How to Find Nonprofit Accounting Clients Using Federal Award Data

The short version

• USAspending.gov is the official source for federal spending data, including prime awards and subawards to nonprofits. Advanced Search lets you filter by recipient type, award type, place of performance, action date, and award amount.
• An obligation is a promise to pay. An outlay is money actually paid out. Neither is the same as what the nonprofit has expended in its own fiscal year.
• A new award is a signal that grant administration work exists. It is not evidence that the organization needs or wants outside help.
• The Federal Audit Clearinghouse at fac.gov shows whether an organization has filed a Single Audit, which federal programs it reported, and whether the audit included findings.

Start with USAspending Advanced Search

USAspending.gov, run by the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service, is the main tool for prospect research. The filters that matter most:

• Award Type: choose grants, which on USAspending include block grants, formula grants, project grants, and cooperative agreements.
• Recipient Type: select Nonprofit to narrow results to nonprofit recipients. USAspending derives recipient business types from SAM.gov registration data.
• Place of Performance: limit to the states, counties, cities, or ZIP codes your firm serves.
• Time Period: searches use the action date, the date an award transaction was signed or a binding agreement was reached. Because the filter matches any transaction in the window, results include older awards that had an amendment or new obligation during that period. If you want first-time awards, use the option to limit results to new awards only.
• Award Amount: set a floor that matches the size of organization you work with best.

Assistance Listing and awarding agency filters help if your firm specializes in particular programs. Results can be downloaded from the top right of the page.

On timing: agencies must report financial assistance transactions within two weeks of the award transaction, and USAspending publishes new data the day after submission. Loans are reported within 30 days. So a new grant should generally appear within a few weeks of signing, not on the day it is signed.

Read the award profile carefully

Click any Award ID to open its profile. Three areas deserve attention.

Period of performance. The start date and current end date show how long the award runs. A three year project will generate drawdowns, reports, and possibly audit work for years.

Obligations versus outlays. USAspending defines an obligation as a binding agreement in which the government promises to spend money, now or later. An outlay occurs when federal money is actually paid out. On a new multi-year award, outlays to date can be far below the obligated amount.

Expenditure is a third, separate idea. Under 2 CFR 200.502, a nonprofit's federal awards are expended when the related activity occurs, which is what determines Single Audit status. Neither obligations nor outlays on USAspending tell you the organization's expenditures for its own fiscal year. Our Single Audit threshold guide explains why that distinction matters.

Subawards. Many nonprofits receive federal money as subrecipients through a state agency or a larger nonprofit. Under 2 CFR Part 170, prime recipients must report first-tier subawards that equal or exceed $30,000 in federal funds, no later than the end of the month after the subaward is issued. Recipients with gross income under $300,000 in the prior tax year are exempt. These reports were collected in FSRS.gov until March 2025, when FSRS was retired and subaward reporting moved to SAM.gov. USAspending's Advanced Search can show subawards as well as prime awards. Treat subaward data with some care: it is reported by the prime recipient, and USAspending advises not to add subaward amounts to prime award totals, since that double counts.

Confirm the entity in SAM.gov

Every organization that applies for federal awards as a prime recipient must register in SAM.gov, where it is assigned a Unique Entity ID (UEI), a 12 character alphanumeric code. The federal government replaced the DUNS number with the UEI on April 4, 2022. Registrations must be renewed every 365 days to stay active.

Use the UEI to confirm that the award, the audit filing, and the organization you are researching are the same legal entity, not a similarly named affiliate or chapter.

Grants.gov forecasts are not awards

Grants.gov lists opportunities by status: forecasted, posted, closed, and archived. A forecast alerts applicants to a planned opportunity that does not yet have a posted funding announcement, and Grants.gov states plainly that a forecast is not guaranteed to become one. A posted opportunity means applications are open. Neither tells you who will win.

Forecasts help with timing, not prospect lists. Agency award announcements, such as press releases and recipient lists, can show who was selected before USAspending has the record. Confirm the amount and period once it appears.

Check the Federal Audit Clearinghouse

The Federal Audit Clearinghouse at fac.gov collects Single Audit reporting packages, and its data is free and public. You can search by UEI or EIN, audit year, state, Assistance Listing number, entity type, fiscal year end month, and whether the audit reported findings. Data goes back to 2016.

For a given prospect, the clearinghouse can tell you:

• Whether the organization has filed a Single Audit, and for which years
• Its schedule of expenditures of federal awards, which lists programs by Assistance Listing number and shows amounts passed through to subrecipients (2 CFR 200.510(b))
• Whether it elected the de minimis indirect cost rate, now up to 15 percent of modified total direct costs (2 CFR 200.414(f)), which the schedule notes must disclose
• Any audit findings and the related corrective action plan

A filing is a fact about a past year, not a statement about what the organization wants now.

Match the signal to your service

The point of the research is fit, not volume. A few pairings:

• Grant accounting and drawdowns: a new multi-year award, especially a first award from a given agency.
• Schedule of expenditures and audit readiness: rising federal funding and no prior clearinghouse filing, or a filing with findings on reporting or allowable costs.
• Indirect cost rates: an organization using the de minimis rate whose federal portfolio is growing, where a negotiated rate may be worth discussing.
• Subrecipient monitoring: a nonprofit that passes funds through to partners, visible in its subaward reports and its schedule of expenditures.

For finance leadership and capacity, pair federal data with the organization's Form 990. Our Form 990 qualification guide covers what to look for.

How to read the signal responsibly

We label every material claim as Verified, Inferred, or Unknown.

• VerifiedWhat a primary source states, such as an award's amount, period of performance, and assistance type in USAspending, or a finding in a filed audit.
• InferredA reasonable reading of those facts, such as "this award likely adds grant reporting work over the next three years."
• UnknownWhat public data cannot show, such as current staff capacity, existing auditors or advisers, and whether the organization is looking for help.

In outreach, reference public facts plainly and do not assume need. "I saw your organization received a three year cooperative agreement from HHS this summer" is accurate and respectful. "You will need help managing this grant" is an assumption. Ask how they are planning for the work, and let them tell you the rest.

A short research checklist

1. Run a USAspending Advanced Search: grants, Nonprofit recipient type, your service area, a recent action date window, and an amount floor.
2. Open each award profile and record the period of performance, obligated amount, outlays to date, and assistance type.
3. Check for subawards the organization makes or receives.
4. Confirm the legal entity and UEI in SAM.gov.
5. Search the Federal Audit Clearinghouse by UEI for prior filings, programs, and findings.
6. Review the latest Form 990 for fiscal year, revenue, and finance leadership.
7. Label each claim Verified, Inferred, or Unknown before you write a word of outreach.

How AwardNote uses this

Sources

All retrieved October 29, 2026.

• USAspending.gov, Data Sources (source systems, reporting frequency, Advanced Search filters): usaspending.gov
• USAspending.gov, About: usaspending.gov
• USAspending.gov, Data Dictionary: usaspending.gov
• USAspending API, glossary (Obligation, Outlay, Action Date, Period of Performance, Sub-Award, UEI): api.usaspending.gov
• USAspending API, search filter documentation (time period date types, recipient type, award type, award amount): github.com
• 2 CFR Part 170, Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Information (eCFR): ecfr.gov
• SAM.gov, Subaward Reporting in SAM.gov: sam.gov
• SAM.gov, Entity Registration: sam.gov
• U.S. Department of Justice, Resources for Using SAM.gov (UEI transition and format): justicegrants.usdoj.gov
• Grants.gov, Forecast Tab help: grants.gov
• Grants.gov, Grant Terminology: grants.gov
• Federal Audit Clearinghouse, About our data: fac.gov
• Federal Audit Clearinghouse, Search filters: fac.gov
• 2 CFR 200.502, Basis for determining federal awards expended (eCFR): ecfr.gov
• 2 CFR 200.510, Financial statements (eCFR): ecfr.gov
• 2 CFR 200.414, Indirect costs (eCFR): ecfr.gov

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