Demystifying Funding Opportunity Announcements on Grants.gov
Excerpted from Grants.gov blog posted on April 2, 2018
Grants.gov has developed the following tips to help applicants (especially those new to the federal grant application process) demystify Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) and position themselves for a solid submission:
- Read the FOA’s eligibility requirements carefully. You do not want to spend time on an application only to realize later that you are not eligible to apply.
- If you are eligible, read the full FOA carefully before applying. It is important to identify all requirements listed in the FOA near the beginning of the process. Planning and completing a grant application is a lot of work, and it can be easy to overlook little details.
- Preview the forms that you will need to fill out, including any optional ones that might require extra work or file attachments. Identify information or agreements you need that will take a while to track down.
- Write down the agency contact listed in the FOA. You may want to establish a line of communication early in the process so that if you have any program-related questions you can quickly reach out.
- Finish and submit your application at least 24 – 48 hours before the deadline. This will allow time to fix errors if any are encountered when you click submit. Don’t miss a grant opportunity because you waited too long or tried to squeeze in a few last-minute changes.
