Award floor
The smallest award a program expects to make. Many notices publish a ceiling and no floor, in which case the field reads Not stated — we do not infer a floor from programs that look similar.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Minimum award · Award minimum
In detail
A floor is more useful than it looks. It tells you whether a program is built for small projects at all: a floor of $250,000 is a polite way of saying that a $30,000 request will not be competitive, and it is often the fastest disqualifier in a search.
Floors are published far less often than ceilings. Where a portal publishes an estimated low and high per award, we store both. Where it publishes only a maximum, we store only a maximum.
Against a minimum project size
A floor is about the award; a minimum project size or minimum match is about your budget. A program with no award floor can still refuse a small project through its scoring, and a program with a floor may still fund a small project at the floor. The two are different fields and we do not merge them.
How GrantTrove stores it
- A floor and a ceiling render as a range only when both are stated. One endpoint alone renders as one figure plus Not stated, never as a range with an invented end.
Common questions
Why is the floor missing so often?
Because most notices simply do not publish one. That silence is the grantmaker’s, so the field reads Not stated rather than being filled from a comparable program.
Can I apply for less than the floor?
Usually you can submit, and usually it will not score well. Check the notice itself; where the record has one, the source link on the record page is the page that governs.
Is a floor the same as an average award?
No. An average is history and a floor is a rule. We do not publish an average award unless the source itself does.