Free Government Grant Money

The U.S. Department of Education is one of 57 federal agencies allocated with free government grant money by Congress. In a government-wide effort to coordinate and streamline the grant application process online, the Department has come up with several measures designed to improve online applications for free government grant.

Among these measures is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) designed to facilitate free government grant money application for students. Another is www.Grants.gov, the website which was launched in October 2003 designed as an online database where grant seekers should be able to view offerings from every federal agency.

However, despite these, those who like to apply for free government grant money electronically so far haven’t been afforded as many opportunities as the Department had hoped for. As of late April, the Department had only placed about 80 percent of the grant offerings it had expected on the Grants.gov website.

The plan was to put 40 free government grant money application packages online at Grants.gov by late April. But, the Education Department was only able to place 32. While some other agencies hadn’t gotten involved at all, many others had met or exceeded the goals. In fact, so many agencies have exceeded their goals that Grants.gov included 14 percent more applications for free government grant money than the goal agencies had set for themselves. Only the Education Department seemed to experience a lack of progress. Jim Bradshaw, the spokesman for the Education Department, said that he is trying to get an explanation for this.

By another token, however, both the Education Department and the entire federal government, or perhaps the grant community in general, have fared worse. The Education Department originally expected 1,500 free government grant money applications, but only got 469, or 31 percent. On the other hand, the federal government only received 23 percent of the number it hoped for.

Still, it was observed that the Grants.gov program is growing. While it took a year to 1,000 applicants for free government grant money, the subsequent six months brought in 2,751, including 1,000 in April.
One apparent fact that may have caused the lag in the free government grant money applications in the Education Department may have something to do with the change in the process. Grants.gov is relatively new and grant seekers are still trying to adjust to the new methods involved.

Grants.gov is trying to spread the word to the grant community on its presence and promises to put instructional videos on its Web site, says Grants.gov outreach coordinatorKatie Root.

"People also resist change," noted Grants.gov manager Terry Nicolosi, speaking at a stakeholder meeting in Washington.

With Grants.gov, applicants for free government grant money must register through a System-to-System process where institutions themselves are the ones who must approve the applications. Colleges and universities, for example, can control who applies using their name. One other roadblock for some users: Grants.gov has designed applications solely for PCs. Mac users will need to get an emulator, available for $125-$150, Brunner says. The budget didn't allow the project to make the system Mac-compatible.