SF-424 Instructions: Filling Out Every Field

These SF-424 instructions take the Application for Federal Assistance one item at a time, in the order the form presents them, with the formats Grants.gov expects and the entries it checks against SAM.gov. They follow the Grants.gov instructions for SF-424 version 4.0. If your agency publishes its own instructions in the funding notice, those win wherever they differ. For what the form is, which variant you need, and where to get the correct copy, see our overview of the SF-424 and its variants.

Have these open before you start

1. Your SAM.gov entity record, active and not due to expire before the deadline. The legal name, UEI and physical address you enter must match it.
2. Your EIN from your IRS records.
3. The Notice of Funding Opportunity for this competition, for agency-specific instructions and the required project dates.
4. Your final budget, or at least the version you will reconcile against later.
5. The application package in a Grants.gov Workspace. That copy prefills the agency and program numbers. A generic PDF does not, and cannot be submitted.

If your registration is pending or close to expiring, deal with that first. Our guide to SAM.gov registration and the UEI covers the timeline.

Items 1 to 7: type of submission and identifiers

1. Type of Submission. Preapplication, Application, or Changed/Corrected Application. Use Changed/Corrected only to replace something you already submitted. Unless the agency asks, you cannot use it to submit changes after the closing date.

2. Type of Application. New, Continuation (an additional funding or budget period for an existing project, which can include renewals), or Revision (a change to the government's obligation on an existing award). For a revision, choose the letter codes: A increase award, B decrease award, C increase duration, D decrease duration, E other, or a combination such as AC.

3. Date Received. Leave it. Grants.gov completes it electronically.

4. Applicant Identifier. Your own internal control number for the application, if you use one. Optional unless the agency says otherwise.

5a. Federal Entity Identifier. A number a federal agency has assigned to your organization, if any.

5b. Federal Award Identifier. Blank for a new application. For a continuation or revision, the existing award number.

6. Date Received by State and 7. State Application Identifier. Leave blank. The state assigns these where state review applies.

Item 8: applicant information, matched to SAM.gov

This block is where most validation failures start. Copy from SAM.gov, not from letterhead or last year's application.

8a. Legal Name. The legal name of the organization registered in SAM.gov that will carry out the project. Not a program name or trading name.

8b. Employer/Taxpayer Identification Number (EIN/TIN). As assigned by the IRS. Organizations outside the United States enter 44-4444444.

8c. UEI. The 12-character Unique Entity Identifier from SAM.gov.

8d. Address. Street, city, county, state, country, and the nine-digit ZIP code. If no +4 exists for your address, enter 0000 for the last four digits.

8e. Organizational Unit. The department or division that will do the work. Useful at universities and large agencies.

8f. Person to Be Contacted on Matters Involving This Application. Name, title, phone and email of the working contact, usually the project director or grants manager. This person does not need to be the authorized representative in item 21, and often should not be.

Items 9 to 12: who is applying, to whom, for what

9. Type of Applicant. At least one code, up to three. Common ones: A state government, B county government, C city or township government, G independent school district, H public or state-controlled institution of higher education, M nonprofit with 501(c)(3) status (other than higher education), N nonprofit without 501(c)(3) status, O private institution of higher education, P individual, R small business. If you pick X (other), describe it.

10. Name of Federal Agency. Prefilled in Grants.gov.

11. Assistance Listing Number and Title. The form still labels this with the old Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) name. It is the program number from the funding notice, prefilled in Grants.gov. Never reuse last year's number; listings are renumbered and retired.

12. Funding Opportunity Number and Title. Prefilled in Grants.gov.

Items 13 to 17: the project

13. Competition Identification Number and Title. Only if the agency uses sub-competitions. Prefilled when it does.

14. Areas Affected by Project. Only for programs where the areas affected differ from the places of performance you list on the separate Project/Performance Site Location(s) form. Attach a list if there are many.

15. Descriptive Title of Applicant's Project. A brief, specific title. Use the same title everywhere in the package.

16. Congressional Districts. 16a is the applicant's district; 16b is the primary district the project affects. Use the two-letter state code and a three-digit district number: CA-005, CA-012. If every district in a state is affected, enter MD-all; if the project is nationwide, US-all. Attach a list of additional districts if needed. If you are unsure of your district, the Grants.gov community blog has a walkthrough for looking it up.

17. Proposed Project Start and End Dates. Match the period of performance in your narrative and budget, and use a start date the notice permits. A start date that will have passed by the time awards are made looks careless.

Item 18: estimated funding

Item 18 splits the request into Federal, Applicant, State, Local, Other, Program Income, and Total. Three rules:

• The Grants.gov instructions ask for the amount requested or contributed during the first funding or budget period. Some agencies instead ask for the full project amount. Check your notice and follow it.
• Include the value of in-kind contributions on the appropriate lines. If your program requires match, the non-federal lines must agree with Section C of the SF-424A and with what you document in your cost share and in-kind records.
• For a revision that changes an existing award, enter only the amount of the change, with decreases in parentheses.

Whatever period your agency uses, the figures must agree with the matching totals on the SF-424A budget form. The two forms are usually completed at different times by different people, and they drift. Reconcile them as the last step before submission, and again after any late budget change.

Items 19 to 21: state review, debt, signature

19. Is Application Subject to Review by State Under Executive Order 12372? Three choices: the application was made available to the state for review on a given date; the program is subject to review but the state has not selected it; or the program is not covered. If in doubt, your state's Single Point of Contact can tell you whether the review applies.

20. Is the Applicant Delinquent on Any Federal Debt? This applies to the organization, not the person signing. Federal debt includes delinquent audit disallowances, loans and taxes. If the answer is yes, attach an explanation. Answering no when a delinquency exists is a false certification.

21. Authorized Representative. Name, title, phone and email of the official authorized to sign for the organization. When the application goes through Grants.gov, the signature and date are applied automatically at submission, so the person listed must be the person who submits, holding the Authorized Organization Representative role. A copy of the governing body's authorization for that person to sign must be on file in your office, and some agencies require it as an attachment. By signing, the representative also agrees to the certifications and assurances the form refers to.

When Grants.gov rejects the package

A rejected or error-status submission is not a submission. The usual SF-424 causes, all checkable days ahead:

• UEI does not match an active SAM.gov registration, because the number was mistyped or the registration lapsed.
• Legal name differs from SAM.gov, often a missing comma or an "Inc." on only one record.
• The submitter lacks the Authorized Organization Representative role for that organization in Grants.gov.
• An outdated form version, from working outside the Workspace.

Submit early enough to correct and resubmit if any of these appear, and check your status until it shows the package as received and validated. Our guide on how to apply for federal grants, start to finish covers tracking a submission after you press the button.