Linking Your Needs to a Governmental Source of Funds

I probably receive more than 100 e-mails daily and just as many telephone queries weekly. Everyone wants grants! If you’re feeling clueless as to how to proceed finding potential funding for your organization, you simply need to use the Internet. You can search for potential sources that are interested in what your organization needs or business wants to provide in the way of goods and services. Fire up your computer, and then start searching for the monies that may be waiting for you or your organization. One of the largest grantmaking entities is the U.S. government, which is also known as Uncle Sam. If you want to score big in grant awards, start with Sam.

Conducting a funding search leads you to the money. But before you start your search, you need to know what type of grant money (or funder) will pay you to implement your idea, project, or program. I introduce you to your options in the following sections.


Federal government funding: Cashing
in with your richest uncle
The first place to look for money is within Uncle Sam’s pockets. The federal government is a public funding epicenter. I’m not one to tout the availability of “free” federal grants, but I can tell you that the government does have money for specific types of grant applicants and projects. If you’re interested in looking at what the feds have to offer, take some time to look through the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA), which you can find at www.cfda.gov. The CFDA is the encyclopedia of grant and contract funding programs, so it doesn’t tell you about open grant competitions that you can apply for at a particular time. For that information, go to www.grants.gov, which gives you daily funding announcements on money you can apply for now.

Heading to the statehouse: Seeking
public funds closer to home
Each state receives grant monies from the feds and from tax revenues that are funneled into and out of their general funds. After taking their fair (or unfair) share for administrative overhead, states regrant the money to eligible agencies and organizations in the form of competitive grants or formula grants.

Examples of some state agencies that regrant federal monies are agriculture, commerce, education, health, housing development, natural resources, and transportation. Contact your state legislator at his or her local office or at the state capitol for assistance in identifying grant opportunities within your state. Also consider using the Internet to search for state agencies that award grants and contracts.
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