UX Contract › Help Center › Federal grants
How to apply for a federal grant, step by step
Federal agencies give out grants to pay for work that serves a public purpose: research, services, training, construction, conservation and much more. Unlike a contract, where the government buys something for itself, a grant funds your project. Every federal grant is announced on Grants.gov, applying is free, and this walkthrough goes through it in order.
Know who can apply
Each notice names its eligible applicants: state, county or city governments, tribal governments, school districts, colleges, nonprofits, small businesses, for-profit companies, or individuals. Many grants are only for organizations, and many that name nonprofits require 501(c)(3) status. Our grants search sorts every open grant by who can apply, so start with the page for your kind of organization: small businesses, nonprofits, cities and the rest.
Get registered, before you find the grant
Register your organization in SAM.gov
Same free registration as for contracts, and it gives you the Unique Entity ID (UEI) every grant application needs. Choose "all awards" when SAM.gov asks what the registration is for; it covers grants and contracts. Our SAM.gov walkthrough →
Create a Grants.gov account and add your organization
Sign in to Grants.gov with Login.gov, then add your organization using its UEI. The person named in SAM.gov as the E-Business point of contact approves who in your organization may submit applications (the Authorized Organization Representative).
Check the agency's own system
Some agencies take the application through their own system after you start it on Grants.gov: the National Institutes of Health use eRA Commons, the National Science Foundation uses Research.gov, the Department of Justice uses JustGrants. The notice says which, and those accounts take time too.
Read the notice
Open the full announcement
Every grant on our site links to its Grants.gov page, where the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) and attachments are. The NOFO is the rulebook for that grant: purpose, eligibility, what to submit, how it's scored and the deadline.
Check the money and the match
The award ceiling and floor, how many awards are expected, and whether cost sharing or matching is required, meaning you must put in money or in-kind effort of your own. We show all four on every grant page.
Find the review criteria
The NOFO lists what reviewers score and how many points each part is worth. Write to those criteria, in that order, with their words.
Note every deadline
The application deadline, and often earlier ones: a letter of intent, a question deadline, a webinar. Grants.gov deadlines are usually 5:00 PM Eastern on the due date unless the notice says otherwise.
Write and submit
Project narrative
What you'll do, why it matters, who it serves, how you'll measure it, and why your organization can deliver. Follow the page limits and formatting in the NOFO exactly; reviewers can decline to read pages past the limit.
Budget and budget justification
Every cost, in the categories the notice uses (personnel, fringe, travel, equipment, supplies, contractual, other, indirect), each one explained. Indirect costs follow your negotiated rate or the 15% de minimis rate if you don't have one.
The standard forms
Most applications use the SF-424 family of forms, filled in through Grants.gov's Workspace. Assurances and certifications are signed there too.
Submit early and keep the receipt
Submit at least a day or two before the deadline. Grants.gov sends a confirmation with a tracking number, then a second message when the agency has received it; keep both. A rejected submission can be corrected and resubmitted only before the deadline.
After you apply
| What happens | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Review | Panels score applications against the criteria; this often takes three to six months. |
| Award | A Notice of Award with the amount, period, terms and reporting schedule. Nothing is final until you have it. |
| Not funded | Ask for the reviewers' comments; many agencies share them, and they make the next application better. |
| Reporting | Progress and financial reports on the schedule in the award, and single audit rules once federal spending passes $1 million in a year. |
Ready? Find open federal grants, sorted by who can apply, with the deadline and award range on every one.
Sources: Grants.gov's applicant guidance (registration, Workspace, submission and tracking), 2 CFR 200 (the Uniform Guidance: budgets, the 15% de minimis indirect rate, single audit threshold), and SAM.gov's entity registration guide. Each notice sets its own rules; where it differs from this page, follow the notice.