Glossary

Terms

Assistance Listing(formerly CFDA)

The catalog entry for a federal assistance program, with a number that identifies it. Useful because you can look up who else has been funded under the same number, which tells you more about your chances than the announcement does.Read more

Boilerplate

The reusable text about your organization, its history and its capability that appears in some form in every application. Not a criticism. Writing it properly once is among the highest-return hours in grant work.Read more

Budget-line funding

Winning grant money by being a line item in somebody else's proposal budget instead of by applying. The grants open to for-profits are crowded; almost nobody competes to be in other people's budgets. Named after Kim and Mauborgne's idea of competing where nobody else is.Read more

CAGE code(Commercial and Government Entity code)

An identifier assigned to entities doing business with the US government, issued as part of SAM.gov registration. Contracting officers use it to look you up.Read more

Capability statement

A one-page summary a government buyer uses to decide whether to talk to you: core competencies, past performance, differentiators, and the identifiers needed to verify you.Read more

CDFI(Community Development Financial Institution)

A lender certified to serve markets conventional finance underprices or ignores. Lends below market with more flexible terms, and frequently bundles in technical assistance.Read more

Closeout

The formal end of an award: final reports, final financial reconciliation, and the point after which your record retention obligation starts running.Read more

Cooperative agreement

A grant where the funding agency will be substantially involved in the work, not simply funding it. Read the involvement clause before deciding that suits you.Read more

Cost share(also called match)

The portion of total project cost you must supply from sources other than the funder. Frequently calculated against total project cost, not against the award, which makes it larger than people expect.Read more

De minimis indirect rate

A default overhead rate federal awards allow you to charge without negotiating one. Many small organizations do not know it exists and charge nothing, which quietly makes every grant they win cost them money.Read more

Direct costs

Costs attributable to the project itself: staff time on it, its materials, its travel.Read more

Donor-advised fund

An account held at a sponsoring organization from which a donor recommends grants. Not something you apply to. The route is the donor, and organizations lose real time writing to the sponsor.Read more

Fiscal sponsorship

An arrangement where an established nonprofit receives and administers grant money on behalf of a project that lacks its own tax-exempt status. A real legal relationship with a fee attached, not a workaround.Read more

FOA(Funding Opportunity Announcement)

The older term for a federal grant announcement, still used by some agencies. The same document as a NOFO.Read more

In-kind contribution

Non-cash value counted toward a match: volunteer time, donated space, donated equipment, a partner's staff time. Has to be documented at the time and valued on a defensible basis.Read more

Indirect costs

The cost of the organization existing at all: rent, accounting, IT, leadership attention. Real costs of doing the work, charged as a rate, not itemised.Read more

Letter of commitment

A partner stating specifically what they will contribute and what it is worth. Weighted far more heavily than a letter of support, which only says the project sounds worthwhile.Read more

Letter of inquiry(LOI)

A short screening document some foundations require before inviting a full proposal. It is a filter, and treating it as a compressed proposal is the usual way to fail it.Read more

Logic model

A diagram connecting inputs to activities to outputs to outcomes. Its real value is that filling it in exposes the step where your reasoning is thin.Read more

NAICS code(North American Industry Classification System)

The industry classification a government solicitation is filed under, and the basis for whether your business counts as small for a set-aside. The size standard varies by code.Read more

No-cost extension

More time to spend money already awarded, without more money. Usually granted readily when asked in good time, and reluctantly when asked in the last fortnight.Read more

NOFO(Notice of Funding Opportunity)

The current standard term for a federal grant announcement. Follows a standard section structure, which is why reading it out of order works.Read more

Outcomes

What changed as a result of the work. Distinct from outputs, and the thing review criteria almost always ask for.Read more

Outputs

What you did or produced: people served, sessions delivered, units built. Necessary and not sufficient.Read more

Period of performance

The window in which costs may be incurred under an award. Spending before it starts or after it ends is generally unallowable however sensible the spending was.Read more

PRI(Program-Related Investment)

A foundation deploying money as a loan, guarantee or equity investment instead of a grant, at below-market return, in service of its mission. Counts toward its distribution requirement, and it is one of the few routes foundation money reaches a for-profit company.Read more

Prime and subrecipient

The prime holds the award and the compliance obligation. A subrecipient carries out part of the work under it and inherits many of the same rules, which surprises organizations passing money to partners.Read more

Recoverable grant

A grant the recipient repays if the funded work succeeds, and frequently does not if it fails. Sits between a grant and a loan, and is used most in early-stage ventures and research with a commercial path. We do not track these: foundations describe them in filing text we do not parse.Read more

Responsiveness

In procurement, whether a bid met the stated requirements. A non-responsive bid is not scored at all, however good it is.Read more

RFI(Request for Information)

Market research by a government buyer. Awards nothing, and responding can shape how a future requirement is written, which is invisible to anyone watching only for open opportunities.Read more

RFP(Request for Proposals)

A procurement solicitation seeking bids to deliver something the buyer specified. Not a grant: you are a vendor, and proposing a better approach can make you non-responsive, not clever.Read more

SBIR(Small Business Innovation Research)

A federal program funding research and development at small businesses. Non-dilutive, the intellectual property stays with the company, and it runs in phases.Read more

Schedule I

The section of a Form 990 listing grants made to organizations, carrying the recipient's tax identification number. That identifier is why a match derived from Schedule I is exact, not approximate.Read more

Set-aside

A government contract reserved for a category of business: small, disadvantaged, veteran-owned, woman-owned, or HUBZone. A significant advantage if you qualify and a closed door if you do not.Read more

Single audit

A specific audit required of organizations spending above a federal threshold in a year. Costs money and management attention, so it belongs in planning before you pursue awards that cross the line.Read more

STTR(Small Business Technology Transfer)

SBIR's sibling, requiring a formal partnership with a research institution and setting minimum shares of the work for each side. The designed route out of a university.Read more

Supplanting

Using new grant money to replace funds you were already spending on the same thing instead of adding to them. Generally prohibited, and a real audit finding, not a technicality.Read more

Sustainability plan

How the work continues after this money stops. Answering it with “we will seek further grant funding” is what everyone does and what nobody scores well on.Read more

UEI(Unique Entity ID)

The identifier every federal application asks for, issued in SAM.gov. It replaced the DUNS number in 2022, so any guide sending you to Dun and Bradstreet for one is out of date.Read more

990-PF

The annual return a private foundation files. Lists every grant it made, its assets, its trustees, and whether it only funds organizations it selects itself. Carries no tax ID on the grant list, only names, which is why matches derived from it are approximate.Read more