Chances are that you have seen the ads for "Free Grant Money" posted all over the web.  Sounds great right?  Well, it certainly is not nearly as easy as it is portrayed to be.  Before you pay someone to find grant money for your business, it's really important that you understand the basics.  Here they are...

Grant money is usually offered for limited periods of time, on a first come first served basis, and it doesn’t have to be repaid. You need to keep track of grant opportunities and to apply early. Hard work and persistence are needed to get grants, so don’t give up if your grant proposal is rejected a few times. If you keep at it, you will eventually succeed in getting a grant.

Grants money may be offered by government departments, corporations, industry bodies, educational institutions, and private / public trusts and foundations for specific purposes.
 
Free grant money may be provided to government agencies, non profit entities, educational institutions, businesses, and individuals.


1. What are grants provided for?

Grants are usually provided for specific projects at certain times, and may require some reporting. The provider of the grant may require the grant seeker to be a local government or registered non profit body, or require some type of tax-exempt status.

Grants are normally offered to non profit organizations that benefit society. Not much business grant money is available for organizations that work for profit. Grants meant for businesses usually have specific objectives with restrictive criteria. A business may be asked to match the grant funding by investing an equal amount of its own money. 

Grants may be provided to businesses for the development of certain areas, job creation, relocation assistance, promotion of new technologies, promotion of exports, or research and development.

Grants are also provided on the basis of need to individuals with specific profiles, like students, parents, single mothers, low income earners, senior citizens, unemployed / underemployed people, minorities, handicapped people, and victims of natural disasters.

Free money grants may be offered to individuals to provide assistance for housing and maintenance, professional training, education, social security, pensions, disability, health care, utility bills, loan guarantees, and more. 

2. How to find government grant money

You can visit grants.gov, which provides information about government grant money offered by all federal grant making agencies. You can register to receive information about future grant opportunities, and can also apply for grants.

Free government grant money may not be available throughout the year, and you can only apply for grants when they are announced by the different government agencies. These agencies announce the availability of grants in the Federal Register, which is published on each weekday. You can also look out for announcements by visiting the websites of the different government agencies.   

3. Write an effective grant application

There is a lot of competition for getting grants and applicants have to be persistent to be approved. To be successful, you need to create a grant money application that contains clear plans and budgets.

Grant money applications need to clearly convey the goals of the applicants and to explain how they intend to reach them. Applications for grant money should justify the amount of money being sought by the applicants.

Many applicants prefer to have their free grant money applications written by professional grant researchers and writers, to improve their chances of success.

It takes rigorous research and tenacity to actually get grant money, but hey...it's free money, so you can't expect it to be easy, right?

Here's To Your Achievement,