Decoding Agency Codes and Federal Grant Structures
What Is an Agency Code?
Every federal agency and sub-agency that awards grants has a two-letter agency code assigned by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). These codes appear on every grant announcement, in the ALN (Assistance Listing Number), and throughout Grants.gov data. Understanding them helps you search and filter more precisely.
Common examples:
- HH - Department of Health and Human Services
- AG - Department of Agriculture
- EN - Department of Energy
- EP - Environmental Protection Agency
- ED - Department of Education
- HU - Department of Housing and Urban Development
- DJ - Department of Justice
- NF - National Science Foundation
- AR - National Endowment for the Arts
How Agencies Are Organized
Most large federal departments are divided into operating divisions, offices, and bureaus - each of which may run its own grant programs. HHS, for example, has operating divisions including NIH, HRSA, SAMHSA, ACF, CDC, CMS, and AHRQ. Each has different mission areas and different types of eligible recipients.
When you're searching for grants, filtering to the top-level department (HHS) will show everything across all divisions. Filtering to a specific sub-agency or using keywords that match a specific program office narrows your results considerably. Understanding the internal structure of your target agencies helps you write better applications too - you should know whether you're applying to HRSA (which funds health centers and rural health) or SAMHSA (which funds mental health and substance use treatment).
How to Look Up an Agency's Grant Portfolio
To see everything a specific agency is currently funding:
- Go to the Grants search page on GrantMine
- Use the Agency filter to select the agency
- Set Status to "Posted" for open opportunities
- Save this search to monitor that agency's portfolio over time
You can also browse the agency's own website. Most agencies publish a grants or funding page that lists their current NOFOs and provides program officer contact information - information that doesn't always appear on Grants.gov.
Understanding the Opportunity Number
Every grant announcement has a unique opportunity number (also called the funding opportunity number or FON). This is a structured identifier that usually encodes the agency code, fiscal year, program code, and sometimes a sequence number. For example: HHS-2025-ACF-OCS-EE-0123 tells you this is an HHS grant from ACF's Office of Community Services, Energy and Environment program, issued in 2025.
The opportunity number is the authoritative identifier for an announcement. When communicating with a program officer, always reference it by this number. When searching for a specific announcement you've seen before, search by opportunity number for an exact match.
Program vs. Announcement vs. Award
These three things are related but distinct:
- A program is the ongoing grant program established by statute - e.g., the Community Services Block Grant program. It may have been operating for decades.
- An announcement (NOFO) is a specific competition within that program - the agency's invitation to apply for this year's funding round. Most programs issue new announcements annually.
- An award is a specific grant given to a specific applicant. One announcement may result in dozens of awards.
USASpending.gov tracks awards. Grants.gov tracks announcements. GrantMine shows you both: the current announcements from Grants.gov, plus historical award data from USASpending.gov to help you understand what the program has funded in the past.