What Is a Grant?

Posted on February 7, 2017 by Grants.gov

A grant is one of the government’s tools for funding ideas and projects to provide public services, stimulate the economy, and benefit the general public. Grants can be awarded for a wide-variety of activities, such as innovative research, recovery initiatives, infrastructure building, or any of the other hundreds of funding programs in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA).Image Removed

Examples of U.S. federal grant programs include those that support justice and law enforcement, social services and health research, and research in science and technology.

The process of successfully serving the public through grants, though, can be quite complex. Grant programs originate from laws, and then are administered by the appropriate federal agency. For example:

• The Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 was signed into law
• Per the law, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must administer the National Food Safety Training, Education, Extension, Outreach, and Technical Assistance Competitive Grants Program, which is CFDA 10.328
• USDA publishes funding opportunities on Grants.gov
• Eligible organizations submit applications
• USDA reviews applications and awards the grant
• Awardees (i.e., the grant recipients) implement the grant
• Many more post award activities occur, like reporting and closeout