FEDERAL GRANTS

The Best Web Sites
During the past few years a concerted effort has been made to ease the flow of information pertaining to new grant opportunities. The following Web sites provide some of the easiest-to-use information. All are updated on a regular basis.

This is the primary grant site for the entire federal government. It covers 26 federal grant-making agencies with information on 800 grant programs. Five agencies (Health and Human Services, Commerce, Education, Energy, Justice) have the capability to accept on-line applications through this Web site. The major improvement from previous Web sites is the ability to generate customized e-mail notifications when new grant announcements are issued on a particular topic, or from a specific agency. This reduces the need to search Web sites on a regular basis.

The official web portal for the federal government is called FirstGov.gov. It has a comprehensive grants page that provides direct access to individual programs (e.g., Head Start or Refugee Resettlement), as well as to more general information about federal agencies and grant opportunities. In most cases, the information on this site will also be accessible through Grants.gov.

The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives has clustered federal grant opportunities by topic (e.g. at-risk youth or housing) as opposed to the traditional method of only listing grants by agency.

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance is the official posting notice for all federal grant opportunities. It is easier to navigate electronically than in hard copy and also has some useful information for people just getting started writing grants.

The Finance Project is a non-profit organization that has developed significant resources to help community leaders identify and understand how to use federal funding effectively, and how to access information about specific programs. The Finance Project has published federal funding guides targeted to leaders interested in funding programs and services in specific policy and program areas, including early care and education, out-of-school time, obesity prevention, workforce development, and substance abuse and mental health. These resources are available online and in published form.