General operating support
A grant an organisation may spend on whatever keeps it running — rent, salaries, the work itself — rather than on one defined project. It is the most useful money a nonprofit can receive and a small share of what is available.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Unrestricted funding · Core support · GOS
In detail
It is almost entirely a private-funder product. Government programmes fund activities against statutory purposes, so unrestricted government money is rare by design rather than by preference.
Funders that give it usually do so to organisations they already know, which is why it appears less often in open calls than its importance would suggest.
Against project support
Project support pays for a defined piece of work with its own budget and its own report. General operating support funds the organisation. `use_of_funds` records the categories a notice names, and a notice offering unrestricted support usually names none — which is exactly the case where an empty list would read as "no restrictions" and be accidentally right for the wrong reason. It reads Not stated.
How GrantTrove stores it
- `use_of_funds` prints Not stated where a notice names no categories rather than an empty list, so an unstated restriction and an absent one are not shown as the same thing.
- `elig_note` keeps wording the vocabulary cannot express, which is where a funder’s language about unrestricted support survives into the record.
Common questions
Do governments give unrestricted grants?
Rarely. Statutory purposes are what government money is authorised against.
Can I filter for it?
Not as its own field. Notices state it in prose and a partially populated flag would mislead about the rest.
Why is it hard to get?
It requires trust in the organisation rather than in a plan, and trust usually comes from an existing relationship.