Misconceptions about Government Grants | #GrantChat Highlights Part 2

What do you think of when you hear “government grants”? One thing we have learned as a program is this—a person or organization’s specific desires and goals shape how they re-define “government grants” so that they should receive funding. This re-defining of grants to suit ones needs has led to many misconceptions about what federal grants are actually for.

What Is a Government Grant and Pass-Through Funding?

You can find a lot of websites about “government grants,” but not all of these sources are using this term in the same way. So, what is a government grant?

As we’ve written about before, a federal grant is one form of federal financial assistance in which the main purpose is to carry out a public purpose. In such a grant, this is typically done by transferring anything of value (typically funding) from the federal agency to a non-federal entity.

The phrase “government” grant, on the other hand, is not an official term, but rather a common way people refer to a grant that is awarded by a governmental entity to another entity. In the U.S., this generally refers to the federal, state, or local government levels. On Grants.gov, we only have federal grant postings.