# Notice of Funding Opportunity **Status: stub — expand.** A **Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)** is the document by which a federal agency announces that a discretionary grant competition is open. Required content is standardized under 2 CFR Part 200: who is eligible, how much money is available and in what award sizes, whether a cost match is required, the period of performance, the review criteria and their weights, and the submission deadline. The NOFO is the least-watched and most consequential policy instrument in the [[Federal Grant Lifecycle]]. Because it defines eligibility and scoring criteria, rewriting it redirects a program's money without amending the authorizing statute or the appropriation. Conversely, simply not issuing a planned NOFO leaves appropriated money with no competition to apply for — a stop that produces almost no reviewable record. [[Executive Order 14332]] (August 7, 2025) placed a senior political appointee's review ahead of publication, requiring new discretionary funding opportunities to be checked for consistency with agency priorities and the national interest before applicants ever see them. ## See also - [[Federal Grant Lifecycle]] — the ASCII map: the NOFO is stage 3 - [[Uniform Guidance]] · [[Executive Order 14332]]