How to apply for financial assistance

1. Learn

   • Federal financial assistance is a broad term to refer to the various ways the U.S. government redistributes resources to eligible recipients. On Grants.gov you will find financial assistance and cooperative agreement opportunities from federal agencies that award financial assistance.

2. Check

   • When considering eligibility, the first step is to know what type of organization you represent (or whether you are applying as an individual). If you already know whether you will apply on behalf of your organization or as an individual, then you are ready to check your eligibility.

3. Search

   • Awarding agencies prepare and publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) based on the related legislation and their budget.
   • A NOFO includes all the pertinent information and requirements for an applicant to assess their eligibility, competency, and interest in the funding opportunity. 

   • Click here to search for available NOAA notice of funding opportunities (NOFO).

4. Register

   • Register with Dun & Bradstreet at http://dnb.com offsite link (requires TIN from IRS and organization information). You will be issued a DUNS number.
   • All new applicants must register with the System for Award Management (SAM). This system combines federal procurement systems and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance into one system.
   • Before applying for a funding opportunity, you need to register an account with Grants.gov. Whether you are an applicant for an organization or an individual applying for financial assistance on your own, you only need to register one account on Grants.gov.

5. Apply

   • Financial assistance application forms contain copies of the federal forms currently used by awarding agencies to create financial assistance application packages in Grants.gov, forms for post-award reporting, and forms that have been retired from the system. These include both government-wide and agency-specific forms. Learn more on the Grants.gov website.

   • Financial Assistance Budget Guidelines

   • All applications must have a detailed budget and supporting budget narrative explaining and justifying the federal and non-federal expenditures. Click here to view the guidance.

6. Track

   • To track Grants.gov submissions, enter up to five Grants.gov tracking numbers, one per line and click the "Track" button. (Example format: GRANT99999999)

Please note, this only confirms that an application was successfully retrieved by the awarding agency. Thereafter in the process, the awarding agency reviews and processes the applications independent of Grants.gov, and they do not report the status to Grants.gov.

After successfully submitting the application through Grants.gov, you will be notified by NOAA Grants Online if you have been selected. 

For videos on Grants.gov and additional information on how to apply, please visit the Grants.gov YouTube page.