Opportunities to Operationalize Improved Grants Performance
Federal grants support nearly every aspect of public life, from housing to broadband access, education, infrastructure, disaster recovery and more. In FY 2025, grants represented 22.6 % of all federal obligations ($1.2T of $5.3T). Despite this scale, federal awarding agencies struggle to measure performance and communicate the outcomes of programs funded by grants. With increasing scrutiny from the Administration, Congress, oversight bodies, and the media, performance measurement is essential.
At the 2026 AGA Performance Counts Summit (Summit), a panel of federal and state leaders in grants management shared their experience and perspectives on grants performance measurement. Three themes emerged as opportunities for how grant-making agencies can strengthen performance measurement: 1) Data quality and standardization; 2) System infrastructure and capacity; and 3) Program design. Each theme presents practical opportunities to enhance performance measurement to communicate program outcomes and to better support mission objectives.
