Monday, December 31, 2007

Grant Program For Physical Education

With this grant you can get equipment and professional development. It will not fund athletics. This program provides grants to initiate, expand, and improve physical education programs for K-12 students in order to help them make progress. You can find out more about this grant program (and whether or not you are eligible to apply for it) by going to the government's website.

An appropriation of over $72 Million Dollars has been allotted for this grant progrm.

Number of New Awards Anticipated: 58


Average New Award: $300,000


Range of New Awards: $100,000–$500,000

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Daycare Grants - Questions And Answers

Am I eligible to receive a grant to open a day care center in my home?

You might be eligible to receive funds through your States program. Almost all States provide funds for child care. States and/or local agencies (i.e., county, city, regional offices) may provide services directly or purchase them from qualified providers. Child care is also funded through other grant programs at the state and local level. You can check the web site to find more information about these grants, including the names of your state official and state program contact information for this grant program.

Are there special programs to assist child care programs in rural areas?

I live in a rural area. Can I get a grant to start a child care program? center? family child care home? day care?

The government has programs that offer loans to develop community facilities, which may include child care centers. Public entities (such as counties and cities) and non-profit organizations (under certain conditions) may be eligible for the loans. For details, consult government's web site.

Are there funds available for providing meals in child care?

I heard that the government provides funds for meals. How do I find out who to contact to get these funds? Who should I contact to get funding for serving food at child care? How do I get funds for serving food at my child care center? Are nutrition funds available for child care programs? centers? homes?

Your local state office can provide subsidies for meals and snacks for children enrolled in child care programs. You can obtain information on this subject by consulting their web site.

Where do I go to get funds to start or improve my child care program?

Does my state help child care providers? centers? family child care homes? day cares?

How do I contact my state to get help with starting my child care program?

Where can my families find child care funds?

The state agency responsible for subsidizing child care programs can tell you if funds are available to help you start a new child care program or expand your existing program, and they will let you know how to apply.

What other types of funding programs are available?

Does your program provide funds for youth programs?

What funds are available for youth programs? programs that serve youth?

Funding is also provided to local communities to support young people, particularly runaway and homeless youth, and their families through three grant programs authorized by the government. More information about these funding programs is available via a .pdf download from the government website. (To view the information, you must first download and install the free Acrobat Reader if you have not previously done so.

For more information about the basics of this program you can visit the website.

Grant funding is also provided for research, evaluation, and demonstration programs designed to explore specific issues, evaluate programs, and test new theories. To date the government has funded more than 150 demonstration projects and is currently funding 13 State Youth Development Collaboration projects designed to promote the youth development approach. For more information, you can visit their website also.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Grant Basics 101 - Page 2!

I have had to split my Grant Basics 101 page into 2 continuing pages. The reason why is because there was so much information about grant programs, the grant program process and just general questions and answers that the information was making the one page too big in size!

But it does prove a very valid point and that is that there is just so much information out there about grant programs and the grant program process in general. It also shows that people have a lot of questions about grant programs because they are not familiar with what it is all about.

Hopefully my pages and this blog will help to answer a few questions that you may have about grants and the grants process in general.

Most people who are not familiar with it seem to think that they can just apply for a grant and get the grant money and this is not true. What I want to make a point of here is that one is not automatically guaranteed a grant! You have to apply for the grant and your application has to be chosen to be awarded a grant. It is not an automatic process and you will not automatically get a grant just because you have applied for it!

Hopefully though my pages will show you that there are a number of grant programs out there which you may be eligible to apply for. These pages should also help dispel the myth that there are no grant programs out there for for-profit businesses and that there are no grant programs for those that either want to start their own daycare business or that there are no grant programs for those that already have a daycare business but who are looking for grant funding to help their daycare business.

There may even come a time when I will have to split the pages even more because there is just so much information about grant programs out there and there are new grant programs being created all the time!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Grant Program For Photo Journalists!

Every year there has been a grant program that awards photojournalists individual grants of $20,000 each, for a total of $100,000. Grant recipients are given the opportunity to sign a one-year exclusive-rights deal whereby their work will be marketed and available for license to customers worldwide while retaining copyright of their imagery.


Upcoming grant application deadline will be November 2008.

Two grants will be announced in February and May of 2009). Additional grants will be announced on a different month.

You can visit their website to learn more.

To submit your proposal and portfolio please read the application requirements and submission guidelines and complete the application form. Note that new electronic submission guidelines may soon be available.


To apply applicants must be presently engaged as a professional photojournalist and apply as an individual. The grant will fund new work from both established and rising photojournalists.

Please review and follow all application instructions found in Application Requirements and Submission Guidelines. Applications that do not adhere to all submission guidelines will not be submitted to judges for consideration.

Once your application is complete and formatted to the specifications outlined in our guidelines, please send your CD submission and application form by the designated postmark date to the mailing address.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

One Of The Ways That A For-Profit Business Gets A Government Grant Is......

for the developement of a product.

For example one business got a multi-million dollar government grant to help to develop tools to measure the health of people with asthma. The business will collaborate on the project with a health-plan provider. The grant will help the business complete development of its product, which enables patients with asthma to report their condition to measure their illness.

What is also interesting to note is that this business has received government grant funding more than once!

This grant award was provided from The National Institutes of Health.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Are There Any Grant Programs For A For-Profit Daycare?

Of course the answer is

YES!

I personally know this for a fact because I have found these daycare related grant programs for others. For one of my most latest clients I was able to find 10 pages worth of information about grant programs for their daycare center that they were eligible to apply for. Some of these daycare-related grant programs were in their own state - another reason why I tell people who are looking for grant money to start looking at their own state's website first.

10 pages worth of grant program information is nothing to sneeze at especially when there are people out there that have said that no such grant programs exist. I have even been to sites that had to do with daycare and they themselves say that there are no such grant programs for for-profit daycares. So that leads me to ask the question of if there are no such grant programs for a for-profit daycare why was I able to find 10 pages worth of grant program information that had to do with grant programs for for-profit daycares to apply for? Make no mistake, these grant programs aren't for all for-profit daycares but you won't know if you are eligible to apply unless you have the information about the eligibility requirements that you have to meet to know whether or not your (for-profit) daycare is eligible to apply for.

I know that there can be a lot of frustration in finding such grant programs for a for-profit daycare but the fact of the matter is - just because you can't find these grant programs doesn't mean that they don't exist. It just means that you haven't found the information yet.

As a matter of fact some of these grant programs for for-profit daycares have expressed a need for more for-profit daycares. These programs have websites and telephone numbers and mailing addresses (as well as email addresses). Some of these program sites even have a mailing list that you can join so that when new information about their grant program comes up they will email you because you are on their email list.

So if you are looking to see if there are any grant programs available for your for-profit daycare to apply for rest assured that there are some out there. I should know because I have seen and researched them so I know that they are out there. You just have to do the work to find them.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Win $200,000 In Energy Competition

To help address the important issue of conserving energy or finding new sources of energy there is a competition going on. This is not a grant program but a competiton / contest sort of thing. There is a $200,000 grand prize plus a few other cash prizes as well.

One of the eligibility requirements is that all entrants’ businesses must support a technology, product, or service in the clean energy sector. Another requirement is that you have to enter this competition as part of a team - you can't enter as an individual.

Your entry can include but is not limited to:

  • Renewable sources of energy (solar, wind, fuel cells, bio-fuels, geothermal, hydro-technologies, etc.)

  • Conservation and demand response (building use, grid management, delivery & transportation, resource mining, extraction and refining)

  • Enabling technologies (power electronics, storage systems and batteries, cables & wires, sensors & instrumentation, control systems, materials & manufacturing technology)


  • More efficient & effective use of hydrocarbons (hybrid cars, cleaner use of coal, more environmentally friendly oil recovery methods, CO2 sequestration)


  • Integrated Systems (sustainable design & integrated clean energy applications)


The deadline to apply is in February of 2008.

You can apply via their website.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Grant Program For Hispanic and Latino Artists

Hispanic and Latino artists will receive an

unrestricted grant



What is that? An unrestrictive grant means that the artist can use their grant award for anything!

Artists at any stage of career development may be nominated. To be considered for fellowships, artists must be:

  • 21 years of age or older

  • U.S. citizens or legal residents in any U.S. state.


Artists must have the following:

  • Expert artistic skills

  • Received artistic education or training (formal or informal

  • Attempted to derive income from those skills

  • Been actively engaged in creating artwork and presenting it to the public


This grant program supports artists in all career stages, including emerging and mid-career artists, as well as individuals who have achieved master artist status. The grants will be awarded across a broad array of disciplines:

  • Architecture and Design

  • Crafts and Traditional Arts

  • Dance

  • Literature (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry)

  • Media (film, media, and radio)

  • Music

  • Theater Arts

  • Visual Arts


Artist Applications

Nominated artists are notified of their nominations and encouraged to apply. Artists are required to fill out a simple online application.

What is the grant award amount of this

unrestrictive



grant award?

$50,000.00!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Area Teachers Get 41 Grant Awards!

These grants were given to help the teachers fund special projects for their students. These projects ranged from stage productions to learning programs. Sixteen of the grants were given out at the beginning of the school year in August. These grant awards funding were meant to allow teachers to start special programs right at the beginning of school. The grants totaled $7,026; some of the programs include teaching students about prehistoric Indians in the area, a robotics “challenge” where students will be tasked to construct a radio-controlled robot, and a history program to teach students about war and its effect on society and culture.

According to the school district:

"These are projects teachers wouldn’t be able to fund if they were to rely on the school district budget.

The teachers write their own grant proposals (in only two pages) and present them to the foundation’s board. The board selects which projects to fund; this year the board saw 81 proposals. But even though individual teachers may not get their grant, the students still benefit because they may attend class with a teacher who is running a program.

A large portion, around $4,000, of the grant funds comes from the personnel. The organization was founded in 1986 with the goal of “encouraging academic excellence, enriching academic excellence, and promoting and supporting innovating education,”. The foundation has an endowment of around $174,000, and has given away over $300,000 since it was founded.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Are You A Farmer That Is In Need Of A Grant?

Actually agricultural small businesses are eligible to apply.

In my own state of Pennsylvania a syrup-making company received a grant award of over $6,000 because of their energy conservation. This grant program also provides funds to help assist projects developing renewable energy sources and energy efficiency systems.

If you are a farmer and can show energy conservation then you should definitely apply for this grant program that is being offered by the government. This grant program provides funding to help eligible farmers, ranchers and small businesses make existing energy systems more efficient. The department also has other grant and funding programs including funding for day care centers, fire trucks and other community facility projects; the purchase, construction or repair of homes; loans and guarantees to rural businesses to save or create jobs and renewable energy; and loans and grants for water and sewer utility projects.


Other grant recipients of this grant program include a farm in Somerset County that received this grant award for a methane digester on their dairy farm.

Here is an excerpt of what one of the grant recipients said:

It’s not an easy thing (applying for the grant) but it’s not impossible either.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Another DayCare Grant Program!

Here is news about another daycare related grant program. I hope that the information about this additional grant program will help dispel the myth that there are no grant programs available for daycare!

This grant program is from the Department of Human And Health Services and so far one state is mentioned as being able to take part in this grant program.

More information about this grant program includes:

  • Eligibility

    • Making minor building modifications absolutely necessary to meet licensing requirements for new (not yet licensed) programs.

    • Making minor building modifications or purchasing equipment to increase the number of infants, children with disabilities, children who may be ill, and/or school-age children served.

    • Making minor building modifications for licensed providers changing from a Family Child Care Home I to a Family Child Care Home II or a Family Child Care Home II to a Center.


  • Applications are available on a monthly basis. Home-based facilities can apply for up to $5,000 and centers can apply for up to $10,000. Once an award is received, applicants may not apply again for three years.

  • Providers who provide care for families who receive child care subsidy and are not required to be licensed because they care for fewer than four children, may apply for one of our grants. The maximum amount of this grant is $100. These grants can be used for mats, first aid kits, electrical outlet covers, cribs, bumper pads, telephones and deposits, cots, smoke alarms, lock boxes, playpens and toys. once funded, providers may reapply for this grant after three years.

  • Another grant program awards a maximum of $500 to child care homes or child care centers for items that will improve the quality of the services offered to children. Applications are accepted monthly, and eligible applicants must be licensed, and must currently be serving low-income children. Once a grant has been awarded, applicants may not reapply for funding until three years have passed.


More information about this grant can be found on their website.

You can also contact them by mail, phone, email and via their website.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Non-Profit vs For-Profit

There have been times when I have seen the question asked "Should I be a non-profit or a for-profit?"

My answer to that question is that you should be a combination of both! Why? Because you get the best of both worlds that way!

For instance one woman took her love of landscaping and started a non-profit organization. With a group of volunteers, her organization starting cleaning areas of the city. Then a proposal was made to find out whether or not starting a training program would help the community. That proposal was submitted and more than one grant award was given to this non-profit organization.

Now how does the "for-profit" thing come into this? Did you know that the for-profit business was spawned from the non-profit organization? Proceeds from the for-profit aspect go to supporting the organization's daycare center. And what is the most ironic thing of all is that after their for-profit version helped support their non-profit organization - they started to get more grant money!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Other Sources Of Money?

Unclaimed Money!



Grants are not the only source of "free money" when it comes to our government. There is also such a thing as "unclaimed money". I have started an Unclaimed Money blog that talks about this issue as well.

My last blog entry was about how the state of Louisianna has over $300 million dollars in unclaimed money! As a matter of fact the office is making an effort to process the claims faster so that more people will have more money to shop with during the holiday season. (* - It's interesting to note that with all the devastation that has gone on in New Orleans I didn't see one article about the amount of unclaimed money that was available in the state until now!). You have to remember that the more money that people spend the more in sales tax that will be gotten by the state and that money will be used for the state!

Of course this "unclaimed" money is not just limited to one state. My own state of Pennsylvania publishes a listing of people that have unclaimed money waiting for them. As a person that does research I have started to keep a copy of this information when I get it. I also believe that now since I am posting about this I am going to contact the office to find out more about how people can claim their unclaimed money.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Grant Money Is Not Guarenteed!

Some people make the mistake of thinking that grant money is guarenteed. It is not! It is only guarenteed AFTER you have been awarded the grant money!

You have to apply for these grant programs. And you have to also realize that you well may not be the only person or organization that is applying for the grant! Sometimes it works in quite the opposite way! For instance the SBA has a particuar grant program that is open for small businesses to apply for. ("Small" meaning having less than 500 employees.) This grant program provides well over $100,000 in grant money. This is a highly sought after grant and there are many businesses that will be applying for it every year - especially if they won the grant the year before!

Some grant applications can be easy. I have examples of grant applications that were only one page long and the only information required by the applicant was how much grant money they needed and what the grant money requested was going to be used for.

Then you have the more complicated grant applications and these are usually from the government grant programs. Soon the government will require all its grant applicants to apply for their grant programs via the government's grant program website. But believe me the government grant programs can be the most complicated to apply for. But on the other side of the coin, the government grant programs usually provide the most in grant money! That's why they are so popular - complicated but popular!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

There Are No Grant Programs For For-Profit Daycares - This Is Another Myth!

This myth probably got started because people were having such a hard time finding any kind of grant programs for a for-profit daycare business.

Just because these kinds of grant programs seem hard to find - that doesn't mean that they aren't out there - they are just hard to find. And sometimes they are not that hard to find IF you know where to look at!

While researching for some grant programs for a for-profit daycare I came upon one state grant program for daycares. It provides grant money for:

  • • New programs that have been open and licensed one year or less


  • Expanded programs that are increasing or expanding the number of children that they are able to care for, according to the state's regulations.

    A child care center has been providing care for children 2 years and older. They
    have now decided to care for children starting at 6 weeks, therefore increasing the number of infants & toddlers they are able to care for.


  • Enhanced programs that are not increasing the number of children they serve, but are asking for funds to enhance/improve the quality of childcare that they are
    currently providing.


The reason why this grant program was started in the first place was to provide more quality daycare in the state.

However while trying to find out more about this daycare grant program I didn't see any mention of whether or not for-profit daycares were eligible to apply. So I emailed the director of the grant program and asked them whether or not for profit daycares could apply for this grant program. A few days later I got an email from the director saying that indeed for-profit daycares could apply as long as they met the eligibility requirements which included:

  • Serve low-income families and accept purchase of Care


  • Be open Monday through Friday until 5:30 p.m. (at a minimum)


While there is no specified minimum or maximum grant award one of the examples cited was a $2,000 grant request for new supplies.

Again this is a statewide grant program that is open for for-profit daycares to apply for as long as they meet the eligibility requirements.

The next deadline to apply for this grant program is:

January 2008!




12/31/07 Update:


Since I wasn't sure whether or not this organization's grant program was open for for profit daycares to apply for, I sent them an email:

I have looked over your on-line materials but I can not find any information relating to whether or not your program is open to for-profit daycare facilities to apply.

Here is an excerpt from the email that they sent back to me:

Rose, Yes, our program is open to for profit child care facilities as long as they meet the criteria.


M~
Grant Coordinator

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Seed Money / Emergency Finances?

hi Im r~. I have a judgement debt form a car that got reposeesed of $2,200 debt I was wondering if I get a get seed money from various c(h)arit(a)ble foundations just to help me with assistence. Not nessesarily the whole amoount but some. Please e-mail me back. I need help.

__________________________________________________

There is a little bit of confusion here. "Seed Money" is generally provided as money to help someone start a business or other project.

But if you are talking about providing financial assistance to an individual / assistance to those that need the money for "emergency needs" then there are many organizations that do this. But again you have to apply for these funds. They are not "automatically" given.

You have to state what you need the financial assistance for specifically.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Phone Tag???!!!

I really don't like playing the phone "tag" game with people. People will leave me messages on my answering machine and they will usually leave a number for me to call them but I have no idea what time zone they are in or what is a good time to call them thus turning into a phone tag kind of thing. What makes it worse is that they won't leave much information on what type of grant information that they are looking for.

That is why I prefer email instead of playing the phone tag game. When I get an email that leaves a permanent record of the person sending me the email and with email you can send it anytime and the person can reply at anytime.

So if you would like to contact me just go to my Contact Information page where you will see all of my contact information.

As you probably can guess I get all types of inquiries. Some of them are good and some of them are not too good. I state on my Contact Information page that if you are not serious about wanting to find grant information for your project, organization or business then you are wasting your time trying to contact me. My page also states that if you are not a client then any requests that you send for grant information will be returned to you.

I realize that finding grant information can seem quite frustrating but if you are not a client then you will have to find the information for yourself.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Do You Need A New Refridgerator?

A client of mine just got their new refridgerator today and because of a program that was provided by their utility company!

This isn't a state program but a national one and like most of the government grant programs out there you have to make sure that you are eligible to apply for this program.

This program is provided for low-incomed people and in this case the client didn't even have to fill out a form. A represenative comes out to inspect the home for areas where improvements can be made to help make their utility bills more reasonable.

In this particular case the refridgerator that was at the home was more than 20 years old so a new one was ordered. The new refridgerator was installed and the old one was taken away - all for free - and all that was required was a signature for the order (which was free).

This kind of grant program was started to help low-incomed people with their utility bills. A new refridgerator that is energy efficient uses a lot less power than one that was installed 20 years ago so that was the reason why the new refridgerator was installed.

Remember that this program was put in place to help people who have a low income to better manage their utility bills and this program is not just limited to providing a new refridgerator! Actually I had a talk with one of the agents of this program and she told me that they really weren't supposed to tell people that they may be eligible for new equipment. I guess that I could see her reasoning because if everybody knew about this program and what it can provide then they would probably have more applicants than they could provide this kind of service for. And it is not just limited to refridgerators. Remember this program was put in place so that people could have a more manageable utility bill so if things like one's heating system is beyond repair then you will most likely get a new heating system. There was even one person that got a new water heater - installation and the water heater itself was free!

Why was this program put in place? It was put in place to help low-incomed people to have a more manageable utility bill.

All provided courtesy of our government (and of course the taxpayer's money!)

Saturday, December 1, 2007

So, There Are No Government Grants To Help Someone Start A Business Huh?

I don't know who told you that butthey are wrong!

There is currently a grant program that is open for individuals to apply. (It is also open for small businesses to apply for too!) In fact here is an excerpt listing who and what is eligible to apply for this particular grant program:

  • City or township governments

  • County governments


  • Individuals!


  • Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)

  • Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)

  • Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education

  • Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education

  • Private institutions of higher education

  • Public and State controlled institutions of higher education

  • Small businesses

  • For profit Organizations other than small businesses

  • Special district governments

  • State governments


What kind of grant program is this? Well it gets a little complicated but to make it short this is a grant program for those who are eligible to apply to open a center to help minority owned businesses. One of the requirements is that only certain locations are applicable but you are allowed to take on clients within a "reasonable" distance from the required locations. In fact this particular grant allows for you to have clients who may be a "reasonalbe" distance away but you can still provide them with services via email, fax and other forms of communication.

Another stipulation is that your clients have to be a minority firm with at least $500,000 or more in annual revenues and/or “rapid-growth potential” minority businesses.

Only 3 of these grants will be awarded for the coming year.

The maximum grant award is a little over $300,000!

The deadline to apply for this grant program is January 2008

I want to stress here that you take another look at the list of those that are eligible to apply for this grant. Note specifically that it says that individuals are eligible to apply for this grant!

So the next time someone tells you that the government does not have any grant programs for individuals, please show them this blog entry!