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Gov Funds FinderFree screening

Data sources & methods

Current sources

We currently list 1,557 active opportunities and programs. 178 Grants.gov records are marked for manual review because the agency described eligibility only in free text.

SBA and state programs (curated from official pages)

  • U.S. Small Business Administration (sba.gov) and SBIR.gov: 17 programs (1 pending editorial review)
  • Idaho state agencies (official websites): 15 programs
  • North Dakota state agencies (official websites): 19 programs
  • Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development (official website): 3 programs
  • Oklahoma Department of Commerce (official website): 8 programs
  • South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development (official website): 8 programs
  • Utah state agencies (official websites): 5 programs
  • Wyoming Business Council (official website): 9 programs (1 pending editorial review)

How we import data

  • We read the list of currently posted and forecasted opportunities from the Grants.gov public search service.
  • We read full details (eligibility, award ranges, dates, descriptions) from the official Grants.gov daily database extract, and from the Grants.gov opportunity service for anything newer than the extract.
  • We store the original record unchanged, separately from the fields we display, and keep a history of changes such as new deadlines or amounts.
  • Opportunities that close or disappear from Grants.gov are removed from active listings automatically. Their pages stay available for reference, are clearly marked, and are excluded from search engines.
  • Grants.gov test postings are excluded.

How we curate SBA and state programs

  • We read official program pages on SBA.gov, SBIR.gov and state agency websites, identifying ourselves as GovFundsFinderBot and following each site's robots.txt rules. If a site blocks automated access, we skip it and say so below; we never work around a block.
  • Every stored fact — the description, who is eligible, any amount or deadline — is a word-for-word quote that we check against the page text. An amount or date is kept only if it appears in its quote; minimums that describe requirements (such as payroll or investment thresholds) are not shown as award sizes.
  • New and changed records go into an editorial review queue and are labeled as pending until a person approves them.
  • Each week we re-fetch every page and re-check every quote. If the page changes, the record goes back to review and its confidence is lowered.
  • Loans, loan guarantees, tax credits, investment funds and free advising are labeled as such. They are not grants.

How we classify opportunities

  • Businesses: the agency lists small businesses, for-profit organizations, or “unrestricted” among eligible applicants.
  • Nonprofits: the agency lists 501(c)(3) or other nonprofits, or “unrestricted”.
  • If eligibility is listed only as “Others” and the agency's text mentions businesses or nonprofits, we include it but flag it for review and say so on the page.
  • Focus areas group the agency's official funding categories. They help browsing; they never decide eligibility.
  • States: Grants.gov does not provide structured geographic limits. We only note when an opportunity's title names a state, and tell you to check eligibility text.

What we do not do

  • We never invent programs, amounts, deadlines, or eligibility. If an agency does not publish an award range, we say it is not published.
  • AI-generated text is never stored in place of official facts.
  • Paid relationships never affect which opportunities appear or their order.

Not yet covered, or skipped

We have curated state programs for a first group of states (Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Nevada and North Dakota); other states will follow. The SBIR.gov solicitations API was unavailable (under maintenance) when we checked; SBIR/STTR opportunities that agencies post on Grants.gov are included.

Sources we could not include because the site disallows or blocks automated access (we do not work around these): Idaho Department of Commerce (bot challenge), Oregon Business Development (robots.txt), Colorado OEDIT (robots.txt), Arizona Commerce Authority (robots.txt), Florida Commerce (robots.txt), Georgia Department of Economic Development (robots.txt), Tennessee ECD (access denied), and Montana Department of Commerce (server error to automated requests).

Programs reviewed but not listed

  • Idaho Department of Commerce (commerce.idaho.gov): IGEM, Idaho Opportunity Fund, Tax Reimbursement Incentive, Rural Idaho grants (Idaho state agencies (official websites)): Site serves a Cloudflare bot challenge to automated requests (including robots.txt); skipped rather than worked around.
  • Idaho Housing and Finance Association: Low-Income Housing Tax Credits page (Idaho state agencies (official websites)): Page served a bot-challenge interstitial; skipped.
  • Idaho Specialty Crop Block Grant, Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure, Energy Resiliency Grant, Education to Careers Grant (Idaho state agencies (official websites)): The official pages show the current round as closed or its deadline passed; not listed as open.
  • Federal tax credits and private (Farm Credit) programs listed on Idaho agency pages (Idaho state agencies (official websites)): Not state programs; only official state-run programs are listed from state sites.
  • Idaho State Energy Loan Program (Idaho state agencies (official websites)): Current official page limits it to single-family homes (not businesses or nonprofits).
  • Innovate ND; Automate ND Grant; Destination Development Grant (North Dakota state agencies (official websites)): Official page says the application period is closed.
  • Child Care Loan Program; Technical Skills Training Grant (North Dakota state agencies (official websites)): Program text could not be quoted verifiably by our extraction; not listed.
  • Operation Intern, Value-Added Agriculture and Creamery Assistance pages (North Dakota state agencies (official websites)): Page fetch failed during this check; will retry later.
  • Nevada Knowledge Fund (Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development (official website)): Funds research at Nevada's higher-education institutions, not businesses or nonprofits directly.
  • Rural Community Development Block Grant (Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development (official website)): Awarded to rural local governments.
  • Export-Import Bank (EXIM) listing (Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development (official website)): Federal agency program, not a Nevada state program.
  • Oklahoma Manufacturing Reboot Program; Emergency Solutions Grants (Oklahoma Department of Commerce (official website)): Official page says the application period is closed.
  • Infrastructure grants for locating/expanding businesses (Oklahoma Department of Commerce (official website)): Awarded to communities (local governments), not directly to businesses.
  • STEP Fund page (Oklahoma Department of Commerce (official website)): Program text could not be quoted verifiably by our extraction; not listed.
  • Community Based Child Care Grant Program (South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development (official website)): Official page says it was a one-time program and is now closed.
  • Agribusiness, Beginning Farmer and Livestock Nutrient Management bond programs (South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development (official website)): Only a generic summary on the financing index page; not enough verifiable detail captured.
  • Community Development Block Grants; Local Infrastructure Improvement (South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development (official website)): Awarded to local governments, not directly to businesses or nonprofits.
  • Community Advantage loans (U.S. Small Business Administration (sba.gov) and SBIR.gov): No current Community Advantage page on sba.gov (not in the sba.gov sitemap as of this check); not listed.
  • Economic Assistance Grant; Utah Tourism Cooperative Marketing Grant (Utah state agencies (official websites)): Current round closed (deadline passed) on the official page.
  • Rural County Grant; Affordable Housing Infrastructure Grant (Utah state agencies (official websites)): Only counties or public entities can apply (not businesses or nonprofits).
  • Hotel Impact Mitigation Fund (Utah state agencies (official websites)): Narrow claim program for specific qualified hotels; not a general funding program.
  • Challenge Loan, Natural Gas Fueling Infrastructure Loan (Wyoming Business Council (official website)): Only a one-line summary on the loans index page; not enough verifiable detail captured.
  • Kickstart grants (Wyoming Business Council (official website)): No current program details could be extracted with verifiable quotes from the official page.