Grants For Personal Needs

Where can I find online personal needs government grant applications?

It is grants.gov. It is a a long list of grants and the dates due. But, there is a larger number of federal grants for nonprofits or some form of research. It takes a detailed financial statement and time. It is not as simple as it seems from the commercials or books. Also, each state has grants available for small businesses, but it can be located by searching your state’s government website.

Forget grant money – there’s hardly any money for individuals. You can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Help (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov – these are two sites made by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support your purposes. But you’d be hard pressed to find any grant that would support individuals.

Even if you buy books on “how to get grants” or list that supposedly has information on grants — all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently.

Note though that these grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments. Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT – Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Fleeting Term Lending Program. Individuals especially for personal purposes are not eligible for federal grants.

Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women’s Business Ownership Help that are given to those who will make women’s business center that will train women entrepreneurs

The government is NOT in the business of giving away free money for the sake of giving away money. Grants are free, but it means OBLIGATION. You will be obligated to do as the grant sets out to do. Grants have objectives, and your purpose must fit the objective of the grant.

For one, you have to write the grant application and the grant application is not a simple document – you have to clarify how your purpose for applying for the grant fits well with the objectives set out by the grant. Grants have objectives, and the grant applications that best captures the grant’s objectives are approved.

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