Formula grant

A grant whose amount is set by a statutory formula — population, poverty rate, road miles — rather than by a competition. Recipients are named or made eligible by statute, so there is nothing to win and usually nothing to apply for beyond a plan.

Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.

Also called Formula funding · Non-competitive grant

In detail

Formula money is the larger share of federal grant dollars and the smaller share of federal grant opportunities, which is why a catalogue of things you can apply for is dominated by the competitive kind.

The application, where there is one, is typically a state plan rather than a proposal. It is reviewed for compliance rather than scored against rivals, which changes what writing it involves entirely.

Against a discretionary grant

A discretionary grant is competed and can be lost. A formula grant is calculated and can only be forfeited by failing to claim it. A listing that mixes them without saying which is which will show an eligible organisation an award it can never apply for, which is why the funder and the eligibility fields on a record deserve more attention than the amount.

How GrantTrove stores it

  • `elig_entity_types` records the applicant classes the notice names. Where a notice names only states, the record shows only states — it is not widened to the organisations a state might later fund.
  • Where a source publishes no eligibility at all, the record reads Not stated rather than listing every type it did not rule out.

Common questions

Can I apply for a formula grant?

Only if the statute makes you an eligible recipient, which usually means a government. Otherwise you apply to whatever the recipient funds.

Are formula grants in this catalogue?

Some notices for them are, because the portals we read publish them. The eligibility field is what tells you whether they are open to you.

Is there a deadline?

Frequently there is a plan submission date rather than a competition deadline. The record carries whatever the notice states.