How to Apply for a Personal Grant Loan

Personal grants are money offered for specific individual purposes.

Personal grant loans are money to pay for certain projects of interest, the most common being to help provide assistance for qualified individuals to further their education without paying back expenses. While many grants are offered to a variety of interest groups and organizations, a personal grant loan is sometimes offered to individuals to fund work in other areas for specific purposes, however applying for a personal grant loan should not be confused with government benefits or individual assistance programs.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Internet
• Grant sites
• Application forms

Instructions

1. Determine the reason you need the personal grant loan. Show that you have a specific purpose like education, research in a particular field, or for other personal needs related to particular project or interest.

2. Visit federal or state government sites offering grants or go through a Financial Aid Officer (FAO) at college aid departments for educational grant assistance.

3. Read through the procedures and limitations for applying for grant loans. They make it clear that although there is personal grant money available for individual purposes, they are in limited amounts, and none for personal need or financial assistance. For this you would need to find need-based programs offered as state aid or merit assistance for its residents.

4. Check the advanced search pages on sites that offer personal grants. There are many ways to narrow searches for specific types of grant loans. Individuals must submit to grants for themselves, not as a part of or representative of a company, organization or group institution.

5. Narrow your search for grants by eligibility. Grant sites offer many types of searches but generally only those grant loans eligible for individual submission can be applied to personally.

6. Check the loan eligibility options and locate and choose ones for individuals. Then click on search at the bottom of the page to pull up a list of personal grants available. This list is usually categorized by area of interest or need.

7. Click on a particular individual grant offering that interests you and fill out any applications or forms required to qualify for the grant. Most all grants require filling out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to determine what financial aid package would be available based on your need qualifications. Some require other information and maybe even an essay on the particular topic of interest.

Tips & Warnings

• Check for additional information provided online for specific grants by looking for web address page links or 800 numbers offered to answer questions, when searching for qualification requirements or application processes involved.

References

• Grants.Gov
• Gov Benefits.Gov
• "Personal Finance At Your Fingertips"; Ken Little; 2007