Where to Find Public Grant Funding

HayDay Services is bringing you a series of “how-to” articles related to successful grant prospect research.

Part 3: Public Funding

Two weeks ago, I shared insights about private grant funding, and if you missed that blog post, you can read all about it HERE. Today we’re talking about the other side of that coin: Public Funding. This includes federal, state, and local government grants.

Whereas private funding is more suited to 501c3 designated organizations, public funding is available to a wide variety of organizations. It just depends on the funder and the purpose of said funds. Government grants often require more information, details, and a heck of a lot of reporting and other management requirements, which can make these grants difficult for smaller organizations to obtain and keep.

It’s often hard to get an exact number of federal grant awards in a given year, but the usapsending.gov website is a great place to start. You can easily look at government spending by state. In fiscal year 2026 (October 1, 2025 – September 30, 2026), the State of Georgia (picking because it’s my home state), was awarded/obligated $17.1 billion in federal grant funding. You can find that and other details HERE but know the number will change as we move further into the fiscal year. Meanwhile, the State of California was awarded/obligated $107.3 billion during that same time frame, as you can see HERE. No matter the final numbers for all 50 states, you can imagine that number will be substantially larger than the $154.21 million in private grant funding from foundations and corporations in 2025, which you can find in the latest Giving USA report.

In addition to federal grants, states and a variety of local governments (cities, counties, parishes, and more) provide grants funding through their local coffers as well. They also act as a pass through for federal funding, meaning federal grants are awarded to states, universities, and other agencies, and a portion of those funds are passed down to nonprofits, smaller government agencies, school systems, and more.

It’s a lot to keep track of. So how do you find who funds what, where, and when?

Truthfully, you look a lot of places, because while there are searchable databases, there isn’t one that finds everything you need. (Though a girl can dream that one day such a thing will exist.)

WHERE TO FIND PUBLIC GRANT FUNDING

1. Grants.gov

This official website shares a lot of information about federal grant funding, and it includes a searchable database for finding grant opportunities. These days, when you visit grants.gov and hit the “search grants” header, it will take you to the new simpler.grants.gov. From there, you can enter your search query and even use filters to narrow your search. Some of the available filters include:

• Opportunity Status – your options include forecasted (meaning expected to post soon), open (you can currently apply), closed (you missed the deadline), and archived (you also missed the deadline and most likely all awards have been made and payments processed).
• Funding Instrument – your options include cooperative agreement (similar to a grant, but the funder will be more involved in project implementation in some way), grant, procurement contract, and other.
• Eligibility – if you are a K-12 public school system, you can find grants that your agency is eligible to apply for. There is a long list of eligible agencies.
• Agency – you can narrow your search based on the specific agency you are searching for funds from.
• Category – rather than using keywords, you can find all grants centered around a certain category, such as agriculture, arts, education, energy, regional development, transportation, and more.

If you want to access the original grants.gov, you’ll first need to sign into the system. Don’t have an account? No worries, anyone can sign up to get an account, and you don’t have to be tied to a specific organization. You can register HERE. Once you’re registered, you simply log in (button is in the upper right corner of grants.gov) and then when you hit the “search grants” header it will take you to the original.

Both the original and the simpler version of grants.gov provide you the same information. It’s just a matter of how you get there and what version you prefer using. I’m an OG and like the original, mostly because it’s what I’ve been using for the past 25 years.

While grants.gov is a free and searchable database of federal grants, it’s not the best search engine. I’ve wasted hours and hours of time trying to find a match for a funding need, all to no avail. For instance, I’ve entered the key words “bulletproof vests” and received 1,000 possible grants, none of which paid for bulletproof vests for police officers.

It’s a good place to start, but it’s not the only way to conduct grant research.

2. Federal Websites

Yes, each funder, from the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) and Department of Labor (DOL) to the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has a website. Most will list their grant opportunities. Sadly, none of them look alike.

I LOVE that the DOL has a search engine, but their grants page isn’t readily identifiable on their main page. Just search “grants” to get there the quickest. BJA has a great listing of both current and past grant opportunities. SAMHSA does a great job of showing their grant opportunities. HUD – they are not the easiest website to navigate and they often just list all of their open grants. If none are currently open, it’s hard to know what’s already passed and what’s coming soon.

Needless to say, it pays to get to know the websites of the funders whose work matches your own. The better you understand where to find their grant information, the more quickly you can keep up with it all.

3. State Agencies

Just like federal agencies, no two states are alike in how they share grant information. There is no one central database for all states, and some states don’t have a database of their own either.

When I do grant research in Georgia, I have to look at each agency’s website to see what funding is available. Some of our state websites are amazing and the information is easy to find. Others, it could take years to navigate, and since I don’t have that time, I usually start calling or emailing people to find out the best way to find grant funding on their websites.

A few years ago, Kimberly and I did some research, and enlisted the help of online friends, to see which states offered one single searchable database for the entire state’s grant funding opportunities. We complied that information and are happy to share it with you HERE. It’s been nearly two years since we put this information together, so if anything is incorrect and you have updated information, please let me know at hello@haydayservices.com.

If your state has a searchable database, that’s great news for you. If not, happy hunting!

4. Paid Subscriptions

When I highlighted foundation and corporation searchable databases (paid subscriptions) in the previous blog post about private funding, I listed a few that offered both pubic and private grant details within their database. Two that I know about are GrantGuru and GrantStation. You have to pay to have all that information in one place, but sometimes it’s worth the time it will save you.

5. Reverse Searches

If you cannot find the grant you are looking for, but you feel like something is out there, then consider doing a reverse search on https://www.usaspending.gov. You can look up organizations similar to yours and see what federal grants they were awarded. Once you know the agency and name of the grant, it will be much easier to find details about the program and see if/when that grant will come around again.

6. Local Governments

Not every local government provides grant funding, but the larger ones typically due. And sadly, there is no one database for all local government grants. Instead, you’re left checking with each agency, one by one. Most local governments only award grants to projects that impact their residents. So, you should only search the cities, counties, parishes, etc. where you have a presence and/or where you serve clients. For instance, if you are a nonprofit in rural Illinois who only serves people living in rural Illinois, you’re not a good recipient for grant funding from the City of Chicago.

In my experience, even larger local governments that give grants do not have a grant database or even one page dedicated to all their grant programs. Most likely, you’ll have to scour the website and reach out to contacts to find out what grant funding is available.

7. Use Your Contacts

I cannot stress enough how important it is to build your network. Last month I just happened to be visiting a friend and fellow grant pro and talking about a client that I was having a hard time finding federal grant opportunities to match their work because it was an area I had never searched before so I wasn’t as familiar with the terrain. In about 3 minutes she rattled off 5 programs worth checking out, because that was her area of expertise. It reminded me that when I get stuck, I should reach out and phone a friend.

BEFORE YOU GET STARTED

Like with private grants, before you even start looking for public grant funding, you need to first understand what it is you’re looking for. It’s best to know who you are serving, where the program will be located, what the program will do, what items you need to pay for, how much the project will cost, and more to ensure you are looking for the right grant funding.

Also, when it comes to federal grants, your agency must be familiar with all the rules and regulations set forth in the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200). Not everyone is ready for federal grants, so you first must make sure you have all the right policies, procedures, and staff in place.

And remember, just because a grant is awarded to you from a state or other agency, it could still be a federal grant if they are serving as a pass-through entity. Make sure you know the original source of funds when you are looking at government grants.

Best wishes and happy grant hunting!