See how agencies have awarded funds before you apply

Why past awards matter

A funding notice tells you the rules for the next competition. It does not always tell you what a typical award looks like, or how many organizations are funded each year. That context helps you decide whether an opportunity is worth the hours it takes to apply, and how to size your request.

The federal government publishes spending data on USASpending.gov. GovGrantsUSA brings a summary of that data into the place where you review opportunities, so you do not have to research it separately for every grant.

What is collected

Every week, the platform reads grant award records from the public USASpending.gov API for nine large grant-making agencies: the Departments of Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Agriculture and Commerce, plus NSF, NASA, EPA and SBA. It covers the current year and the two years before it, groups the records by year and by Assistance Listing number (the program code formerly called CFDA), then stores:

• The number of awards made
• The total amount awarded
• The average award amount

How it appears in your dashboard

When you open an opportunity on a paid plan, the Historical Award Data panel shows the recent years on record for the agency behind it, when that agency is covered: how many awards were made each year and the average award size. Read it alongside the award range in the notice. A program that makes a few large awards a year is a different kind of competition from one that makes hundreds of small ones.

On the Growth plan you can also ask for an AI summary of the opportunity's synopsis, which highlights the purpose, eligibility points and key requirements in plain language. Summaries run in the background and show their status while they are written. Check every point against the official notice.

Using award data well

• Size your request realistically. If average awards are far below the ceiling in the notice, ask yourself whether a request at the ceiling is well supported.
• Judge the competition. A handful of awards a year usually means a selective program.
• Plan your pipeline. Programs that award steadily every year are easier to plan around than one-time competitions.

Limits of the data

USASpending.gov data is reported by agencies and can be revised after it is published. Aggregates by agency and program cannot tell you who will be funded next, and they do not reflect changes in a program's priorities. For individual award records and recipients, search USASpending.gov directly.

Award history is context, not a prediction. Always confirm the rules and award range in the official notice.

Frequently Asked Questions

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