Grant Funding Glossary — Part 1 (A to D)

Police Chief's Guide to Grant Funding

Police Chief’s Guide to Grant Funding

Are you considering applying for public safety grant funding this year? A little perplexed by all the the official jargon? Need an easy-to-understand guide to help you through the process?

In this two-part series, we present to you a glossary (extracted from our Police Chief’s Guide to Grant Funding) to help you navigate and simplify the world of law enforcement grant funding.

Applicant is the entity requesting a grant.

Application Control Center is the agency or division officially authorized to receive applications for discretionary grants.

Application for Federal Education Assistance (also known as Form 424) is the grant application form, sometimes referred to as the application “cover page,” used by the Department of Education.

Application notice is published in the Federal Register and invites applications for one or more discretionary grant competitions. It provides basic program and fiscal information on each competition, informs potential applicants when and where they can obtain applications, and cites the deadline date for a particular competition.

Application package contains the application notice for one or more programs, and all the information and forms needed to apply for a discretionary grant.

Appropriations legislation is a law passed by Congress to provide a certain level of funding for a grant program in a given year.

Assurances are a variety of requirements, found in different Federal laws, regulations, and executive orders, which applicants agree in writing to observe as a condition of receiving federal assistance.

Authorizing legislation is a law passed by Congress that establishes or continues a grant program.

Authorized Representative is the official within an applicant organization with the legal authority to give assurances, make commitments, enter into contracts, and execute such documents on behalf of the applicant as may be required by a grant maker. The signature of the Authorized Representative certifies that commitments made on grant proposals will be honored and ensures that the applicant agrees to conform to the grant maker’s regulations, guidelines, and policies. Note that the Authorized Representative is not necessarily the Project Director.

Budget period is an interval of time into which a project period is divided for budgetary purposes, usually 12 months.

Budget narrative explains the budget. Explanations can include the derivation of amounts (for example, a $1,250 budget item derives from 100 people at five meetings each using a $2.50 expendable item), the itemization of totals, the purpose of purchased supplies and services, and the justification of the size of salaries, fringe benefits, and indirect costs.

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) is a publication and database produced by the General Services Administration that lists the domestic assistance programs of all Federal agencies. It gives information about a program’s authorization, fiscal details, accomplishments, regulations, guidelines, eligibility requirements, information contacts, and application and award process.

Certification is a statement, signed by an applicant or grantee as a prerequisite for receiving Federal funds, that it meets or will adhere to certain conditions and/or will undertake or not undertake certain actions.

CFDA number is an identifying number for a Federal assistance program, composed of a unique two-digit prefix to identify the Federal agency (e.g., 84 for the Department of Education), followed by a period and a unique three-digit code for each authorized program.

Combined Application Notice is a notice published by a Federal Department in the Federal Register that identifies programs and competitions under which the Department has invited, or plans to invite, applications for new awards for a particular Fiscal Year. The notice provides the actual or estimated information on the date the competition will be announced in the Federal Register; the date application packages will be available; the application deadline date; the deadline for Intergovernmental Review; the range of awards; the average size of awards; and the number of awards. The Combined Application Notice also provides a contact name and phone number to get further information.

Competitive review process is used by the funder to select discretionary grant applications for funding, in which applications are scored by subject-area experts and the most highly scored applications are considered for funding.

Deadline date is the date by which an applicant must mail a discretionary grant application for it to be considered for funding by the funding Department or organization. Under some competitions, the funder requires that the application be received by the deadline date.

Discretionary grant is an award of financial assistance in the form of money by the Federal government to an eligible grantee, usually made on the basis of a competitive review process.

D-U-N-S Number is a nine-digit number assigned to an organization by Dun & Bradstreet. The number does not convey any information about the recipient. A built-in check digit helps assure the accuracy of the D-U-N-S Number. The ninth digit of each number is the check digit, which is mathematically related to the other digits.

Here is Part 2 of the Grant Funding Glossary.

If you liked what you read and want to take advantage of the grant opportunities available to you, download the Police Chief’s Guide to Grant Funding 2013.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *