All About Federal Grants & Assistance
Discretionary programs offered by the Federal government are unlike the automatically administered programs i.e. Social Security and Medicare provided to qualifying citizens. Discretionary programs often require formal application and the process can be tedious and lengthy. Reason for this is that the government is very cautious on how it spends taxpayer's money.
So where do you find the Money?
All federal benefit programs are listed in the CFDA (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance). The benefits listed are available to:
* State and local governments
* Federally-recognized Indian tribal governments
* U.S. territories and possessions
* Domestic public, quasi-public, and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions
* Specialized groups; and yes, even
* Individuals
Types of Assistance Offered
The following are the 12 types of federal assistance offered by the federal government:
* Formula Grants - Allocations of money to States or their subdivisions in accordance with distribution formulas prescribed by law or administrative regulation, for activities of a continuing nature not confined to a specific project.
* Project Grants - The funding, for fixed or known periods, of specific projects. Project grants can include fellowships, scholarships, research grants and more.
* Direct Payments for Specified Use - Financial assistance provided directly to individuals, private firms, and other private institutions to encourage or subsidize a particular activity by conditioning the receipt of the assistance on a particular performance by the recipient.
* Direct Payments with Unrestricted Use - Financial assistance provided directly to beneficiaries who satisfy federal eligibility requirements with no restrictions being imposed on the recipient as to how the money is spent.
* Direct Loans - Financial assistance provided through the lending of monies for a specific period of time, with a reasonable expectation of repayment.
* Guaranteed/Insured Loans - Programs in which the government makes an arrangement to indemnify a lender against part or all of any defaults by those responsible for repayment of loans.
* Insurance - Financial assistance provided to assure reimbursement for losses sustained under specified conditions. Coverage may be provided directly by the government or through private carriers and may or may not involve the payment of premiums.
* Provision of Specialized Services - Programs which provide federal personnel directly to perform certain tasks for the benefit of communities or individuals. These services may be performed in conjunction with non-federal personnel, but they involve more than consultation, advice, or counseling.
* Advisory Services and Counseling - Programs which provide federal specialists to consult, advise, or counsel communities or individuals to include conferences, workshops, or personal contacts. This may involve the use of published information, but only in a secondary capacity.
* Training - Programs which provide instructional activities conducted directly by a federal agency for individuals not employed by the Federal government.
* Investigation of Complaints - Federal administrative agency activities that are initiated in response to requests, either formal or informal, to examine or investigate claims of violations of federal statutes, policies, or procedure. The origination of such claims must come from outside the federal government.
* Federal Employment - Programs which reflect the government wide responsibilities of the Office of Personnel Management in the recruitment and hiring of federal civilian agency personnel.
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