Receipt of federal funding can be simultaneously an excellent opportunity and a frightening proposition. Whether an organization is in the service delivery, education, environmental protection and restoration, or research and development field, federal funds expand the scope of what it can accomplish. Those funds, however, come with strings attached.

 

The purpose of this guide is to assist grantees in navigating the rules of the federal grant system. Once understood and operationalized, the rules are not as complicated as they may at first seem, nor too difficult to remember and apply. The rules within the system work together to achieve their simple and straightforward overarching purpose, which largely boils down to two simple and complementary goals:

 

If a grantee designs its systems and makes its business decisions with these fundamental systemic goals in mind, it generally should not find itself too far off the path of grant management compliance.