Federal Grant Fit Finder

Find active Grants.gov funding opportunities and score them by applicant fit, deadline urgency, award value, eligibility, and grant-writer-ready notes.

This Actor searches the official Grants.gov API, optionally fetches full opportunity details, and turns federal grant listings into a prioritized funding pipeline. It is built for grant writers, startup founders, nonprofits, university research offices, economic development teams, consultants, and AI agents monitoring funding opportunities.

Why Use This Actor

Generic grant search returns a wall of opportunities. This Actor helps users decide what to review first.

Use it to:

• Find federal funding opportunities by keyword, agency, and status.
• Score grants against a plain-English applicant profile.
• Prioritize deadlines by urgency.
• Extract eligibility, funding instruments, award ceiling/floor, descriptions, and contacts when available.
• Create grant-writer notes for review, outreach, or CRM workflows.
• Schedule recurring searches for new or forecasted opportunities.

What It Extracts

Each result includes:

• Opportunity ID and opportunity number.
• Grant title, agency, agency code, and top agency.
• Status, document type, open date, close date, and days until close.
• Award ceiling and floor when available.
• Eligibility, funding instruments, and funding categories.
• Clean description text.
• Matched keyword.
• Fit score.
• Urgency score.
• Grant-writer-ready note.
• Direct Grants.gov URL.
• Dedupe key and scrape timestamp.

Best For

Buyer	Workflow
Grant writers	Build a prioritized funding shortlist for clients.
Startups	Find non-dilutive federal funding by technology area.
Nonprofits	Monitor grant deadlines by mission and eligibility.
Universities	Track research and education funding opportunities.
Consultants	Produce funding scans and opportunity memos faster.
AI agents	Feed structured grant opportunities into matching and alert workflows.

Input

{
  "keywords": ["artificial intelligence"],
  "agencies": [],
  "statuses": ["posted", "forecasted"],
  "applicantProfile": "AI startup or small business looking for R&D, cybersecurity, defense, or technology commercialization funding.",
  "preferredEligibility": ["small businesses", "institutions of higher education"],
  "closeWithinDays": 730,
  "includeForecasted": true,
  "minAwardCeiling": 0,
  "details": true,
  "maxItems": 5,
  "maxPagesPerKeyword": 1,
  "pageSize": 10
}

Input Options

Field	Type	Description
keywords	array	Search terms for Grants.gov opportunities.
agencies	array	Optional agency codes such as NSF, DOE, HHS, EPA, DOD.
statuses	array	Opportunity statuses, usually posted and forecasted.
applicantProfile	string	Plain-English profile used for fit scoring.
preferredEligibility	array	Eligibility terms that should boost the fit score.
closeWithinDays	integer	Keep opportunities closing within N days. Use 0 to disable.
includeForecasted	boolean	Include forecasted opportunities.
minAwardCeiling	integer	Minimum award ceiling when available. Use 0 to disable.
details	boolean	Fetch full opportunity details.
maxItems	integer	Maximum unique opportunities to save.
maxPagesPerKeyword	integer	Search pages requested per keyword.
pageSize	integer	Results requested per search page.

Output

{
  "platform": "grants.gov",
  "opportunityId": "358687",
  "opportunityNumber": "W519TC-25-S-0001",
  "title": "Broad Agency Announcement for Fundamental AI Research",
  "agency": "Army Contracting Command Rock Island",
  "agencyCode": "DOD-AMC-ACCRI",
  "topAgency": "Department of Defense",
  "status": "posted",
  "docType": "synopsis",
  "openDate": "04/16/2025",
  "closeDate": "05/20/2026",
  "daysUntilClose": 0,
  "awardCeiling": 1500000,
  "awardFloor": 50000,
  "eligibility": "Small businesses; Institutions of higher education",
  "fundingInstruments": "Grant",
  "fundingCategories": "Science and Technology",
  "description": "Funding for artificial intelligence research...",
  "matchedKeyword": "artificial intelligence",
  "fitScore": 88,
  "urgencyScore": 95,
  "grantWriterNote": "Army Contracting Command Rock Island opportunity matching 'artificial intelligence': Broad Agency Announcement for Fundamental AI Research (closes in 0 days, up to $1,500,000, fit 88/100).",
  "dedupeKey": "358687",
  "url": "https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/358687",
  "sourceApiUrl": "https://api.grants.gov/v1/api/search2",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-20T00:00:00+00:00"
}

How This Is Different

This is not positioned as another generic Grants.gov exporter. It focuses on fit and action:

• Applicant-profile scoring.
• Deadline urgency scoring.
• Eligibility-aware ranking.
• Grant-writer notes.
• Forecasted and posted opportunities.
• Detail fetching for descriptions and funding data.
• Stable dedupe keys for recurring monitoring.

Common Run Patterns

Startup AI funding:

{
  "keywords": ["artificial intelligence", "cybersecurity", "advanced manufacturing"],
  "applicantProfile": "Technology startup or small business seeking non-dilutive R&D and commercialization funding.",
  "preferredEligibility": ["small businesses", "for profit organizations", "unrestricted"],
  "minAwardCeiling": 100000
}

Nonprofit workforce funding:

{
  "keywords": ["workforce development", "youth employment", "digital skills"],
  "applicantProfile": "Nonprofit workforce development organization helping underserved communities with training and employment.",
  "preferredEligibility": ["nonprofits", "state governments", "county governments", "city or township governments"]
}

University research funding:

{
  "keywords": ["climate research", "STEM education", "public health"],
  "agencies": ["NSF", "HHS"],
  "applicantProfile": "University research office looking for federal research grants and education funding opportunities.",
  "preferredEligibility": ["institutions of higher education"]
}

Notes And Limitations

• This Actor uses public Grants.gov endpoints.
• Grant information changes frequently; always verify details on Grants.gov before applying.
• Fit scoring is a prioritization signal, not a legal eligibility decision.
• Some opportunities have missing award amounts, eligibility details, or close dates.
• Forecasted opportunities may change before final posting.

Tested Coverage

Current QA:

• Synthetic unit tests for parsing, scoring, payload creation, and output normalization.
• Four local smoke tests against real Grants.gov data.
• Cloud smoke returned real scored Grants.gov opportunities.