Student Loans - The Dark Side of....

I just posted in my Financial Basics Blog about a recent article I was reading about student loans.It seems that some colleges and schools were receiving "kickbacks" and other things from student loan companies. Some of the for-profit schools and colleges were even accused of accepting students who didn't even have a good chance of graduating just so that student could apply for (and the school would get) the student loan.

Some of these student loan companies are protected by the federal government if some of their student loans go into default so getting as many students as they can to sign up for these student loans means more money for them.

I also talk about some of the programs that help students pay back their student loans on my Grants Related page.

What is being done about this? Well one congressman wants to introduce a bill that will stop the colleges/schools from acting as the middlemen for these student loan companies.

Are Grant Programs Decreasing?

Well the answer to that is really hard! While there are some grant porgrams that have been stopped, new ones are always being created. Besides there are still so many grant programs out there that I think the average person would have enough programs to keep them busy for quite a long time!

Even though there are a lot of big grant award programs.....

Please do not discount those grant programs that award smaller amounts of money. For instance there is a grant program that I am investigating now which is open to teachers who teach grades K-6 in either public or non-profit private schools. The eligible subjects are science and math. Since this is June the deadline for applying to this grant program was last month (May) but it does give the teachers another year to become eligible for this kind of grant.

The maximum grant award for this program is $1,000.00

Deadline - June 26, 2007

If you're located in the New Hampshire area and your home was damaged by the Patriot's Day storm then you have until June 26th to call the FEMA Hotline. The regular FEMA office in that area has already been closed down but you still have until June 26th to reach them through their hotline number.

Over 2 million dollars has been allocated to the area for direct assistance which includes grants. Over 1500 people have already applied for the grant and the average grant award has been $2700 and on the average the money is received within 4 days!

Public assistance grants are also being made available.

"How Do I Become A Client?"

This is another question that I have been asked and the answer appears below:

I am very interested in becoming a client of yours. Please let me know the process I need to follow................................

Here is an excerpt from my grants page:

What kind of services do you provide?

Can you find a grant program for me for free?

What do you charge to help find grants? / Do you accept Paypal payments?

Do you also help apply for the grants?

Each research project is done on a customized basis according to the type of grant that you and/or your organization is looking for regardless of whether you or your organization is a for-profit or non-profit. Included services will be the finding and locating of the available grant programs that can be applied to your project, research of the grant-making organizations and an analysis of them to identify likely funding sources for your specific project and/or organization. The research will include searches from an existing database(s) of all federal, state and local grant programs as well as grant programs offered by non-governmental entities (such as foundations and businesses) that also offer grant programs as well. Research/services may also include non-electronical fact-finding via telephone or written correspondences.

The basic fee is $875.00
* basic fee will increase on July 1, 2007!


(please refer to the payment information page at:

http://members.aol.com/Roseb441702/payinfo.htm

but larger projects may require additional fees based on the scope of the project.

If you want me to find you any grant program(s) and you are not a client, any information that you send to me will be returned to you. I actually never thought to accept Paypal payments until you mentioned it and I have made a provision for PayPal payments. You can find this on my payment information page. If I can not find a grant program for your project, organization or business after the 30 day period, I will refund the cost of the research!


Once you have the information on the grant programs available to you, you can then decide whether or not you will want to apply for them on your own or you can hire me or another grantwriter to prepare the application(s).

Picky, Picky, Picky!

I just got finished reading an article online about how one university wants to ban grants by tobbacco companies. Of course the whole university doesn't feel this way - just enough though to make it come to a decision.

While this is all fine and well - I don't want to hear them claim that they can't get any grant money ever again!

Quote - About Clients

"In my experience (granted, mostly in a different type of consulting),
the clients who are most difficult from the beginning, expect an
unrealistically low price, etc. are the ones most likely to stiff me."

I saw this quote and I just HAD to add it here! I can't tell you how many times I have gotten an email or phone call from someone that wanted me to find them a grant program. They mention nothing about paying me, they don't even answer the questions that appear here. I'm just supposed to know - sight unseen - about which grant program they can get.

This also tells me a lot about the person in question because I have said time and time before that you don't automatically get a grant. You have to apply for the grant.

Have I ever got "stiffed" by a client? Yes - once - and that is why it is NEVER going to happen again!

Non-Profit Daycare vs For-Profit Daycare?

In my honest opinion I think that it would be best to operate your daycare as a combination non-profit/for-profit business. I have recommended this advice all the time and the primary reason is because when you operate your daycare as both a for-profit and non-profit you are getting the best of both worlds!

There is a situation going on in Canada now as far as daycare grants are concerned. As I have said many times before there are areas where the need for childcare is so great that for-profit caycares are eligible to apply for the grants as well. Such is the situation going on in Canada - in fact a lot of the non-profit daycares are afraid that the for-profit daycares will take over all the available grants!

Grants For Starting A Daycare?

I get a lot of email from people that say that they want to start a daycare and they want me to tell them what grant programs are available to them.

The problem is that is all they say. For the most part most of them don't even say what kind of daycare they want to open. I don't know if the daycare they want to start is going to be a for-profit, a non-profit or will it be a combination of both? There are so many questions that have to be answered when one is looking for grant programs that they may be eligible for. That is why every client that I have has to answer the questions that appear here.

Although there are some grant programs that aren't just limited to starting a daycare the more specific you are about the kind of daycare that you want to start the better.

Are there grant programs for starting a daycare? Of course the answer is yes but it will depend on the KIND of daycare it is that you want to start!