Why government grants

Government loans serve a specific purpose such as paying for education, helping with housing or business needs, or responding to an emergency or crisis.

Loans are different than grants because recipients are required to repay loans, often with interest. Ask a real person any government-related question for free. They'll get you the answer or let you know where to find it. Share This Page:. Do you have a question? Talk to a live USA. Grants often provide funds for rebuilding or renovating damaged structures, weatherproofing buildings, making structures more environmentally friendly, or adding additional structures to serve the needs of a growing population.

Some grants provide funds for technology, books and other crucial materials in schools and community centers, as well as professional development for teachers. Others provide funds to enrichment programs like summer camps to support economically disadvantaged children who wish to participate. Other grants allow towns, cities, schools and other entities to prepare for emergencies. Funds may support training and equipment that facilitate preparedness, or pay the salaries of emergency workers.

If you are waiting for a grant from the federal government, expect anywhere from 3 to 6 months wait time before you hear a response. If you are waiting for a grant from the state government, it will take about 6 months. If you are waiting for a grant from a funding foundation, you may be waiting for a year before you hear a response. The process of preparing for an application package is often referred to as "grant writing".

As mentioned previously, many people fail to receive grants due to inadequate application package. When a grant opportunity is published, the requirements are clearly laid out in the description.

You as the applicant must, at minimum, include all the materials requested. And to stand out among the rest of applicants, you must go beyond the requirements and provide additional information that will convince the grant issuer and award you the funding requested. Applicants need to understand that funding is limited for each grant opportunity, and is awarded to the most qualified applicants.

The preparation of an application package is a complex process. The United States government has created an online tool - workspace - as an additional option to help applicants to collaborate and prepare files in an application package. A funding opportunity may require a numerous amount of materials including your organization's business plan and historical and current data. Therefore, it is in your organization's best interest to spend a substantial amount of time in preparing for your application package.

There are rarely funding opportunities available for individuals. Ask yourself this question - what are you going to do with this funding? Is it for your own financial gain, publicity, or any other self-interest?

If so, you will not find any assistance from the government. An example of grants available to individuals is research grants where the government officials believe the funding provided to the researcher will result in positive outcome that will benefit the society or a specific and current economic initiative. Remember, when you apply for a government grant opportunity for individuals, you are not guaranteed to be awarded of the funding. Your application package will compete with other application packages submitted by other individuals.

The funding officials will carefully select the recipients based on the content of these applications. Not all organizations qualify to receive grants.

If your organization is not a government, education, public housing, and not for profit organization, your organization must match SBA's size standards in order to qualify to apply for grants. Most active grant-seekers, in fact, employ full-time staff to do nothing but apply for and administer federal grants. The plain truth is that with federal funding cutbacks and competition for grants becoming more intense, seeking a federal grant always requires a lot of time and potentially a lot of money upfront with no guarantee of success.

Through the annual federal budget process , Congress passes laws making money — lots of it — available to the various government agencies for doing major projects designed to assist some sector of the public.

The projects may be suggested by the agencies, members of Congress, the president, states, cities, or members of the public.

But, in the end, Congress decides which programs get how much money for how long. Once the federal budget is approved, funds for the grant projects start to become available and are "announced" in the Federal Register throughout the year.

The official access point for information on all federal grants is the Grants. The entry for all grants will also explain:. While grants are clearly off the table, there are several other federal government benefits and assistance programs that can and do help individuals with many needs and life situations. Consider the following offer. To get your grant, simply give us your checking account information, and we will direct-deposit the grant into your bank account!

Of course, the reality is that while the victims never see any grant money, they do see money disappear from the bank accounts. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content.