What is Grant?
There are several organizations, committees, and non profit groups working for a social cause or upliftment of society, poor people, or people affected of natural calamities or wars. All these works need lot of money, manpower and efforts. Governments of all countries provide funds for such social causes; these funds are known as Grants. Grants are not benefits or entitlements; it is a kind of financial assistance from governments, trusts, or organizations to a recipient agency to accomplish social purpose of support or stimulation authorized by the law.
Grant Categories and Recipients
State Governments, local governments, administrative bodies, and non profit organizations engaged in specific and accepted areas of operations, are eligible for grants. These accept areas for which grants are entitled are:
1. Disaster Prevention and Relief
2. Humanities
3. Food and Nutrition
4. Community Development
5. Employment, Labor and Training
6. Environmental Issues
7. Education, Health and Housing
8. Agriculture, Business and Commerce
9. Natural Resources
10. Science and Technology
11. Law, Justice and Legal Services
Apart from above specified categories, there are several other categories for which grants are entitled to operating agencies.
Grants for Small Business
Small Businesses and small level organizations which complies rules and guidelines set by Grant Commissions and seeking for funds to fund their various needs and set up their work are also entitled to these Grants. In some cases grants are also awarded to individuals, but there are restrictions applied to grants, like an individual cannot apply for a grant meant for organizations only.
In United States, federal bodies like Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), NASA, Homeland Securities, Department of Justice and Department of Education are major Grant providers.
These grants are really helpful for mankind in several ways. Grants provided by Department of Health and Human Services to serve people suffering from several life long diseases like Aids, Breast Cancer, and others have really helped millions of people in gaining their lost momentum of life. Aids provided for Disaster Prevention and Relief has served Tsunami affected people worldwide. Grants provided to agencies working for environment protection helped in generating awareness about ill effects of pollution, deforestation and urbanization. Several Small Business got benefited through these grants and spread their wings in various segments of their business.