By the time a funding notice posts, the organizations that were watching have already been working for weeks. They knew the program was coming, they had a rough idea of who was eligible and they had started gathering data and partners. Everyone else is reading the notice for the first time.
You don't need inside access to be one of the people who were watching. Agencies leave a public trail before they announce a program, and this article shows you where it is: forecasts, requests for information, proposed priorities, webinars and listening sessions. For each, you'll see what it tells you, where to find it and what to do next.
Forecasts: a planned opportunity, not a promise
A forecast on Grants.gov alerts applicants to a funding opportunity that is planned but doesn't yet have an official posted announcement. The Grants.gov help page says a forecast provides essential information about the opportunity, including the opportunity number and eligibility information. It also says plainly that a forecast may never become a posted opportunity.
That makes a forecast a planning signal. It tells you the program may be coming and who it may be for. Anything it says about amounts or dates is an estimate, and it doesn't give you the scoring criteria.
You can find forecasts with Grants.gov's Search Grants page, which has "Forecasted" among its opportunity status options. Grants.gov offers two ways to hear about changes without checking by hand:
- Saved searches. Grants.gov says you can save the criteria from a search and get email notifications about grant opportunities that match. Its subscriptions page notes that saved-search alerts don't tell you about later changes to an opportunity package.
- Subscribing to an opportunity. From an opportunity's page, you can choose to be told when that specific opportunity is updated. The subscriptions page also describes a nightly email update about opportunities that were posted or modified, and an "All New Opportunities" option that also covers opportunities that have been forecasted or posted.
Grant forecasts and how to use them goes deeper on reading one, and search terms and alerts covers setting up the alerts.
Requests for information: the agency asks before it designs
Sometimes an agency asks for outside input while a program is still being shaped. Under 2 CFR 200.202, agencies should develop programs in consultation with the communities that benefit from or are affected by them, and should consider available data, evidence and evaluation results from past programs.
A real example shows what this looks like. The Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2022 set aside funds for a health care provider training program at the Environmental Protection Agency and required the agency to seek input from people who do that kind of training. In 2023 EPA published a request for information in the Federal Register about the proposed design of the new grant program. It asked what activities the program could support, which populations are at high risk, who could collaborate and how local partners could keep improving after the project ends. Comments were submitted through regulations.gov. The notice said EPA would use the input to refine the program and design the grant program.
If you work in a field where a request like this appears, a short, specific comment is a way to be heard before the rules are written. The EPA notice asked commenters to cite public data where possible and to describe any supporting nonpublic data, which is good advice for any comment: evidence beats opinion.
Proposed priorities: a comment period you can use
Some agencies put their priorities out for comment. Under 34 CFR 75.105, the Department of Education publishes proposed annual priorities for public comment unless one of the rule's listed exceptions applies, and establishes the final priorities in a Federal Register notice, usually in the application notice for the program.
Priorities can add bonus points or reserve funds for a particular kind of application. Seeing them early gives you time to ask whether your project could meet them honestly, and whether your partners need to be in place.
Webinars and listening sessions: ask your questions
Agencies often hold sessions about a program before or after the notice. Under 2 CFR 200.204, agencies may offer pre-application technical assistance, but they must make those resources accessible and widely available to all potential applicants, for example by posting answers to questions on Grants.gov.
That rule helps you in two ways. You can attend and ask questions. And if you can't, the answers should be available to you, so check the opportunity page.
To get the most from a session:
- Arrive with three questions about eligibility, allowable costs or review criteria.
- Write down answers exactly as given, and note who gave them.
- Check afterward that the answer appears in posted materials. If it doesn't, ask in writing. Talking to a program officer covers how.
Keep a signal log
A signal only helps if you remember it. Keep a simple running log for each program you're watching, with four columns: the date, what you saw, where you saw it and what you decided to do. After a few months you will have a timeline that shows how fast the program moves, who is involved and which questions keep coming up.
The log also protects you from over-reading. A single forecast is a hint. A forecast, a request for input and a scheduled webinar together are a pattern. Decide in advance what level of evidence moves a program from "watching" to "preparing", so you don't spend a quarter's effort on a program that never opens.
A hypothetical example of using the signals
Say a rural housing nonprofit wants to apply to a federal program for home repair. It saves a Grants.gov search for forecasted opportunities in its field and gets an email when a forecast appears.
| Signal | What the nonprofit does |
|---|---|
| Forecast appears | Reads eligibility, adds the program to its calendar, drafts a go or no-go note |
| Request for input appears | Submits a two-paragraph comment with local data on repair needs |
| Webinar announced | Registers, sends three questions in advance and records the answers |
| Notice posts | Compares it with the forecast, updates the plan and starts drafting |
When the notice arrives, the organization already knows the eligibility, has its data and has spoken to the program staff. None of that required a connection. It required a saved search and a calendar.
Your next step
Open Grants.gov and run a search for forecasted opportunities in your field. Save the search so you get email updates, then subscribe to any individual forecast you want to follow. Add a monthly reminder to check the Federal Register and the web pages of the two agencies that matter most to you for requests for information and proposed priorities.
When a forecast turns into a notice, SoliContraX can take you from that notice to a first draft built from your own materials, and help you finish it. See how to get started.
Sources
- Forecast Tab (Grants.gov Online Help)
- Search Grants Tab (Grants.gov Online Help)
- Manage Subscriptions (Grants.gov)
- 2 CFR 200.202, Program planning and design (eCFR)
- 2 CFR 200.204, Notices of funding opportunities (eCFR)
- Pesticides; Request for Stakeholder Input on the Proposed Design of a New Grant Program Regarding the Health Care Provider Training Program (Federal Register, September 25, 2023)
- 34 CFR 75.105, Annual absolute, competitive preference, and invitational priorities (eCFR)