If Convicted Sex Offenders Can Get Federal Aid, Then Why Can't You?

I get a lot of email from people who ask about grant programs and financial aid for going back to school. They tell me that finding information about financial aid for school is too hard to find.

Then you're going to have to explain why there was a recent article about how convicted sex offenders were getting federal financial to take online courses? And to make this story even more newsworthy it turns out that a lot of them spent the money on things like clothing and music! One of Iowa's most dangerous sex offenders has received thousands of dollars in federal aid to take college courses through the mail! (Prison inmates are ineligible for this kind of funding. Students convicted of certain drug offenses are also ineligible.) One of the "loopholes" for applying for this kind of federal financial aid is that the applicant doesn't have to disclose their living arrangements on their application forms - which means that the sex offenders didn't have to disclose where they were "living". In the state of Iowa more than 10 offenders in a Cherokee Mental Health Institute received grants. More than half of them dropped their courses after receiving the grant money.

Recent information about such offenders receiving this grant money came as a result of a newspaper report about 54 offenders at one Florida center getting $200,000 in grants in one year.

Of course there are arguments on both sides about this recent finding. On the one hand some think that being able to take educational courses will help some sex offenders adjust better in society and others think that it is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

But as someone who does grant research I find the fact that those mentioned in the article were able to find out about such information about grants quite intriguing when other people have told me that they couldn't find any information about grants and / or financial assistance for going back to school. Now you even know that there is financial aid available even if you want to take online courses!

Grants For Daycare - Is This Just A Myth?

For some time now I have been seeing this article and it's really been bugging me!

The Straight Facts First - (The Plight of Grantseeking for For-profit Business Owners)

Before you begin your 8 Steps to Obtaining Grants, there is some very important information you need to understand first. While there is a lot of talk about "how to find grants" in the child care field, most caregivers, especially independent home child care operators or persons starting a private or for-profit child care facility, don't realize that it is almost impossible for them to find grant money from any level of government. That is of course, with the exception of perhaps that which might be obtained from new business startup programs and the odd program operated by their provincial or state governments, generally under the Department of Children and Family Services.

'Almost impossible' - does that mean that there aren't ANY such grant programs? Of course I know that this is not true. Also you have to remember that it is not only just the government that has grant programs. And even though the above article says that there is the "odd state program for start-up grants I have found that these kinds of state grant programs for start-up businesses are becoming more and more and increasing at a more than "odd" rate.

The truth is "When it comes to private enterprises --- no matter how worthy or socially relevant --- unless they seek and obtain non-profit status, there is not(hing) I (or they) can do."

For-profit child care business operators, large and small, may, that's a small may because they aren't all that many programs available with a few exceptions (may) be able to: apply for local state/provincial programs. Other than that, the best way to locate financing for their child care business is to:

• Look into bank loans
  
• Obtain venture capital
  
  
• Seek gifts and loans from family and friends
  
  
• Look for advice from incubator organizations
  
  
• Obtain counsel from local small business and women's associations.

Unfortunately the above article is very troubling. It's obvious that they just don't know what they are talking about!

I Have Read Yet Another Article About There Being NO Grants To Start A Business

I really find it hard to believe that so-called "experts" don't know about the grant programs that are around that are for people that want to start their own business.

Even those professional organizations that say that there are no grants for for-profit daycares amaze me! How was it that I was able to find a client over 10 pages worth of information about grant programs that her for-profit daycare was eligible to apply for?

The article that I read had some words from SCORE about there being no grants to help people start a business. One SCORE member has said that when people come to him asking him about grants to start a business he more or less tells them that there are none! Then what about the grant program for minorities who want to start their own business that awards a $25,000 grant?) The article goes on to say that while there are grants for this kind of thing it is usually tailored to specific kinds of businesses.

I'm really surprised and amazed at all of this! Our federal government has grant programs available for all to apply for - in other words these grant programs are open to all - meaning that everyone including individuals and for-profit businesses to apply for. I will agree however that it will depend on the type of business that one wants to start. A lot of these government grant programs have grant programs targeted to a specific kind of topic or subject matter. However there are some grant programs that are targeted to those that want to start their own business HOWEVER in a majority of the grant programs applicants must submit a business plan and you have to make your business idea viable to those that are going to fund it with grant money (that you will not have to pay back).

Of course the argument comes up about all the "hucksters" that are on TV talking about all the "free money" that is available from the government - which actually in my opinion is true. However the "free money" does come with conditions which mainly consist of you first being eligible to apply for the specific grant programs and secondly going through the necessary paperwork that is required for you to even apply for the grant program(s).

The grant awards that you receive however is money that you do not have to pay back!

Take a look at my grants page and my daycare & grants page and you will see a list of grant recipients that have received grants to start their own businesses!

The Government Doesn't Care About Nurses?

Unfortunately when peop;e don't know (or don't have) the right information about grants they come to their own conclusions. Here is a reply that I posted to some who said that the government didn't care about nurses:

Unfortunately this is not true. As someone that does grant research I can tell you that there are many grant and scholarship programs out there for nurses and the reason is because of the shortage of and the need for nurses.

There are also programs that provide financial help for single mothers. My very first grant research client was a single mother who was looking for financial help with both starting her own business and continuing her education. Since this was a few years back I was able to find her 4 such programs that provided finacial assistance including providing financial help with her student loan. Yes there is actually an organization out there devoted to helping single mothers financially with their student loans.

Just because you can't find the information about these programs doesn't mean that they don't exist - it just means that you haven't found the information yet.

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!

Grants versus Loans? Your Opinion?

Here is an interesting question:

Do you think that the government should provide loans or grants to areas affected by flooding?

There are so many variables to consider here. For one you have to remember that the government doesn't have an endless stream of money. And also too the money that is being provided is coming from taxpayer dollars.

The government wants to provide a t0 / 50 split between government grants and loans. That is half the money would be provided in government grants and forgiveable loans and the other half would be repayable loans.

Of course to the individual or business that needs the money the answer would of course be to have the grant instead of the loan.

But remember just in this year alone we have seen a lot of flood-affected areas that have been declared a state of emergency which makes them eligible for federal funding. And thats not including areas affected in past years.

There have been claims by those applying for federal assistance that the process has been made too difficult or complicated to apply for. Other complaints include businesses being told that it would be much better for them if they applied for the loans instead of the grant programs. Understandably businesses would rather apply for the grants because on top of them having their businesses being affected by flooding they don't want to incur more debt by applying for a loan.

The government's side does raise some valid points though. You have to remember that each area eligible for federal assistance has to be (or should be) treated the same - meaning if one area is eligible for grants then any other area affected should also be eligible for grants - again - meaning a 50/50 split. There shouldn't just be one area that can get grants and then another area with the same problems only being eligible for loans.

However I have to be on the side of the possible applicants because if one's business has been devasted by flood-related weather if they don't get the money to be able to revive their business then they may not want to revive it and then that makes the economy in that area go down. It will mean loss of jobs and loss of income for that area.

But what do you think about this?

Remember that your opinion counts and while some people think that they don't - they really do.