Answers to Your Grant Fraud Questions

Unfortunately, there are people out there who try to take advantage of those who are looking for government grants or benefits. At Grants.gov, we often receive questions about suspected grant fraud in blog comments, on Twitter @grantsdotgov, and at the Grants.gov support center.

Here are two of the most common types of questions you have asked:

“I received a call from your General Manager for Grants saying that I’m eligible for a grant, but I need to pay before it’s transferred. Is this real or a scam?”

#FundingFriday: Federal Grant Opportunities Supporting Environmental Protection, Emergency Response, and Job Training

This week’s #FundingFriday post highlights opportunities supporting environmental protection activities along the Mekong, operating costs for a national pedestrian and bicycle information center, and direct training assistance for the nation’s fire and emergency response community, among other grants.

1. Department of State – Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Nexus Futures Program

This program aims to advance sustainable development around the water, energy, food, and environment nexus within the Sekong, SrePok, and Sesan (3S) river system, an important set of Mekong tributaries shared by Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Critical to this program is strengthening regional discussions about the environment — preferably via country-recognized and -supported processes.

Exploring Eligibility: Individuals Seeking “Grants” for House Repairs

One of the most frequent types of questions we receive is, “My house needs some repairs. Can you please give me a grant?” At the core of this type of question are two underlying questions:

1. What is a grant?
2. Am I eligible for a grant (or other type of government assistance)?

Let’s explore the eligibility question here.

System Update: Grants.gov Release 15.2 Highlights Include New Grant Forecasts

Updated June 19, 2016: Grants.gov launched Release 15.2. The biggest addition coming to the system with this release is the grant forecast. The grant forecast is a projection by the grant-making agency of a funding opportunity that is likely to come later in the year.

Grant forecasts benefit both grantors and applicants:

#FundingFriday: 5 Government Grants Posted this Week (June 13 – 17)

This week, federal agencies have posted new government grant opportunities to protect the environment and reduce emissions as well as to advance data-driven research models and protect our roadways.

What Is a Block Grant?

Click here to read the updated “What Is a Block Grant?” post.

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The term “block grant” refers to grant programs that provide federal assistance for broadly defined functions, such as community development or social services. Block grants allow the grant recipient more discretion than other grants in determining how to use the funds to meet a broader program goal.

Federal block grants are typically for U.S. state or territory governments and allow these government entities to determine specifically how to allocate and spend the funding. Of course, there are rules and guidelines for implementation that vary with each grant program as defined in the authorizing statute.

#FundingFriday: 5 Government Grants Posted This Week (June 6 – June 10)

Funding opportunities from the federal government support a wide array of programs and projects – locally, nationally, and overseas.

This week’s new grant postings range from funding studies investigating the origin of life, to supporting the restoration of native plants in Oregon, to increasing the peace-building capacity of women on the continent of Africa.

1. National Science Foundation (NSF) – Origin of Life

This Ideas Lab organized by the Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO) and Geosciences (GEO) at NSF and the Astrobiology Program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration aims to facilitate the generation and execution of innovative research projects addressing grand challenge questions in the origin of life.

 

How to Create a Workspace and Start Your Grant Application

Previous posts have highlighted the benefits of using the Grants.gov Workspace feature and provided example cases that illustrate those benefits in real-world situations.

If you’re ready to give Workspace a try, the only thing that remains is to create a workspace for the funding opportunity for which you want to apply.

This video walks you through the process.

#FundingFriday: 5 Government Grants Posted this Week (May 31 – June 3)

Following the Memorial Day weekend, federal agencies have posted a variety of new funding opportunities. Here’s 5 different federal grants posted this week:

1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – ROSES 2016: Atmospheric Composition: Upper Atmospheric Composition Observation

What Is a Mandatory Grant?

Mandatory grants are a type of grant that must be awarded to each eligible applicant (generally a government entity) based on the conditions defined in the authorizing statute. Must be awarded? Authorizing statute? What does all that mean?

Let’s break it down by looking at the life of a mandatory grant: