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Understanding Government Grants

Understanding the language used to define types of government grants and where those funds are targeted is an integral part of determining the existence of, and one's eligibility for, any particular grant.

Need help finding grant programs through the Internet? Learn about the Government Grant Internet Resource.

The Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR) reports that in 2006, the Federal government spent $494 billion dollars on grants. This number includes grants to nongovernmental recipients, individuals, Federal agencies and payments to state and local governments for grant programs.

Helpful in understand government grants are two reports, the Consolidated Federal Funds Report and the Federal Aid to States report, as well as the Federal Assistance Award Data System.

The Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR)

The CFFR report combines two grant categories defined by The Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) and four grants categories in The Federal Assistance Award Data System (FAADS). 

The CFDA includes:

1) Formula Grants

‘‘Allocations of money to states or their subdivisions in accordance with a distribution formula prescribed by law or administrative regulation, for activities of a continuing nature not confined to a specific program.’’

2) Project Grants

‘‘The funding, for fixed or known periods, of specific projects or the delivery of specific services or products without liability for damages for failure to perform." This category includes such grants as training grants, scholarships, construction grants, among many others.

The Federal Assistance Award Data System (FAADS)

The FAADS further divides the above two categories into four and includes:

Formula Grants:

1) Block Grants

2) Formula Grants

Project Grants:

1) Project Grants

2) Cooperative Agreements

The Federal Aid to States Report (FAS)

The Federal Aid to States (FAS) Reportis an excellent resource for those tracking down Federal grant money that ends up at the state and local level. The FAS report tracks the actual federal grant dollars that are provided to state and local governments, by both agency and program. This is different than the CFFR, in that the federal grant monies represented include both grant obligations (not necessarily monetary outlays) and grant to nongovernmental recipients (such as pension and disability).

These reports are extremely useful for those wanting to track Federal government grants down to the local level.

How these federal grant dollars are awarded at the state level differs depending on the state in question. However, every state is required by the Federal government to track it's spending of grant monies and each state will have it's own reporting system for how and on what programs these grants are spent.

An individual can track this information on the state and local level by contacting their state and local governments and often, by carefully reviewing the corresponding websites available and the information they provide. This information is public and should be available upon request.

A comprehensive understanding of the grant programs through which state and local governments are awarding grant money is the key to finding what programs and grants are available to an individual. Only then can a person truly understand what funding is available to them, whether it be for a small business or other aspect of life and living.