Government grants are lump sums of money given to individuals, companies or not for profit organizations to encourage research, develop a small business, help charities with their human service mission and many more reasons. Grants do not require any repayment of the money in most cases. The grantees may be requested to fill out a report to summarize how the granted funds were applied and the final results of the application.
An online grant application is the best way to get a government grant. Here are a few reasons for this. Before the internet and world wide web became so popular and widespread, grant applications were a very labor intensive, time consuming and expensive process. Just to find out which agencies were issuing what kinds of grants required hours and hours of library research and note taking. Then the grant seeker had to prepare a grant proposal. The proposal had to explain why the granted funds are needed and what benefits the grantor would receive from the grant’s mission.
For example, if someone were applying for a housing development grant to rehabilitate an old abandoned 4 family apartment building, they would have to prove that it would be better to rehab the building then to demolish it and start anew. Building inspector’s report and estimates from contractors would be submitted to support this. Since the competition for grants is usually fierce, most grant seekers would hire freelance grant writers to prepare the proposal in hopes of getting a quick approval.
Now that even the US government is open for business online, most of the research can be done online in one evening. As a grant seeker gets familiar with the grant application process, the research and application can all be done in one evening. This allows grant applicants to apply for several grants in the time it used to take one application to be processed and mailed to the grantor.
There are even companies that have software available to simplify and expedite the process even more. This is why online grant applications are the best way to go.
