Federal Grants Spending Feed Screensaver
The Federal Grants Spending Feed screensaver ranks real recent US federal grant awards. It is free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
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Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the Federal Grants Spending Feed screensaver works
The saver reads real grant awards from USAspending.gov's own API.
Each row shows a real recipient, dollar amount and awarding agency.
The pipeline refreshes on USAspending.gov's own daily update schedule.
No key is required for this key-less public endpoint.
Reading USAspending grant awards
USAspending.gov is the official source for US federal spending data. Its data standards come from the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (the DATA Act), which directed the Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury to set government-wide definitions for the financial data agencies report. The site follows money from appropriations down to awards, and each award record names a recipient, an amount and an awarding agency. Grants are one of several award types alongside contracts, loans and direct payments.
A grant is financial assistance given to a state, local government, university, nonprofit or other recipient for a public purpose, rather than a purchase of goods or services for the government itself. The dollar figure on this display is the amount obligated in that award record, which means a commitment of funds and not necessarily money already paid out. Large figures often go to state agencies, which can pass funds on to many local recipients.
Award records can be modified after they are first reported, and later actions can add or reduce funding, so one award may appear as several transactions. Recent awards also depend on agencies reporting them, so they can show up with a delay. A grant to a state office is not spending on a single project, and the feed gives no judgement about what the funds achieved.
A worked example
A real recent grant to a real university or nonprofit is ranked alongside the largest other real recent awards.
Settings & tips
- Recipients, amounts and agencies are real, unedited USAspending entries.
- Accent recolours the amounts and bars.
- USAspending.gov is the US Treasury's own real spending-transparency site.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real spending data?
- Yes — real federal grants from USAspending.gov's own public API.
- Is a key needed?
- No. The spending-by-award endpoint is fully key-less.
- Does this include contracts?
- No — it covers real grants and cooperative agreements only.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Is the amount what the recipient actually received?
- Not necessarily. It is the obligated amount in the award record, which is a commitment, and actual payments may be made over time.
- Why do state governments appear so often?
- Many federal programs send funds to state agencies, which can then pass money on to local governments and organizations, so the first recipient on record is often a state office.
- How do grants differ from contracts?
- A grant provides assistance for a public purpose, while a contract is a purchase of goods or services for the government's own use. Both appear on USAspending as separate award types.