Navigating your Grant Search

In recent years, the government has established a single search portal for all federal grants. This site supplies all federal and most state opportunities in one location. Grants typically range anywhere from $50,000 to $100M.

The creator filled the site with helpful information; nevertheless, the site itself can be difficult to manage.  Overall, I have found this to be a great starting spot, which leads me to the direct program website.

Join the listservs to get summaries on numerous grant topics from the federal level daily or weekly to be on alert.

Keep in mind timing, typically federal grant moneys will not be disbursed for nearly a year from application entry.

After clicking “Search Grants” use the following tips to guide your searching adventure!

Steps to successful search on Grants.gov:

1.     Qualifiers

Use clickable qualifiers developed from your project outline.

Timeline for the next year or later: Mark Forecasted Applications for release dates within 6 months or less, or mark Posted for applications due within 90 days or less.

Eligibility: Who is the applicant? Get specific to narrow down your type of organization.

Categories: Check as many as you like.

Funding Agency: Can be tricky for selection, be careful not to over limit yourself.  For novice searchers, keep away from international projects or research studies unless you are part of higher education. Selecting one agency at a time can give you a general sense of what’s out there in a lesser volume and keep you more organized.

2.     Keywords

Try to keep Keywords to a minimum when first start, as the function is highly sensitive.

If you can learn to utilize the operators you will see a sharp improvement.

While using operators can be very helpful, they must be in the proper format to accurately portray your search. Some of my favorites include: “exact phrase” must be in quotations,  OR, AND, NOT should be capitalized

3.     Don’t Lose Track

Grant opportunities do not open in a separate page, so be sure to use the back button, otherwise you will be re-entering your qualifiers every time.

In order to copy the link to the grant opportunity, you must click link on the upper right hand corner after selecting a grant from the search table.  This you would then copy to your excel tracking list.

You can also export the data to excel in order to capture all synopsis features at once to skim results without worry about data loss. This is done from the main search table “export data.”

Also, printing the synopsis details from the main grant description page to pdf creates an easy way to ensure you are not missing or losing information on important grants.

Lastly, be sure to add forecasted due dates to your calendar and sign up for email updates, so you never miss out on that opportunity.

4.     MOST IMPORTANT! Download your application

Be sure to download the app instructions and applications package under related documents!

All-Star Tip: Upon finding a grant that fits, go directly to the website link to find the program information in an easier format, tips, program webinars, etc.