Grants.gov: One Stop for Federal Grants

Grants.gov, the central source for Federal funding information and applications, provides access to grant opportunities offered by the 26 Federal grant-making agencies. There are more than 900 grant programs offered by these agencies in 21 categories, including community development, health, housing, and disaster prevention and relief.

According to Grants.gov staff, nearly 4,000 grant-seeking organizations have already registered at the site, and more than 900,000 grant-opportunity notices are distributed by e-mail each week. On any given day, Grants.gov provides access to more than 2,000 active grant-opportunity notices. And thus far, more than 2,400 grant applications have been submitted.

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How Grants.gov Works

Anyone can access the Grants.gov Web site, search and review grant-opportunity notices, and sign up for weekly e-mail alerts.

To submit an application, applicants follow a four-step process, which usually takes about 3 to 5 business days and includes registering with the Central Contractor Registry. Marge Jacobsohn, the point of contact on Grants.gov issues at SAMHSA’s Office of Program Services, cautions against waiting until the last minute. “If any single step gets delayed, the whole process will be held up. It’s best to register as soon as possible.”

Applicants register at Grants.gov only once. After that, they can access and apply for any available grant.

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Navigating Grants.gov

From every page of the Grants.gov Web site, visitors can get online help. Special features such as “Find Grant Opportunities” and “Apply for Grants” are always available, and each section has many other features to support applicants in their search and application process.

All forms requiring signatures must be submitted in hard copy. For SAMHSA grants, for example, forms are submitted to the SAMHSA grant review office. An additional 5 days after the grant deadline is allowed for mailing in hard copies of signed forms—provided those forms were submitted electronically prior to the deadline.

Grants.gov is one of several Federal E-Government initiatives designed to improve access to Government services through the Internet. Grant application processes are now standardized across all agencies.

The SAMHSA Web site still provides full descriptions of the Agency’s grant opportunities and awards at www.samhsa.gov. For Fiscal Year 2005, the majority of SAMHSA’s discretionary grant programs can be submitted through Grants.gov. For Fiscal Year 2006, SAMHSA plans to offer continuation grant applications as well.

For more information about Grants.gov, including materials from a recent Web cast, visit the site at www.grants.gov. 

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