Categorical grant
A grant restricted to a narrowly defined purpose, with conditions attached to how the money is used. It is the opposite end of the spectrum from a block grant, and most competitive federal awards are categorical in effect.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Categorical funding
In detail
The restriction is the point: the funder is buying a specific outcome rather than supporting an organisation. That is what makes categorical money hard to build an organisation on, and it is why unrestricted funding from private foundations is valued out of proportion to its size.
Categorical conditions arrive in three places — the authorising statute, the notice, and the award document — and only the second of those is something a database can read.
Against general operating support
General operating support funds an organisation. A categorical grant funds an activity, and the money may not drift to keep the lights on. `use_of_funds` records the categories a notice names, which is the closest we come to expressing the restriction, and it records what the notice said rather than an inference about how tight the restriction is.
How GrantTrove stores it
- `use_of_funds` is extracted where a notice states categories and prints Not stated where it does not. An empty list would read as "spend it on anything".
- `elig_note` keeps eligibility wording that does not fit the structured vocabulary, in the source’s own words, rather than being dropped for not fitting.
Common questions
Can categorical money pay for overhead?
Through an indirect rate, within whatever cap the notice sets. Not by reallocating programme money to administration.
Do you mark grants as categorical?
No. Nearly every competitive award is categorical to some degree, so a flag would be true almost everywhere and useful nowhere.
Where are the conditions?
In the notice and the award document. The record links the notice.