subject: How Us Government Grants Works [print this page] Grants given by the US Government are issued to those projects that uphold positive externalities which mean that a project should bring positive effects to its society along with itself. The Grants may be given coming from a state government or federal government.
Federal grants refer to grants that are mostly given to firms and companies and not for a certain individuals. These grants have three categories which are Earmark Grants, project grants and formula grants.
Formula grants are those grants that usually provide funds as mandated by the existing law. This type of grant might be a sum of money that US government needs to spend to protect the forests or provide services to demote substance abuse. Earmark grants are issued through legislators and being added to a certain bill that was being passed that also helps particular projects to acquire funding without any public reviews. In the Earmark Grants, there could be large possibilities of abusing it by the legislators. Project grants are issued to companies or person for the purpose of researching. A good example for this would be one pharmaceutical company that tried to develops a certain drug to fight a particular disease.
State grants usually issued to individuals given by a certain states. It includes the grants that promote higher education for people such as the education and college grants.
Grants for education are usually given to both institutions and individuals. The institution may consume the grants for their facilities improvement whereas individuals who are needy or physically handicapped like those blind people and deaf people may use the grant to help them finish their schooling. The college grants were given to higher achievers that weren't able to support their college. The government offer financial support for them by either paying all their college expenditures or may be just a part of it, depends on individual's cases.
