Database Offers Information on Federal Grants, Contracts

October 26, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute

A new Web site features a searchable database of federal grants and contracts.

FedSpending was created by OMB Watch, a government-watchdog organization, which says it started the site after years of frustration at not being able to get information about the money spent by the federal government.

The new site relies on the government’s own data, which the group says is, at times, flawed and incomplete.

OMB Watch says it hopes that use of the new site will prompt the government to improve the quality of the information it collects and provides to the public.

The Sunlight Foundation, in Washington, awarded OMB Watch a grant of $334,272 over three years for the site.

To get there: Go to http://fedspending.org.

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About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.