced Search page, which allows you to check on coming deadlines, confirm applicant eligibility, and search by funding category. If you happen to know the CFDA number for a specific program, you can enter it and — voilà — the program description will appear.

Grants.gov can tell you which agencies and offices manage the funds for different grant opportunities. After identifying federal programs of interest, experienced grant seekers usually call, write, or e-mail those offices to confirm the information. That’s because even though Grants.gov information is updated frequently, it also goes out of date quickly.