Quick Guide GrantsGov Final.pdf

Grants.gov - Tips to Get Started The Learning Grants Center at Grants.gov has information on every aspect of the grant process and great step-by-step instructions. We found these helpful tips to getting started on your grant journey.

Before You Start

Complete these steps before you begin Grants.gov registration:

• Every organization must register with SAM.gov.

• Individuals must have a Login.gov account.

• SAM.gov will provide a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) for your organization, this is required when applying for federal funding.

Obtaining your UEI may take several weeks. Full registration in SAM.gov can take longer; be sure to start well before the grant deadline.

• Each Grants.gov user who wants to download forms or work on them online must also have an account with Login.gov. When you register at Grants.gov, you will be prompted to link your Grants.gov account to your Login.gov account.

Registering with Grants.gov

Grants.gov offers step-by-step instructions on the registration process.

Some things to keep in mind are:

• You will be asked to validate your email, be prepared to login to the email provided to complete the registration process.

You can register as either your organization or for yourself.

Anyone using Grants.gov to apply for a grant must have a profile.

• If registering for your organization, use the same email address as the electronic business point of contact in SAM.gov, Grants.gov will automatically assign you role of expanded AOR. With the expanded AOR role, you will be able to assign roles to your organization's registered users.

*Screen Shot from Grants.gov https://sam.gov/content/entity-registration http://www.login.gov/ http://www.login.gov/

Assigning Roles- Must be designated as the Authorized Organization Representative

Make sure that at least one person in your organization has a role as either: expanded AOR (authorized organization representative), standard AOR, or workspace manager. These roles allow creation of a workspace for your grant applications where they can see sensitive content, such as the budget. Grants.gov allows you to assign roles and privileges to users in your organization. For more information about assigning roles, visit Manage Roles for Applicant in the Grants.gov Online Help.

You can add people to your grant application’s workspace to help with your grant application.

Searching For Forest Service Grants

Grants.gov provides great tips for searching key words or phrases:

Search Tips | Grants.gov

The best way to find USDA Forest Service opportunities is clicking the search link and using the Agency filter, select the Forest Service located under All Department of Agriculture.

Completing and Submitting Application Forms

There are three ways to complete your forms:

• Complete the forms online within your workspace in Grants.gov and the forms save automatically.

• Download individual forms, complete the forms offline, then upload them to your workspace.

• Reuse previously completed forms from a previous grant application.

Make sure to check for errors; there is a helpful feature that checks for errors on the forms.

Before you submit your application, make sure you have completed all required forms. Make sure to click the “Check Application” button and to submit your application well before the deadline, just in case a submission error occurs.

Completing Forms Offline:

Before you name files for upload in Grants.gov or attach files to a form, review the opportunity fully to see if the awarding agency has specific file naming instructions or restrictions on file names. If the awarding agency does not provide specific file naming instructions, be as descriptive as you can.

In addition, you must:

• Limit each file name to 50 characters or fewer.

• Give a unique name to each document.

You can use upper- and lowercase letters, any number, as well as the underscore, hyphen, space, and period in the filename. For more information about the known limitations of grantor systems, see Special Characters in Submissions.

https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm?callingApp=custom#callingApp=custom&t=Applicants%2FManagement%2FManageRolesForApplicant.htm https://www.grants.gov/search-tips https://www.grants.gov/applicants/submitting-utf-8-special-characters https://www.grants.gov/applicants/submitting-utf-8-special-characters