Everywhere you turn - T.V., Radio, magazines, or the Internet, 
someone is talking about government grants. What's the real 
story? Does the government give away real money, to ordinary 
people, to use for whatever they want?

NO THEY DON'T! At least not to use for whatever you want. 
However, if you want to use grant money for something that the 
government is interested in funding, and you file a grant 
application that gets approved, then things can get interesting. 

Let's take a closer look:

The government has loads of grant programs that they offer. In 
fact, at last count, there were 1569 of them. That's 1569 
possibilities that someone in the U.S. government is going to be 
willing to give you some free money. The only issue is: Which 
government grant(s) do you qualify for, and how do you find out?

Broadly speaking, there are 15 major grant categories. They are:

(A)  Formula Grants
Allocations of money to States or their subdivisions in 
accordance with distribution formulas prescribed by law or 
administrative regulation, for activities of a continuing nature 
not confined to a specific project.

(B)  Project Grants
The funding, for fixed or known periods, of specific projects. 
Project grants can include fellowships, scholarships, research 
grants, training grants, traineeships, experimental and 
demonstration grants, evaluation grants, planning grants, 
technical assistance grants, survey grants, and construction 
grants.

(C)  Direct Payments for Specified Use
Financial assistance from the Federal government provided 
directly to individuals, private firms, and other private 
institutions to encourage or subsidize a particular activity by 
conditioning the receipt of the assistance on a particular 
performance by the recipient. This does not include solicited 
contracts for the procurement of goods and services for the 
Federal government.

(D)  Direct Payments with Unrestricted Use
Financial assistance from the Federal government provided 
directly to beneficiaries who satisfy Federal eligibility 
requirements with no restrictions being imposed on the recipient 
as to how the money is spent. Included are payments under 
retirement, pension, and compensatory programs.

(E)  Direct Loans
Financial assistance provided through the lending of Federal 
monies for a specific period of time, with a reasonable 
expectation of repayment. Such loans may or may not require the 
payment of interest.

(F)  Guaranteed/Insured Loans
Programs in which the Federal government makes an arrangement to 
identify a lender against part or all of any defaults by those 
responsible for repayment of loans.

(G)  Insurance
Financial assistance provided to assure reimbursement for losses 
sustained under specified conditions. Coverage may be provided 
directly by the Federal government or through private carriers 
and may or may not involve the payment of premiums.

(H)  Sale, Exchange, or Donation of Property and Goods
Programs which provide for the sale, exchange, or donation of 
Federal real property, personal property, commodities, and other 
goods including land, buildings, equipment, food and drugs. This 
does not include the loan of, use of, or access to Federal 
facilities or property.

(I)  Use of Property, Facilities, and Equipment
Programs which provide for the loan of, use of, or access to 
Federal facilities or property wherein the federally owned 
facilities or property do not remain in the possession of the 
recipient of the assistance.

(J)  Provision of Specialized Services
Programs which provide Federal personnel directly to perform 
certain tasks for the benefit of communities or individuals. 
These services may be performed in conjunction with nonfederal 
personnel, but they involve more than consultation, advice, or 
counseling.

(K)  Advisory Services and Counseling
Programs which provide Federal specialists to consult, advise, 
or counsel communities or individuals to include conferences, 
workshops, or personal contacts. This may involve the use of 
published information, but only in a secondary capacity.

(L)  Dissemination of Technical Information
Programs which provide for the publication and distribution of 
information or data of a specialized or technical nature 
frequently through clearinghouses or libraries. This does not 
include conventional public information services designed for 
general public consumption.

(M)  Training
Programs which provide instructional activities conducted 
directly by a Federal agency for individuals not employed by 
the Federal government.

(N)  Investigation of Complaints
Federal administrative agency activities that are initiated in 
response to requests, either formal or informal, to examine or 
investigate claims of violations of Federal statutes, policies, 
or procedure. The origination of such claims must come from 
outside the Federal government.

(O)  Federal Employment
Programs which reflect the Governmentwide responsibilities of 
the Office of Personnel Management in the recruitment and hiring 
of Federal civilian agency personnel.


With all of those categories, and 1569 grant possibilities to 
wade through, you could spend days searching for just one grant 
funding source only to find out that you don't qualify for some 
reason. By the time you do find some obscure grant that you can 
apply for, it might be too late because all of the money has 
been spent. That's why many people hire professional grant 
writers to do all of the work for them. Well, that's fine for 
big companies, but what about us little guys who, if we could 
afford to hire a grant writer, probably wouldn't be looking for 
a grant.

Fortunately, there are software programs that will share the 
work of finding grant money. The better ones enable you to 
electronically search an online database of all U.S. government 
grant programs, by keywords, and returns a list of grants that 
match your criteria. Then, once you read the grant's terms and 
conditions, the software helps and guides you through the 
application process. So, you get the best of both worlds: 
Professional assistance, just like a paid grant writer would 
offer, but you save a LOT of money in the process.

There is millions upon millions of government grant money 
available. All you have to do is find one that matches your 
interests and apply. If your application is approved, the 
check's in the mail!

Good luck!