Federal Grants
Grants.gov
This URL is the most important site for anyone seeking a federal grant. On the site you will find the following:
- A listing of all upcoming grant competitions from every federal agency, each accompanied by a full application and a corresponding set of instructions.
- A portal for submitting proposals. Today, at least 95% of federal proposals must be uploaded to grants.gov for submission. Paper applications are a thing of the past.
- A listing of proposals that have been selected for funding, usually accompanied by abstracts and occasionally by full proposals that have been redacted to remove proprietary intellectual property.
- Contact information for each department and program.
- A brand-new feature is an official grants.gov blog.
- As this site is both essential for anyone seeking a federal grant, and difficult to navigate, it is worth spending some time familiarizing yourself with it before the pressure is on to write a proposal.
Ed.gov
Most grantmaking federal agencies, in addition to posting requests for proposals (RFP) on grants.gov, have departmental websites with additional information. Ed.gov, the Department of Education website, is one of those. Features not found on grants.gov are:
- A detailed listing of all authorized programs, even those without current appropriations or competitions.
- A “forecast,” with the estimated opening and closing dates of all competitions scheduled for the coming year. This can give you a jump-start on writing your proposal, as the typical 30-day window between the official announcement and the deadline may be insufficient to prepare a high quality, competitive proposal.
Other agency-specific websites are: