FACT SHEET: Marking the Achievements of the Council on Federal Financial Assistance on its First Anniversary

In its first year, the Council on Federal Financial Assistance has helped lower the burden for tens of thousands of Federal grant applicants, achieved major milestones to improve the use of Federal funds, and increased collaboration among Federal agencies

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring that Federal financial assistance programs are delivered in an efficient, effective, and equitable manner, while also reducing administrative burdens on Federal financial assistance applicants and recipients. To accomplish these goals, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) created and launched the Council on Federal Financial Assistance (COFFA) in 2023 to support work across agencies to drive outcomes.

Since that time, COFFA has transformed Federal grantmaking. Thanks to COFFA’s efforts, the Federal government has progressed from an uncoordinated approach that led to sometimes conflicting strategies by different agencies for implementing government-wide guidance to the current approach with clear, aligned expectations for implementation and a coordinated governance structure for how Federal funds are used to support communities across the country.

COFFA has improved the transparency, accountability, and results from the financial assistance that the Federal Government distributes to state and local governments, nonprofit entities, institutions of higher learning, small businesses, and other organizations. These organizations receive Federal financial assistance, mainly in the form of grants, to provide vital services and support to communities across the country on behalf of the Federal Government.

COFFA established a new leadership structure for all Federal financial assistance and created a single voice on Federal financial assistance policy, management, and technology activities. It allows agencies to work together to implement best practices and improve coordination with the oversight community to ensure taxpayer dollars get to their intended recipients. COFFA has been instrumental for improving the accountability and effectiveness of Federal funds, producing tangible results in the following areas in its first year:

1. Cut Red Tape for Federal Grant Recipients

Drove Consistent Adoption of Uniform Grants Guidance: The Uniform Grants Guidance, or 2 CFR part 200, sets the rules of the road for how Federal agencies and recipients of Federal funds manage Federal funding each year. The Uniform Grants Guidance was revised in April 2024 to use plain language and streamline requirements to lower the burden on recipients of Federal funds. COFFA played a key role in ensuring that Federal agencies implemented the new guidance in a timely, consistent, and effective manner to quickly lower burden on recipients of Federal funds, including with respect to: 

• Agency Plans: To ensure that large grantmaking agencies and small agencies with significant grant portfolios were able to meet the October 1 timeline for implementing the Uniform Grants Guidance, each COFFA member agency submitted a plan to OMB detailing how they will implement the Uniform Grants Guidance at their agencies. These plans provide information on agencies’ timeline and internal process for adopting the updated guidance.  Based on those plans, and ongoing discussions at COFFA meetings, OMB issued additional implementation guidance in collaboration with COFFA.

• Training: COFFA developed training materials to provide the entire Federal workforce with a foundational understanding of the critical policy changes contained in the updated Uniform Grants Guidance.

Simplified Notices of Funding Opportunity: Complex grant announcements or Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) make it difficult for all recipients – especially nonprofits, Tribes, local governments, and other limited capacity organizations – to compete for Federal funding. Following the lead of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to truly make Federal funding available for all eligible entities, regardless of size or sophistication, COFFA is streamlining NOFOs to make them shorter and easier for potential applicants to understand. As part of these efforts, COFFA supported agencies on:

• FY24 NOFO Simplification Pilots: COFFA member agencies participated in a pilot initiative to shorten, streamline and simplify a small number of NOFOs in FY24. Together, five pilot agencies identified 15 NOFOs to simplify, which will lower burden on more than 2,000 grant applicants for hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal grant awards. COFFA supported these efforts by sharing lessons learned that can be applied to broader NOFO simplification efforts in FY25 and beyond. For example, the Department of Transportation reduced by nearly 50% the length of the grant announcement for its FY24 Public Transportation on Indian Reservations Program. Further, through the simplification pilot, AmeriCorps was able to cut by almost 25% the page count for its FY24 AmeriCorps State and National NOFO. In addition, HHS published 69 simplified NOFOs in FY24. On average, these simpler NOFOs reduced word count by 45% and decreased reading level by 3.5 grades. As a result, applicants with limited or no experience with HHS grants spent nearly 15% less time applying for the simpler NOFOs, saving an average of 9 hours per applicant. COFFA is supporting these ongoing NOFO simplification efforts by sharing lessons learned that can be applied to broader NOFOs in FY25 and beyond.      
• FY25 NOFO Simplification Plans: In August, every Federal grantmaking agency was required to submit a plan to OMB that detailed how they planned to streamline an initial set of their NOFOs in FY25. COFFA supported this work by assisting agencies in developing their NOFO simplification plans, building on lessons learned from the FY24 NOFO pilots. COFFA is also providing a wealth of cross-government resources to assist agencies in re-writing the NOFOs identified in their FY25 NOFO Simplification Plans.
• FY26 and beyond: Building on lessons from efforts in FY24 and FY25, COFFA will continue to support agencies in streamlining their NOFOs and reducing burden on applicants for Federal funds. This work will continue into FY26 and until all agency NOFOs have been streamlined.

2. Improved Access to Federal Programs by Supporting New Tools and Data Standards

Making Federal Programs More Accessible and Consistent: Launched in February 2024, the Federal Program Inventory (FPI) is a comprehensive, searchable tool that provides critical information about all Federal programs that provide grants, loans, or direct payments. By ensuring information about these programs is accessible, the FPI makes it easier for potential applicants to find the programs they need and ensures easier, effective stewardship of taxpayer funds. The FPI draws from data sources generated by COFFA-member agencies. COFFA further supported the development of the FPI by providing real-world feedback from all major Federal agencies and undertaking a process to create more consistent data standards, including by:

• Gathering Real-world Feedback: With representatives from every major agency, COFFA served as a critical voice in identifying feedback during the initial development of the Federal Program Inventory, and has continued to provide regular input on how to improve this tool.
• Developing More Consistent Data Standards: Ensuring Federal systems and programs use the same data standards means programs are easier for potential applicants to find and apply for, and for the Government to efficiently administer. COFFA is helping OMB and HHS develop data standards that will improve the quality and interoperability of Federal financial award information, including for the FPI.  

3. Improved Engagement with Other Governmental Stakeholders, Congress, and Oversight Community

Improved Communication: In the past, communication on issues related to Federal financial assistance has often been fractured and uncoordinated. This has made it difficult for the Executive Branch to develop consistent standards, address problems in a unified way, harness opportunities, comprehensively react to current events, or receive feedback from important stakeholders like Congress or Inspectors General. To remedy this, COFFA created a structure for regular and uniform communication with diverse stakeholders, including:

• COFFA.gov: While information on financial assistance has traditionally been hard to locate, COFFA.gov provides a unified website for all information related to Federal financial assistance. In addition to standing up the website, COFFA workgroups created a logo and brand to ensure that COFFA is a well-recognized entity throughout the Federal financial assistance community. For example, COFFA.gov has served as the focal point of all public-facing information on revisions to Uniform Grants Guidance, which includes one-pagers on evidence, data, and equity; a crosswalk of revisions; and a redline document showing the changes made by OMB to the Uniform Grants Guidance in 2024. These resources provide crucial information to both Federal personnel and recipients of Federal financial assistance to help them effectively implement the new Uniform Grants Guidance requirements under title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).
• Newsletters: To address previous gaps in communication in recent years, COFFA regularly disseminates newsletters to Federal financial assistance community on initiatives and events, such as a discussion on Tribal Customer Experience Pilot for Post-Award Reporting.
• Meetings: COFFA members meet on a monthly basis with a focus on improving the consistency, quality, and implementation of Federal financial assistance. In addition, COFFA hosts ad-hoc meetings focused on specific and timely topics. These ad-hoc sessions provide a unique forum to increase coordination and improve implementation on topics such as the Uniform Grants Guidance, Made in America, and the Federal Program Inventory. Further, COFFA has created working groups that bring together agency staff on topics such as simplifying Federal grant announcements and supporting the Federal grants workforce.

Through these accomplishments, COFFA’s first year has been highly successful in improving the transparency, accountability, and results from the over $1 trillion in annual Federal financial assistance. See here for information about Council on Federal Financial Assistance members.