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How to apply for ACF’s 2025 CED grants: registrations, file limits and review criteria
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Summary
ACF’s Office of Community Services outlined application requirements for the 2025 CED NOFO: mandatory SAM.gov/UEI, login.gov and grants.gov registrations, a two‑file upload limit with a combined 200‑page maximum (excluding OMB forms), and scoring criteria used by the review panel.
The Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Community Services detailed application mechanics for the 2025 Community Economic Development (CED) Notice of Funding Opportunity and emphasized that applicants should begin required federal registrations well before the deadline.
Presenter, speaking for ACF, said applicants must complete three registrations to apply: an active SAM.gov registration (including a Unique Entity Identifier/UEI), grants.gov registration, and a login.gov account. The presentation warned that the registration processes can take several days to several weeks and strongly encouraged applicants to start early.
Staff member explained file and formatting rules: applicants may upload only two electronic files to grants.gov — one for the project narrative and one for other attachments — and the combined page limit for those two files is 200 pages (standard OMB forms such as the SF‑424 are excluded from the page count and are submitted separately). The presenters recommended using the grants.gov‑compatible PDF format and referred applicants to grants.gov troubleshooting resources for compatibility issues.
On submission, ACF requires electronic applications via grants.gov; paper submissions are permitted only when the applicant has a written exemption from an ACF grants officer and, if granted, must meet any formatting differences described in the NOFO, with a 4:30 p.m. Eastern receipt time for paper submissions on the due date. Presenter added that ACF may extend an application due date in rare circumstances such as natural disasters or widespread system outages, but that such decisions rest with ACF’s Chief Grants Management Officer.
The presentation summarized the review process: after an initial screening for timeliness and maximum award amount, qualifying applications will be scored by a panel of non‑federal community economic development and social service professionals against the evaluation criteria in Step 4 of the NOFO. Key scoring categories include Need for Assistance (2 points), Approach (12 points), and business plan components totaling 60 points (participating business viability 15 points; high‑quality job creation 13 points; barrier‑reduction support services 17 points; community revitalization 15 points). Applicants were instructed to include a clear quarterly timeline, supporting evidence of business viability, signed third‑party agreements for participating businesses, and documentation demonstrating capacity to deliver support services.
Finally, presenters reviewed post‑award reporting expectations: recipients must submit semiannual performance progress reports (PPR) and financial reports via the GrantSolutions Online Data Collection (OLDC) system and follow 45 CFR Part 75 and the HHS Grants Policy Statement (GPS) and other applicable federal policies.
Prospective applicants were directed to the NOFO contacts and resources on the ACF website for step‑by‑step instructions and troubleshooting guidance.
