Glosssary of Grant Terminology

Finding a grant for your business or project is difficult enough but grantors also have their own "language" of grant terms that you may not be familiar with, that can make the whole process even more confusing.

If you don't have a clear understanding of Grant Terminology - it will often be virtually impossible to comeplete the Grant Application Package correctly!

Budget period is an interval of time into which a project period is divided for budgetary purposes.

Budget narrative explains the budget. Explanations can include the derivation of amounts, the itemization of totals, the purpose of purchased supplies and services, and the justification of the size of salaries, fringe benefits, and indirect costs. Parameters and requirements for the budget narrative are usually included in the Application Package

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) lists all domestic assistance programs of the Federal Government. It includes information about a program's authorization, fiscal details, accomplishments, regulations, guidelines, eligibility requirements, information contacts, and application and award process. It is maintained by the General Services Administration in both a printed publication and a database. It can be found on the web at http://12.46.245.173/cfda/cfda.html.

Certification is a statement, signed by an applicant or grantee as a prerequisite for receiving Federal funds, that it meets or will adhere to certain conditions and/or will undertake or not undertake certain actions.

CFDA number is an identifying number for a Federal assistance program, composed of a unique two-digit prefix to identify the Federal agency (e.g., 10 for the Department of Agriculture), followed by a period and a unique three-digit code for each authorized program.

Competitive review process is used by a Grantor to select discretionary grant applications for funding, in which applications are scored by the Grantor’s criteria.

Deadline date is the date by which a discretionary grant application must be received by the Grantor in order for it to be considered for funding.