Federal Grants Directory

How the federal grant directory is organized

The U.S. federal government administers grant programs through the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA), maintained at SAM.gov. Each program receives a five-digit CFDA number (now formally renamed Assistance Listing Number) that identifies the awarding agency and the specific authorizing statute. PlainGrants mirrors that taxonomy so that researchers, applicants, and policy analysts can navigate the same way the federal government does. Every entry in this directory links to its CFDA reference, the agency's program office, and — when posted — the live Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on grants.gov.

Programs are grouped by both administering agency and CFDA functional category. The agency taxonomy is straightforward — every grant has exactly one awarding department or independent agency. The functional category taxonomy is broader and more useful for cross-cutting research: it groups programs by what they fund (health, education, housing, transportation, community development, environmental protection, etc.) regardless of which agency administers them. Both views are useful: agency-first when you know the funder, category-first when you know the policy goal but want to surface every program that addresses it.

Within each program detail page you will find: the official program title, CFDA number, administering agency, eligibility criteria (categorical — states, local governments, nonprofits, individuals, small businesses, etc.), funding history (where available), application window and deadlines, links to the most recent NOFO, and citations to the federal source. Where a program has been amended, sunsetted, or rolled into a successor program, we note the transition and link to the current active program. Sunsetted programs remain in the directory for historical reference but are flagged as inactive.

For most users, the most useful entry points are: (1) the alphabetical A-to-Z listing above when you know the program name; (2) the agency or category facets when you know the funder or policy domain; (3) the grant finder when you want to filter by eligibility (e.g., "small business + workforce development"); and (4) the live opportunities page when you want to see what is currently accepting applications. The directory complements rather than replaces grants.gov itself — for the most current NOFO text, deadline, and application package, always click through to the official source.