Well yes, April 2 is the date they publicly announce the fellowship recipients on their website, but I assume that people who actually get the award hear much earlier and don't learn it from their website. The SSRC also announces the names in early May on their website, but usually email the offers around mid April.
I heard about the earlier date from someone in my department who received the CLIR fellowship last year and said he was notified in early-mid March (although I didn't ask that person about the exact date). Also, last year someone here http://academicjobs....llon_Fellowship claimed to get a notification on March 3. For some reason, people decided that that person posted his/her add under a wrong fellowship, but I am not sure about it actually. I am reading on Academic Wikia. com ONLY about people receiving rejections between March 29 and April 1. Judehermes, do you have any firm knowledge about someone who actually got an offer from CLIR during that time span?