Methodology & Data Sources

Data Source

All program data comes directly from SAM.gov Assistance Listings (formerly the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, or CFDA), the official U.S. government database of all federal financial assistance programs. The Assistance Listings catalog is maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA) and is the authoritative registry that Congress, federal agencies, and the public use to identify and understand all federal grant, loan, cooperative agreement, and direct payment programs. Open funding opportunity announcements (deadlines, award ceilings, and expected award counts) are ingested from Grants.gov, the federal government's central grant-application portal. Each listing is created and maintained by the administering federal agency, with updates published continuously as programs are created, modified, funded, or discontinued.

Coverage

PlainGrants covers federal grant and assistance programs across all major funding agencies, from USDA, HHS, and the Department of Education to DOE, DOJ, NSF, EPA, and dozens of smaller agencies. Programs are organized by eligibility type (who can apply), program category (what the funding supports), assistance type (grants, cooperative agreements, direct payments, loans), and administering agency. The database spans the full range of federal financial assistance: research grants, formula grants to state and local governments, project grants to nonprofits, direct payments to individuals, and loan guarantee programs.

Processing Pipeline

1. Assistance Listings catalog data is downloaded from SAM.gov via the public bulk data download, which includes the complete set of active and recently closed program records.
2. Program records are parsed to extract the CFDA number (XX.XXX format), program title, description, funding type, stated objectives, and authorization citations.
3. Eligibility categories are normalized using SAM.gov's standard applicant type codes: nonprofits (501(c)(3) and other tax-exempt organizations), for-profit small businesses, individuals, state governments, county and municipal governments, tribal governments, educational institutions, and special district governments.
4. Funding range data is extracted where reported by the agency, including minimum and maximum award amounts and total program appropriation.
5. Each program is associated with its administering federal agency and any parent department, enabling browsing by agency hierarchy.
6. Assistance type classification is preserved: project grants, formula grants, cooperative agreements, direct payments, guaranteed or insured loans, and direct loans.
7. All data is loaded into a structured SQLite database with indexes on eligibility type, agency, category, and assistance type for fast filtering and search.

Data Currency and Update Frequency

SAM.gov Assistance Listings is updated continuously by federal agencies as programs are created, modified, or closed. New programs may be added when Congress passes appropriations bills or authorizing legislation, and existing programs are updated when agencies change eligibility criteria or funding levels. PlainGrants refreshes its database periodically to incorporate these changes. Because program details can change at any time, users should always verify current program information on the official SAM.gov listing page before investing time in an application.

Accuracy Commitment

PlainGrants reproduces SAM.gov Assistance Listings data exactly as published by the administering federal agencies. Program titles, descriptions, eligibility criteria, and funding information are presented without editorial modification. When a program listing is incomplete or lacks funding data, this is displayed transparently rather than estimated.

Corpus placement

Entity pages lead with a computed corpus-relative placement so each agency, category, and program page states where that entity sits in the PlainGrants catalog, not only what the source record says about itself. Ordinals are deterministic SQL ROW_NUMBER() ranks over the live SQLite database:

• Agencies: program_count DESC, slug ASC, matching the /agencies listing order.
• Categories: program_count DESC, slug ASC, matching the /categories listing order.
• Programs (national + in-agency): indexed Grants.gov opportunity_count DESC, cfda_slug ASC among active programs. /grants and /directory browse alphabetically; this activity ordinal is the analytical placement basis (aligned with the most_active_programs ranking).
• Programs (in-category): listed funding_range_high DESC, cfda_slug ASC, matching the category detail program list.

Placement text uses the ETS according-to pattern ("According to [source], [entity] ranks #N of M"). Ties break on slug so two equal values never share a rank. Ranks are catalog-relative discovery aids, not federal award scores or recommendations.

Editorial Workflow

PlainGrants combines direct data feeds with human-written editorial content. Program and opportunity data from the SAM.gov Assistance Listings and Grants.gov is loaded directly from the source, every number, funding range, and date on a data page is rendered straight from that official source, never invented, estimated, or interpolated. The guides, category commentary, and methodology writeups are written and edited by the PlainGrants editorial process. We do not accept payment for coverage, placement, or rankings: program listings and rankings are derived mechanically from the official federal catalogs. When we find an error, we correct it at the data source and re-publish.

Limitations

• Program availability, eligibility requirements, and funding levels change frequently as Congress appropriates funds and agencies revise program rules, always verify current details with the administering agency.
• Funding range data is self-reported by agencies and may be incomplete, outdated, or reflect historical award amounts rather than current funding availability.
• PlainGrants is a discovery and research tool only, we do not provide application assistance, submit applications, or guarantee eligibility for any program.
• Some programs require pre-registration in SAM.gov (including obtaining a Unique Entity ID) before an application can be submitted. Always verify registration requirements.
• PlainGrants is not affiliated with GSA, SAM.gov, or any federal agency.

Frequently Asked Questions

Data licensing and reuse

PlainGrants publishes federal assistance-listing facts from SAM.gov and Grants.gov. Our own compiled aggregates (national program counts, agency and category rollups, corpus-relative ranks on entity pages, and the figures on /statistics) are dedicated to the public domain under CC0. Reuse requires no permission; attribution to PlainGrants and the named federal source is appreciated.

Productized today (readiness only, not a launch):

• Stable national headline figures on /statistics with section anchors and a vintage stamp.
• Packaged CSV download at /data/grant-catalog-statistics.csv (catalog extract statistics, not row-level SAM.gov dumps).
• Dataset JSON-LD plus per-page Cite this page blocks on data pages (program, agency, category, statistics, methodology, and selected browse hubs).
• Per-entity Open Graph chart cards on grant and agency detail pages (self-hosted PNG, no third-party image hosts).

There is currently no public REST API beyond the on-page Dataset markup and the statistics CSV above. Bulk SAM.gov extracts remain available from the official publisher; PlainGrants does not repackage full Assistance Listings rows for download.

PlainGrants is queued for Google AdSense review (GETTING_READY as of September 2026). Any future non-ad revenue would need the same trust bar as the registry content:

• Affiliate or sponsored units must be clearly labeled, never blended with SAM.gov-sourced figures, and never placed adjacent to eligibility, application-deadline, or “how to apply” guidance (Module 36 density ceilings shared with display ads).
• Data-licensing or API products would require separate terms, pricing, and attribution rules before activation; nothing here constitutes an offer.
• Alternative ad networks (for example Media.net or Mediavine Journey): paperwork readiness only. Journey requires roughly 1,000 real sessions per 28-day window; PlainGrants’ measured traffic is not there yet on either Google or Bing. Switching networks is an operator decision after approval and traffic thresholds are met.

This section documents readiness only. PlainGrants does not currently run affiliate links, paid placements, or a paid data API. All activation steps remain [operator].

Corrections & data issues

If a figure on PlainGrants looks wrong, tell us. Every data page links to a prefilled report a data issue form that carries the page URL so we can verify it against the official SAM.gov listing or Grants.gov opportunity. We aim to respond to correction reports within three business days, verify against the named federal source, fix errors at the data layer when the fault is ours, and note upstream limitations when the official record itself is incomplete.

The full step-by-step process, independence rules, and expected turnaround are on our editorial & corrections policy. Material refreshes and corrections we apply are logged on the public data changelog with dates corroborated by repository commits or database metadata; nothing is backfilled.

Contact

Questions about our methodology? Contact us.