How to read a funding announcement
How do I read a NOFO or funding announcement properly?
Read it out of order. Go to eligibility first, then to the deadline and any registration prerequisites, then to cost share, then to the review criteria, and only then to the program description. Most people read from the beginning, get interested, and discover on page 41 that they were never eligible. Federal announcements follow a standard section structure precisely so you can jump to the part that decides whether to continue.
Last reviewed 6 August 2026.
The order to read it in
Eligible applicants
Usually Section III. It states which entity types may apply, and it is frequently narrower than the program's name suggests. If you are not on the list, stop, and do not talk yourself into a reading where you might be.
Watch for: Sub-eligibility inside a category. "Nonprofits" sometimes means nonprofits with a specific designation, or ones operating in named geographies.
Deadline, and what has to exist before it
The submission date is the obvious part. The part that matters is whether you need an active SAM.gov registration, a portal account, a letter of intent submitted earlier, or a required pre-application. Any of those can make a deadline unreachable that looks reachable.
Cost share
Whether a match is required, whether it is calculated on the federal share or on total project cost, and whether in-kind counts. This is the number that decides feasibility for smaller organizations and it is rarely near the front.
Review criteria and their weights
Usually Section V. This is the marking scheme, published. A criterion worth 40 points deserves four times the attention of one worth 10, and proposals routinely allocate their effort in inverse proportion to the weights.
The trick worth using: Structure your narrative in the order of the review criteria, using their language as headings. A reviewer scoring against a rubric should never have to hunt for where you answered a criterion.
Program description, last
Now that you know you are eligible, can meet the deadline, can afford the match, and know how it will be scored, read what they actually want. Reading this first is what makes people fall for opportunities they cannot pursue.
The words, briefly
- NOFO, Notice of Funding Opportunity
- The current standard term for a federal grant announcement. What you are reading.
- FOA, Funding Opportunity Announcement
- The older term, still used by some agencies including the National Institutes of Health. The same document.
- RFP, RFQ, RFI
- Procurement, not assistance. A request for proposals wants a bid; a request for quotes wants a price; a request for information is market research and awards nothing. Answering an RFI as though it were an RFP is a common waste.
- Cooperative agreement
- A grant where the agency will be substantially involved in the work. Read the involvement clause before deciding that is fine.
- CFDA or Assistance Listing number
- The program's catalog identifier. Useful for finding who else has been funded under the same program, which tells you more about your chances than the announcement does.
How Quillify handles this part
“Am I qualified?” reads the actual announcement, not the portal summary, which matters because the summary is where the eligibility nuance goes missing. If the announcement gives it nothing readable, you get the credits back.
Requirements are extracted into a checklist with the risk of missing each one, its deadline, and who on your team owns it, which turns a 90-page document into the fifteen things that have to happen.
Who asks this most
The answer above is the same whoever you are. What Quillify does about it is not.
Related
- Cost share and matching fundsWhat does a matching funds or cost share requirement actually mean?
- Grants and government contracts are not the same thingWhat is the difference between a grant and a government contract?
- How a reviewer actually reads your proposalHow do grant reviewers actually read proposals?
All guides, or the glossary.
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