A Call For Help!

Anonymous said...

Hey Rose! :) I saw your post on Aidepage. I was wondering if you happen to know of any grants to help women of Domestic violence, who are trying to get a home, and help getting back on their feet? I'm originally from Pa, moved to TN and found myself trapped. About a year and a half ago I tried to get out and the shelter wasn't able to get the funds to help, and my family was useless. Due to depression and the girls I just gave up and came back. The past year has been a nightmare and he is taking it out mentally on the 14 year old and I don't know how much more I can take before I end up being one of those women on the tv show SNAPPED. I am desperately in need of help. Any info you can give me would be great. Thank you much hun, have a great day!

There are a lot of Domestic groups out there that may be able to help you. What you should do is take some time out and go to your local library to find out more information.

I will have to check my files to see if there are any groups/grant programs that may be able to help you.

Grants For Women - Are There Any?

Are There Grants

For Women?

Are there grants for women ? Are there free grants for women?

Basically the answer is yes but there is a big BUT here! Of course there are grants for women out there and since the definition of a free grant means that you don't have to pay it back then - yes - there are free grants for women that are out there!

However it is going to depend on WHAT you want the grant for! There is no one "free grant program
" for women because it will depend on what you want the grant for.

There are a number of business grants for women
that are out there. For instance there is a "free" grant program for minority women who want to start their own business. This is not a free government grant program but a business grant program that is being provided by an organization. It is a free grant program in that you pay nothing to apply for it and if you win the grant you could receive as much as $20,000 to start your own business. Of course this particular grant program is not just for minority women, it is a grant program for minority people.

There is an investor who is offering a lot of money to those who can come up with a viable business plan. If this investor likes your business plan then he will fund it!

What other kind of grants for women are out there? Many! There are numerous grant and scholarship programs for women who want to return to school. There are even some grant programs that will help pay for daycare for single mothers. There are free grant programs for women writers and artists as well!

If you go to the government's official website you will see that they have grant programs for ALL to apply and of course that includes women as well as individuals and small businesses that are for-profit.

I never quite understood how people could say that the government doesn't have grant programs for for-profit businesses when it says so right on the government website!

Of course the problem seems to be that grant programs for women are hard to find (at least that is what I am hearing) and like I noted above not all grant programs are being offered by the government. There are a number of organizations that have grant programs for women including business grant programs for women. However since they are not government grant programs that may make them a little bit more harder to find. If it was a government grant program you could simply go to the government's official website and look up their government grant programs to find ones that you are eligible for. However the grant programs for women that are not government grant programs are a little bit more harder to find but the majority of them do have websites. It just takes doing some research in order to find them.

Grant Program For Struggling Actors There is an announcement of a new grant program for emerging struggling actors that want to pursue an acting career in the United States. Under the name of a scholarship program this yearly grant program will award $10,000 to an emerging struggling actor who wants to pursue an acting career in the United States. This year's grant awarded the $10,000 grant to an actor who also received a free airline ticket to go to America! Next year's finalists for this scholarship / grant program will be announced in February 2010.

Foundation Provided


Over $100 Million Dollars


In Grant Funding!

The grants were awarded to organizations that serve several categories — elder adults, health and disabilities among them.

One of the non-profit organizations that received a grant actually received 2 grants! One of the grants was for $2 million dollars grant so that they could purchase and renovate two buildings!

The 2nd grant was for just over one million dollars to help the organization preserve its mission of affordable housing for moderate income older adults.

There Is Finacial Assistance Available For Victims Of Domestic Abuse!

If you are a survivor of domestic abuse you may be able to apply for grants!

Here is a quote from an online article:

"Survivors can also apply for grants from one foundation that provides grants to shelters and individual survivors. The program has also created a curriculum to teach survivors how to do everything from opening a checking account to repairing bad credit. So far this year the foundation will give out 10 $50,000 in grant monies and in November will begin awarding individual $1,000 Education and Job Training Assistance grants directly to survivors.

If you are a victim of domestic violence here is some information that may help you:

If you're in a dangerous situation and need to flee with nothing but the clothes you're wearing -- do it. Advocates at local shelters will help you (and your kids) get what you need, from prescription refills to birth certificates. But if you can put a plan in place, it is suggested that you call the National Domestic Violence Hotline or look in the blue and white government pages at the front of your phone book for the number of a local shelter. An advocate there will help you decide what to bring.

Most often you'll want your birth certificate, passport, Social Security card, bank or credit card statements, and prescriptions or medical supplies. Your advocate will also explain the intake process (it's different for every shelter), how long you can stay at the shelter, and what programs that particular facility offers (child care, legal advocacy, etc.). If you're able to stockpile extra cash, try to anticipate your financial needs for a month and save for that goal. A shelter will cover basic needs such as food, clothes, hygiene, and a place to sleep.

In 2005, the government reauthorized the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which funds the investigation and prosecution of crimes against women such as domestic violence and sexual assault. The reauthorization includes increased funding for free legal assistance to victims, stronger federal laws against abusers, new protection and confidentiality laws for women in shelters, and a pledge to spend $3.9 billion protecting women (up from $1.6 billion). State governments are also strengthening laws that protect women and offering services to victims of abuse and sexual assault.

In 1999, California made it illegal for employers to fire an employee for being a victim of domestic violence or for missing work to testify in criminal court -- and other states (like Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, and North Carolina) have passed similar laws. California also pays unemployment to victims who must quit work when relocating to escape abuse. In New York, children can no longer be removed from their abused mother's care simply because she's a victim or because the child witnessed domestic violence.

Did you know that there is an organization that raises money for women with breast cancer? This financial assistance program is for women who often don't have insurance, who are too ill to work and / or don't have money for basic necessities such as food and housing. The organization provides cash grants to survivors through an emergency fund. A number of women have said that the grants were lifesavers at a time when they had nowhere else to turn. This organization also funds breast cancer organizations that provide food, clothing, transportation, homeopathic care and other services.

Government Grant Website

As you know our government has an official government grants website. There is access to over 20 federal grant-making agencies through an E-Government initiative - which basically means that the government is trying to make it easier for you to find out information about their grant program by using the internet and by having the information about their grant programs available online. Today, the site is a central storehouse for information on over 1,000 grant programs and provides access to approximately $500 billion dollars in annual awards!

The government website states that it is still the one place to find all available federal grant opportunities. All opportunities posted on the site will include specific application instructions and there are instructions for submitting applications outside of the website as well. The site is full of information from steps to applying for a grant, grant eligibility, downloading a grant application packages, grant search, and program status, grant email alerts and tracking of a grant application.


However there seems to be a "glitch" in the system! This week it was announced that a “systemic weaknesses” that requires attention. A study found that the system performance and service of applicants caused late grant submissions. In addition, the study also found that grant-making agencies whose donations support the site didn’t pay in a timely manner, negatively affecting system performance. Steps have been taken to alleviate the system strain and quickly increase the system's capacity. However, because of this, select programs may use alternate systems to process grant applications.

According to an online article:

Grants can be for any use or purpose one chooses and there are 26 federal grant-making agencies to choose from on the website. A user does not have to register with the government's office grant program website to search for government grant programs but will need to register to apply. The registration process takes 3-5 business days and now may take longer due to submissions issues with the technology.

$29 Million Dollar Grant Program To Help Afghan Women

*Please note that the due date of this grant program is January 29, 2009!

This grant program was implemented to help empower Afghanistan women.

While this specific grant program is not to help the women individually it does provide grants for those organizations to provide grants to Afghanistan women!

Because it is now their constitutional right to be provided equal rights for women, they now have an official framework to support their personal and professional development. However, all indicators of women’s status reveal that enforcement of constitutional rights lags far behind enactment. A combination of poverty and deprivation, ill health, illiteracy, discriminatory customary laws, harmful traditional practices, and physical and emotional abuse conspire to keep women at the bottom of society.

To ensure they receive sufficient attention, women’s organizations are needed to advocate on behalf of these women and help mobilize resources, deliver essential services, and implement useful development activities. However, some of these organizations cannot effectively undertake these tasks until they acquire a wide range of new skills—from assessing needs, designing responsive interventions, and implementing programs to managing operations, finances and people, building alliances and networks, planning strategically, and monitoring and evaluating performance—in addition to building capacity in the technical sectors in which they wish to work.

This three-year $26.7 million program is designed to strengthen the capacity of these organizations to contribute to the social, economic, and political development of Afghan women through the provision of financial and technical assistance to support women-specific activities in the following areas:

• Implementing activities that improve the status, safety and well being, human and legal rights, and livelihoods of Afghan women and girls
  
  
• Delivering services that directly address the social, political, and economic needs of Afghan women and girls
  
  
• Undertaking efforts to increase the participation of Afghan women in development as implementers, change agents and beneficiaries
  
  
• Creating or strengthening mechanisms and channels by which Afghan women can access information, network, and take advantage of personal and professional development opportunities.

Applicants will propose approaches to implementing the following Activity Components and indicate how those approaches will help accomplish the Activity Objectives:

1. Awarding sub-grants for technical and organizational capacity building of eligible organizations, including equipment, and for the activities of such organizations
   
   
2. Assessing organizational and technical capacity needs of eligible organizations and developing responsive interventions
   
   
3. Overseeing sub-grant implementation to ensure that in addition to successful implementation of activities, the organization's institutional strengthening and technical capacity building within recipient organizations is achieved
   
   
4. To support the above components, developing and implementing a comprehensive communications plan and strategy to generate widespread interest in the sub-grant program among the women’s organizations and to develop and manage an information campaign about the program to inform other stakeholders.

The following link will take prospective applicants who are interested in this high visibility program to the full solicitation. Be sure to click on the link that says "Download Application Instructions.”

Did you know that there is a charitable organization that provides homes for injured veterans? Successful applicants will not even have to pay a mortgage on their free home! They will be provided homes free of ANY mortgage!

When Is A Grant Program NOT A Grant Program?

This is only my personal opinion but I do not consider a grant program an actual grant program if you have to pay a fee to be eligible to apply for it. Here is an example:


There is so-called business grant program for women who want to start their own business. You have to be over 18 and be a US resident.

According to their literature, this organization started the grant program to help women who had a dream of starting their own business.

Like most of the grant programs for those that want to start their own business you have to submit a business plan. However in order to be eligible to apply for this grant you have to pay a $15 fee along with submitting your business plan.

Although I do not consider this a grant program, I keep its information in my files just in case my clients do want that kind of information.

Rose
More Information About Grants

And Grant Programs

A Grant To Help Make Your Idea A Reality!

This grant program is looking for individuals, or individuals working with small, local organizations or groups, who reside in one of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico, to submit an idea for one of these same locations (no international projects, please).


To be eligible to apply you can be:

• You must be 14 years of age or older at the time you submit your application online. It's okay to be affiliated with an organization, as long as you apply as an individual -- not on behalf of your organization.
  
  
• A community member not connected to any organization, who is looking to connect people in the community to discuss common issues, form solutions, and take action together
  
  
• A leader or employee of a small, grassroots organization or group, or a local elected official or government employee, who wants to create opportunities and places for people to come together to discuss ideas, form solutions, and take action

Three sets of financial grant awards will be given out and the maximum grant award totals will be as high as $35,000!

Brief applications will be accepted online and a group of people from diverse backgrounds and communities will review all the applications and select the top 100 proposals. Then these 100 applicants that were accepted will then be invited to pitch their ideas as a full proposal.

All applications must be sent through the foundation's online application process. No applications will be accepted through the mail, fax, or as an e-mail attachment. Applications sent by mail will not be considered and will be returned to sender.

Grant funds are to be used to implement the idea outlined in the application and full proposal. This is not a prize for good works already done, but fuel to help move a great idea forward. Grant funds will be paid out over the course of one year in a schedule to be determined by the foundation. Grant recipients who receive the higher level grant awards must also submit reports to the foundation during the project year -- content and timeline will be decided before award distribution.

While this is the pilot year for this program, the foundation is excited about applying this citizen-centered approach to philanthropy in the future. You can sign up here to stay informed about upcoming grant opportunities.

Recording Business Receives Grant!

A family-based business that creates children's music CDs has completed one of the first steps in being awarded a grant. Since they have gotten this far they have already received a $10,000 grant. They will now go on to the next phase in order to be awarded the top grant of $50,000!

The family based business has already been established so this "infusion" of money will help to make their business even bigger! The family has already produced one CD, featuring lively and creative songs for kids, personalized with a choice of more than 1,100 names mentioned several times in the lyrics.


A family member was quoted as saying "We understand that music provides an avenue to connect with your children and create long-lasting memories".

The owner, previousy worked as a business analyst and holds a degree in business from the University of Iowa. Another family member, a mother of a 13-month-old, earned her graduate degree from the University of Iowa and is married to a Navy submariner. She set aside her career as a science teacher to pursue her inspiration and manage the business.

"We all love to sing songs with our babies, and we have many memories of singing silly songs while riding in the car or doing dishes with Mom".


Their first CD should be available for sale March 1. You can also listen to samples of the original songs by visiting their website.

Others vying for the money awards are those that want to start a:

• daycare for kids with special needs
  
  
• Cafe-style restaurant with kid-friendly environment
  
  
• business providing Asian-inspired dog treats
  
  
• doggie daycare

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.

Another Grant Program For Individual Women With A Purpose!

This grant program provides seed money to individual women (and other organizations as well) for innovative programs or non-degree research projects that promote education and equity for women and girls. In order to be eligible for this grant program:

• Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
  
  
• your project must promote education and equity for women or girls
  
  
• your project activities must take place within the United States or its territories

The deadline to apply: January 15, 2008

Maximum Award: $5,000-$10,000

Number Of Awards: 29

If you have any questions about this grant program or whether or not you meet all of the eligibility requirements, you can contact them by phone, email or you can send mail to their customer service center. You can also visit their website for more information about this grant program that is open for individual women to apply for.