You know there are free government grants available for so many uses. But how does one apply for it? Well, it all depends on what you want the grant for. The first thing you need to check for is your eligibility. Remember, government grants are just one of the options when it comes to financial assistance.
For students, you could go to the FAFSA web site (http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/). This is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and you have to complete the form here and submit it online. All applications for free government grants must be done after you have collected all the required documents. Keep in mind that more than six million students applied through FAFSA in 2002 alone. Imagine the student traffic through this site and how important it is that your application should not be rejected just because you did not prepare enough to send in all that was required.
What are the eligibility criteria for FAFSA? Firstly, you must be an American citizen or an eligible non-citizen. You must have a valid Social Security Number (SSN). The minimum educational qualification you must have is a high school diploma or a GED certificate (General Education Development). Failing which, you must pass a Department of Education approved test. All male students between 18 and 25 have to register for selective service if they apply for free government grants. And you need to be enrolled as a regular student in an eligible program. According to the federal law, those convicted in drug cases cannot apply for government grants. They can, however, apply for non-federal state grants.
Theres a huge chunk allocated for major projects by Congress, If you want a piece of that pie, you can apply through the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA). You can apply for your free government grants through their web site http://www.cfda.gov/. The CFDA lists are administered by 57 federal agencies and in their web site you will find all the assistance and grants programs you are eligible to apply for. Take a look at their web site today to see if you qualify for any of them. To give you an example, $22 million has been allocated to the HUD or the Department of Housing and Urban Development by Congress. This is to make sure that the Public and Indian Housing Drug Elimination Program is implemented. Projects that can do away with or mitigate the problem of drugs will always be eligible for free government grants. You could then apply to the HUD for funding.
There are various other government agencies as well like the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Education Grants and Contracts Information, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Stopping Violence Against Women and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). The NHS or the Department of Health and Human Services has more than 300 programs where you can apply for free government grants. These are run by several different agencies.
It takes time and effort to apply for a free government grant and to make sure it comes through. You have to be sure that you can fulfill your obligations which come along with the grant. This is something you will have to keep in mind and make sure of before you apply for it.
