Finding grants for small businesses or getting grants to buy a home is a very common library question. However, most financial assistance programs are not grants in the traditional sense. For information about programs that assist in buying, repairing a home or paying bills in an emergency take a look at this resource page.
Who gets grants?
For the most part, grants are not given to individuals. Grants are for specific projects; for example, producing a museum exhibit or building a playground for children with mobility disabilities.
Grants are awarded to:
- Nonprofits (including charities, schools, and arts and community organizations)
- State and local government agencies
- Federally-recognized tribes
- Public safety agencies (like hospitals, police and fire departments)
Grants are almost never available to businesses for staffing, ongoing expenses or expansion.
Applying for grants is a complex process. You will need to explain how the money will be spent, how it will benefit the targeted audience, and how you will document it from start to finish.
Find grants for specific projects
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Grants.gov is a directory to find and apply for federal grants. It is a central storehouse for information on over 1,000 grant programs and provides access to approximately $500 billion in annual awards. Grants.gov does not provide personal financial assistance.
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The System for Award Management (SAM) is an official website of the U.S. Government. It has information about assistance to both individuals and groups, especially state agencies, city governments, school districts, and Indigenous tribal governments and agencies. Some assistance listed here is administered by a state or county agency, which may have application requirements beyond those listed here.
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Find potential grant-makers for your project by geographic area, type of organization, or population to be served. You can also see what kinds of projects a particular grantmaker has funded. This must be used at a library location.
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Find foundation and public programs that fund students, artists, researchers, and other individual grant-seekers. Information includes: detailed funder profiles, including valuable information such as program areas, limitations, application information, financial data, links to social media, and more. This must be used at a library location.
Grants and scholarships for college:
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Need-based grants, such as Pell Grants, the Oregon Opportunity Grant (OOG) and Oregon Promise Grants.
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Similar to Foundation Directory Online Professional. You can narrow by people served and geographic location served. This must be used at a library location.
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Free website listing scholarship opportunities with links to sponsoring organizations. These tend to be for specific courses of study, people with residency or demographic matches, or students who have demonstrated leadership or ability in certain areas.
Don’t forget to contact the financial aid and scholarship office at your college or university for more ideas!