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Federal Grants

An Overview of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Grant Process

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) grantmaking agencies announce numerous federal funding opportunities in the spring each fiscal year (FY). These opportunities are particularly significant for agencies and organizations in the Northern District of New York. The information below is an overview to increase awareness about DOJ grant opportunities and make it easier to find and access needed information.  

The U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) cannot write grant applications or provide technical assistance in the grant application portals (e.g., JustGrants, Grants.gov). We hope that the information and resources provided below will help agencies and organizations in the Northern District of New York understand how best to position themselves to identify funding opportunities and apply for funding. 

DOJ’s Grantmaking Agencies

DOJ has three grantmaking components, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), and Office of Justice Programs (OJP). OJP has six program offices that administer grants:

The website for each grantmaking component and program office contains detailed information about funding opportunities, publications, and other available resources (e.g., training and technical assistance).

Searching For DOJ Grants

Grants.gov is an excellent source of information on federal grants—across all federal agencies—including active DOJ grant funding opportunities.  You can search open opportunities as well as forecasted, closed, and archived opportunities.  The Grants.gov mobile app is another useful resource to search and subscribe to grant notifications.  Visit https://www.grants.gov/connect for more information or download the mobile app from the App Store or Google Play.  

Most agencies/organizations will be interested primarily in discretionary grant programs[1] where awards are based on competition (competitive program); however, some agencies can be eligible recipients of certain DOJ formula grant programs[2] (e.g., Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program).  Agencies and organizations interested in DOJ grant funding opportunities are encouraged to subscribe to receive custom email notifications about specific grant opportunities.  These notifications will provide you with the most up-to-date information on a specific funding opportunity.  To create custom notifications, you must first register for a Grants.gov account.  To register for a Grants.gov account, please visit https://www.grants.gov/register and click the red box labeled Get Registered Now at the bottom of the page, which takes you to https://apply07.grants.gov/apply/register.faces. 

This YouTube video provides a tutorial on registering for a Grants.gov account, as well as setting up an agency/organization profile if you plan to apply for a federal grant.  Once you establish a Grants.gov account, you will then be prompted to link your Grants.gov account to a Login.gov account, which is a secure sign in service that can be used across applicable federal government systems.  Generally, it is a good idea to link these accounts as they will support your agency’s applications across federal government grant solicitations and help you better manage a number of usernames and passwords needed to access federal government websites.  Follow the prompts to link your accounts.

After you log in to Grants.gov, you can subscribe to custom notifications.  More information on customizing notifications can be found through this link.  You must first be signed into your Grants.gov account to create custom notifications. 

More information about DOJ grants can be found on the websites for the DOJ grantmaking components and program offices.  To stay connected, you can subscribe to receive notifications about new grant opportunities[3] as well as other information.  The following are links to subscribe to notices generated by the DOJ grantmaking agencies.

DOJ Funding Opportunities

DOJ’s grantmaking components and program offices have post several discretionary program funding solicitations each fiscal year (FY) [4].  Links to each component’s open funding opportunities are included below.  (Open solicitations can also be found on Grants.gov.)

Please review the funding solicitations and application criteria carefully.  Informational webinars are offered through some grant programs and are very detailed and interactive.  The webinars are typically available soon after the solicitation has been announced.  Please review solicitations early for the date and link to participate in the live webinar, some which provide participants an opportunity to ask questions.  While attending live is ideal, recordings are typically made public on the grant program website.  To ensure your agency/organization takes advantage of grant opportunities, consider making the review of solicitations a top priority. 

Upcoming/Forecasted DOJ Funding Opportunities

To track the upcoming release of DOJ solicitations, please review the DOJ Program Plan, which summarizes the funding opportunities each DOJ grant making agency is expecting to release or has released this fiscal year.  Each solicitation listed in the Plan includes a hyperlink for additional information.  You can also filter the table in various ways, including by expected release date (e.g., Jan/Feb/March, April/May/June), keyword, and deadline to apply.   

Grant Application Educational Materials

As soon as possible and ideally before a solicitation is announced, agencies/organizations should start learning about grants, to include account access to application portals, tips for developing a grant strategy, and creating and filing application materials. The websites listed below may be useful educational resources.

In addition to these educational materials, BJA has developed the following training webinars and tutorial videos:

Link to watch (24 minutes)

Understand key components of grants and start applying for grant funding.

Tutorial Video: Forming an Internal Grant Working Group (3 minutes)

Link to watch (24 minutes)

Be proactive and strategic by developing a grant strategy.

Tutorial Video: Developing a Grant Strategy (7 minutes)

Link to watch (19 minutes)

Learn where and how to locate funding opportunities to match agency/organization needs.

Tutorial Video: DOJ Program Plan (9 minutes)

Tutorial Video:  Searching for Private Funding (3 minutes)

Link to watch (23 minutes)

Combine a grant strategy with potential funding to begin drafting a concept paper.

Tutorial Video: Reading a Solicitation (4 minutes)

Link to watch (19 minutes)

Receive steps and tips for effective public and private grant award implementation.

 

Applying for a DOJ Grant

Every grant solicitation outlines the various processes and documents required to apply for a federal grant funding opportunity.  It is imperative that you review the solicitation carefully to determine the required documents, process of applying, deadlines to apply, allowable/unallowable costs, and other key considerations.  Most solicitations also include a checklist to help you keep track of the required documents.  Deadlines to apply for competitive solicitations, which includes the timeframe in which application documents must be filed, are firm and all application materials must be submitted prior to the listed deadline. 

Please be aware that submitting a grant application for a DOJ grant program is a two-part process.  DOJ grant applicants must submit the first part of the application in Grants.gov by the specified deadline and then complete the rest of the application in JustGrants by the specified deadline.  Agencies/organizations must adhere closely to the requirements and deadlines of both systems (as outlined in the solicitation), which are often not the same.  In order to submit application materials, agencies/organizations must create accounts in JustGrants and Grants.gov.  If you have not already done so, we recommend verifying whether your agency has accounts and if not, take steps to proactively establish those accounts.  It is never too early to register on and/or confirm your agency/organization has working access to these systems.

It is important to note that certain processes must take place before an applicant can apply through the Grants.gov and JustGrants portals.  For instance, potential applicants must first register in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov), is a government-wide registry for organizations doing business with the Federal government.  SAM.gov centralizes information about grant recipients and organizational information.  Grants.gov uses SAM.gov to establish organizational authority for its users and to provide unique entity identification (UEI) numbers.  (SAM registration must be renewed annually.) 

Every applicant must have a UEI number in order to create and submit an application.  If your agency/organization does not have a UEI number, you are strongly encouraged to request one (and register it) as soon as possible.  The federal government issues UEI numbers in SAM.gov, and there can be delays in obtaining a number during the height of grant season.  Please do not delay in requesting one if you think your agency/organization may seek to apply for a DOJ grant.  CAUTION:  Some agencies have found their way onto a fraudulent SAM.gov website.  At no time will any government agency ask you to pay a fee to obtain a UEI number or apply for a grant.

If your agency already has accounts in Grants.gov, JustGrants, and SAM.gov, we recommend that you login as soon as possible and make sure that your profile and user roles have been correctly created/updated/renewed.  The following websites can be useful for better understanding the process for applying for a DOJ grant:

Additional Websites

State Administering Agencies (SAAs): Many formula grants are awarded directly to state government and through a State Administering Agency (SAA).  The SAA administers the process and distributes the grant funding to sub-awardees.  This link provides more information on finding the SAAs in your state.

Grant Awards: Each grantmaking component provides information on grant awards, including information on accepting a grant award, reporting requirements, drawing down on funds through the Automated Standard Application for Payments (ASAP) portal, and making grant award modifications, among other topics.  The following may be useful links:

Data on Grant Awards: Publicly available data on DOJ grant awards can be found through various .gov websites.  The links below will provide you additional information on how to find that information.

  • Searchable Map of OJP Awards since FY 2021: This website is an interactive map that has options to filter data.  After visiting the link, hover over the map and select the applicable state.  You can filter data by fiscal year, city, solicitation title, and other options. 
  • COPS Office: The COPS Office provides data on grant awards program and fiscal year.
  • OVW: OVW provides data on grant awards by state, program, and fiscal year.
  • USAspending.gov: USAspending.gov contains data on awards, including grant awards, across all federal agencies.  After setting the specific search filters (e.g., state, county, city, fiscal year, agency), data is displayed on a table.  The tab labeled “Grants” provides data on grant awards.

[1] For discretionary grant programs (or cooperative agreement), the grantmaking agencies may select the recipient from among all eligible recipients; may decide to make or not make an award based on the programmatic, technical, or scientific content of an application; and can decide the amount of funding to be awarded.  Review the What Is a Discretionary Grant? Grants.gov blog post for more information.

[2] Formula grant programs are allocations of federal funding to states, territories, or local units of government determined by distribution formulas in the authorizing legislation and regulations.  To receive a formula grant, the entity must meet all the eligibility criteria for the program, which are pre-determined and not open to discretionary funding decisions.

[3] Notices generated by Grants.gov will contain the most up-to-date information on a new DOJ funding solicitation that has posted.  For instance, OJP issues weekly notice of grant opportunities, whereas Grants.gov issues the notice the day the solicitation becomes available.

[4] Federal fiscal years run from October 1 through September 30.

Updated August 15, 2024