How to Find Legitimate Government Grants

Beware of grants with application fees

Contacting government agencies, searching the Internet, and reading directories enable one to find legitimate government grants. Finding them is the first step in the process to obtaining a grant, but is typically the most difficult. Making it more difficult is the presence of outdated, canceled and even fraudulent requests for proposal (RFPs). Complicating it further is the fact that federal, state and county grants are typically advertised in different locations.

Instructions

1. Write a 75-to100-word summary of your proposal idea, specifying the nature of the project, its goals, timetable, the grant funding required, and the total funding needed to complete the project. This is useful when reviewing grants to determine if your project is eligible. Read this to potential funders when calling about RFPs; they will typically want to know this information. This summary can also be used when preparing your formal proposal, as most applications require such a summary as the first paragraph.

2. Check RFPs from federal sources on the grants.gov website applicable to your project. Use the advanced search tool to limit results by eligible entities (sole proprietor, small business, non-profit entity, etc.) and project subject (biology, transportation, education, etc.).

3. Read the RFPs published in the current-year Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, available at libraries and at the cfda.gov website, for additional opportunities. Contact the "for more information" person listed for any RFPs that seem applicable to your project to obtain the most up-to-date version of the RFP.

4. Contact state bureaus of finance, state and regional councils of government (COGs) and county offices for information on state, county, special district, or city grants. If you call, have your summary available, as officials will typically ask you for this information. Contact information is available through globalcomputing.com and on the government agency web pages.

Tips & Warnings

• RFPs downloaded from a website with a .gov or .edu extension or obtained through a phone call to an agency are typically the most up-to-date and legitimate and do not require verification.

• Provide the Catalog of Domestic Assistance opportunity number (located next to the grant proposal title) when calling for information. This expedites the agency's search, considering that frequently, grants change title, are amended or are canceled after being published in the catalog.

• Avoid Internet search engine hunts using key words such as "government grants". These typically result in a significant number of outdated, and more commonly, fraudulent RFPs.

• All government grant information is publicly available. There is no information a grant-finding service, such as those advertised on the Internet, can provide that you cannot obtain free through grants.gov, the Catalog of Domestic Assistance, or contact with local government agencies.

• Do not respond to RFPs asking for a fee to receive a copy of the RFP. Government agencies provide free downloads and hard copies of RFPs.

• Do not respond to RFPs asking for a fee to be submitted with your proposal. Legitimate government grants do not require an application or proposal fee.

• Alert the granting agency immediately if: the RFP was downloaded from a site without an .edu or .gov extension that asks you for a Social Security, bank account or credit card number, and does not include a form titled "Debarrment Certification" to be submitted with the proposal. Response to these requests could make you a target for identity theft.

References

• Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance; United States of America

Resources

• Association of Bay Area Governments: COGs and MPOs by State
• Global Computing: American Cities, American Counties, American States
• Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance: Find Programs