Further Reading — Chapter 19: Government Grants

Government programs, forms, and rules change with statute and administration. Treat this chapter as the durable structure and always verify current specifics at the source — Grants.gov, the specific agency's NOFO, and your state agencies. The most important reading for any government grant is always that NOFO, read as binding law.

Finding Opportunities (Federal and State)

  • Grants.gov. The central catalog of federal discretionary grant opportunities across agencies, plus the submission system. Learn its search, save-search, and Workspace features; set alerts for your program areas (Sections 19.1, 19.4).
  • Your state agencies' grant portals. Where much pass-through money lives — the state education department, health department, workforce board, justice/corrections agency, housing finance agency, and their procurement/grant systems. Map the ones that fund your work (Section 19.1, "Going Deeper").
  • SAM.gov. Federal entity registration and the Unique Entity ID (UEI) — required and annually renewed. Check and renew well ahead of any deadline (Section 19.4, and Chapter 15).
  • USAspending.gov. A public record of federal awards — useful for seeing who has received a given program's grants, at what sizes, which helps you judge fit and competition.

The Rules (Read These Before You Budget)

  • 2 CFR Part 200 — Uniform Guidance (ecfr.gov / your agency's implementation). The federal rules on allowable costs, procurement, financial management, audit, and reporting. You don't memorize it; you build to it and know where to look (Sections 19.4–19.6).
  • The specific NOFO and its agency's grant-policy guidance. The single most important reading: the binding rules, eligibility, rubric, required forms, and reporting for your competition. Agencies (ED, HHS agencies, DOL, DOJ/OJP, USDA, HUD) also publish program- and agency-specific application guides.
  • Single Audit (Uniform Guidance, Subpart F) resources. What triggers the Single Audit and what it entails — essential for any organization expending significant federal funds (Section 19.6).

Forms and Package

  • The SF-424 family of forms (on Grants.gov). The standard federal application forms, including the SF-424A budget form for non-construction projects. Learn the forms your program requires (Section 19.5).
  • Your institution's sponsored-programs / grants office procedures. If you have one, its internal deadlines and routing govern your real timeline; if you don't, identify who owns the budget, registrations, and authorized-representative signature (Section 19.5, Best Practice; Chapter 4).

On Writing to the Rubric and Reviewing

  • Chapter 3 of this book (Finding the Right Funder). The scorecard/weighting method and "read the announcement twice" discipline that this chapter makes central — re-read it as the foundation for writing to the rubric.
  • Chapter 15 (Assembling and Submitting). Compliance, SAM.gov/Grants.gov, the registration trap, and the desk-rejection reality — the binary gates in operational detail.
  • Becoming a grant reviewer. Many agencies and states recruit peer reviewers for their competitions. Serving as a reviewer is the single best way to internalize how rubric scoring actually works — you see firsthand why writing to the points wins.

On Compliance Capacity and Post-Award

  • Chapter 13 (Organizational Capacity). For government grants, capacity must include the capacity to manage the award; re-read it through a compliance lens.
  • Chapter 26 (Managing the Grant After You Win). The post-award world — reporting, financial management, monitoring, and audit — developed in full; the natural sequel to this chapter.
  • Federal agency grants-management and grantee resources. Many agencies publish grantee handbooks and post-award guidance; read your funder's before (not after) you accept an award.

Connections Within This Book

  • Chapter 18 (Foundation Grants). The opposite pole — read the two together for the contrast that clarifies both (the foundation-vs-government table in Section 19.7).
  • Chapters 11–12 (Budget; Budget Justification). The cost principles that 2 CFR 200 codifies for federal awards.
  • Chapter 20 (SBIR/STTR). The hybrid that follows — government money with a commercialization test.

A note on secondary sources

Consultants, training firms, and state nonprofit associations offer valuable government-grants training and sample materials. Use them — but the chapter's core caution holds: no general guide substitutes for the specific NOFO and the current rules. Reconcile all advice against the binding announcement in front of you.