6 Things to Know as an Individual Applicant Using Grants.gov

Individual applicants are those of you who are applying for a grant on your own—to receive it yourself to fulfill the requirements of the grant and not on behalf of an organization.

Here are 6 things to keep in mind as you’re searching and applying for federal grants.

#1 Register as an individual based on a funding opportunity number (FON). You can continue to use your account for other grant opportunities, but the initial registration process requires a FON.

#2 Most funding opportunities on Grants.gov are not for individuals. Most have eligibility requirements that only allow organizations to apply for the funding opportunity. You may be thinking: Okay…so how do I find a grant?

#3 To find grants that individuals are eligible for, filter your search by selecting the Individuals option under the Eligibility search criteria.

#4 Apply for a grant by creating a workspace. This provides a number of benefits, including access to online forms when they become available and saving time with the ability to reuse forms.

#5 Search for “fellowship” in the Keyword(s) field, then narrow the results by selecting Individuals (see #3). Fellowships are typically funding opportunities for an individual to work alongside a federal agency for a defined term. We can’t guarantee there are any currently available (grants are posted by different grant-making agencies, not Grants.gov), but these can be a great opportunity to apply to work with civil servants in advancing the agency’s public mission.

#6 If you don’t find the funding opportunity you were hoping for on Grants.gov, check out these blog articles about finding education grants or “grants” for house repairs. You can also use the Benefits Finder tool on Benefits.gov to search for other forms of federal financial assistance.