A Government Grant "Scam" Alert!

As someone that does grant research and consultations for a living, it pains me to have to read articles about companies and / or other businesses that are not operating on the up and up! I read an online article about one such company and I will be providing a link to it below the blog post.

It seems that this "government grant" business asks you to pay something like $1 or $2 plus shipping and handling for sending you their government grant cd. BUT you might also be billed monthly on your credit card account! It's supposed to be in the fine print. They are currently advertising on the popular Facebook site(s).

Here is a link to the article. The article itself provides a lot of good information about this company including mentioning how one can get that monthly charge to their credit card canceled.

Like I said I do grant research for a living (you can visit my Grant Basics 101 Blog to find out more information about what I do and if you would like to find out more information about government grant programs that you may be eligible for.)

I'm sure that basically if you are curious about government grant programs one of the most frequently asked question has got to be "Are there any government grant programs to help start a business" and the answer to that is Yes! You can go to my Grant Basics 101 website to see examples of grant recipients who have received money to start their own businesses!

Another popular frequently asked question is about government grants and starting a daycare business - again the answer is yes there are government (and other) grant programs that can help you start your own daycare business! As a matter of fact I sent one daycare-related client over 10 pages of information concerning grant programs that her for-profit daycare center may be eligible for - so yes there are grant programs to help start a for-profit daycare business. You can find out more information about that by going to my Grant Basics 101 - Daycare website and blog. You can also listen to my Grant Basics 101 Podcast in which the first caller asks about government (and other) grant programs for their for-profit daycare business.

As far as working from home is concerned it really depends on the kind of work that you want to do. There are grant programs for writers, artists and even musicians too! There is even a grant program for comic book artists as well!

Paying For Grant Information

A lot of the emails that I receive mention the fact that the emailer could only find websites where they would have to pay to get the grant information. Although I find this surprising since I don't get the same results when I am researching for grant information I thought I'd address this kind of thing.

First you have to understand that when you are looking for information about grants it is sort of comparable to finding a needle in a haystack. This is especially true when you are looking for grant programs that you are specifically qualified to apply for. In your search and research for finding grant programs and information about grant programs you may find many grant programs but they won't be the ones that you specifically qualify to apply for. So what do you do? You dig deeper! I think almost everybody qualifies for at least one funding program that isn't one of those loan programs where you have to pay the money back. And it might make you angry to find out that lots of people with a bigger income have been the recipient of grant programs - Ross Perot and Donald Trump come immediately to mind.

Another thing that has been bothering me is the whinning and complaining about having to pay for the information. You really don't have to pay for the information if you find it yourself. Another option for not paying for grant information is for one to go to a social service agency. Part of their job is to know of programs to help other people including funding and grant programs. As far as government grant programs go that information has to made publically accessible to the public and it is via the government's website. Information about the government's grant programs is also available in the public libraries. I have even got information about government grant programs from my local newspaper and from listening to the radio.

Why shouldn't businesses and individuals charge you for finding this kind of information for you? I have some words on my grants page that addresses this. In short it says that once you start looking for this kind of information you will see the time and effort that is required and hopefully it will help you better appreciate the work that has to be done to get this kind of information. Now being taken or getting scammed from one of these companies or individuals is a different thing altogether! One of the warning signs is if you are "guarenteed" a grant. No one can guarentee you a grant. You have to apply for the grant and theoretically speaking the application that best fits the objectives of the entity awarding the grant will be the one that will be awarded the grant. So you have to apply for the grant just like everyone else. If you get scammed by one of these companies there are steps that you can take to report them. I have seen many articles of "grant companies" being investigated after so many complaints were received about them. You too can find out about these companies by doing a simple search online.

Grant research and grant writing require a lot of work and are very time consuming things to do. When you start looking for grant information you will find out how true that is.