01Assistance versus procurement

Contracts buy a thing the government needs. Grants and cooperative agreements fund a public purpose the recipient pursues. In USAspending, grants sit under Financial Assistance, not Contracts — if your search returns nothing, the award type filter is usually the reason.

02The award type families

Financial assistance isn't one thing, and the distinction matters when you compare totals.

• Block grants pass formula money to states, which then decide how to spend it.
• Formula grants distribute by a statutory formula — population, poverty rate, or a matching requirement.
• Project grants are competitive and tied to a specific scope of work.
• Cooperative agreements involve substantial federal participation in the work itself, unlike a straight grant.

03The program identifier

Every federal grant program carries an Assistance Listing number (still widely called CFDA), in the form XX.XXX. Searching that number pulls every award under one program across every recipient and year — the single most precise filter available for grants.