The grants can generally be subdivided into two major categories:
1.The so called general purpose grants
2.Program development or project support
The general purpose grant means one that can be used to cover the common overall expenses of the company.
Other grants usually represent a sort of program or project support. Such project grants are given to supply a certain set of activities. When a specific project is given a grant, the money can only be spent on this project.
There exist lots of types of project grants. The most common are the following:
1.Planning grants those invested into the studies made at the initial stages of project implementation to find out the exact amount of money, time and things required by the project.
2.Seed money also known as start-up grants used for the development of recently organized companies or projects.
3.Management or technical assistance grants. The grants of this kind are given on the purposes of paying for the job of certain specialists to be involved in a project
4.Facilities and equipment grants. Sometimes also referred to as capital grants, they help an organization buy the means of production or certain material goods or the permanent space of basing the project needs. These grants are usually long-term and the grant maker generally checks the plans of activities for next few years to be sure the funds won't go in vain.
5.Endowment grants are the funds generally kept by the non-profit charities and held as an untouched stock sometimes used for different purposes or added upon by fund raising.
Besides grants there also exist the so-called program-related investments (PRI). The difference between a grant and a PRI is as follows. PRI are to be paid back to the investor after the period of time for which the PRI was given has elapsed.