Federal Grants for Small Business Development

By: Jack Lambert Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Looking for federal grants or loans for small business development, education and training, food and nutrition programs, or flood control? How about help for community development programs, childcare, or mental health research?

The U.S. General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy has made it easier to access the most recent and accurate information on Federal assistance programs with its new world wide web version of the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance at http://www.cfda.gov.

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance website also features a guide to writing grant proposals, a list of Federal agencies providing assistance programs with links to agency web sites, and an introduction to the Catalog and types of assistance available from the Federal Government.

The Catalog's database contains information submitted by 57 Federal departments and agencies on over 1,800 Federal programs. These programs include grants, loans, loan guarantees, scholarships, mortgage loans, insurance, and other forms of assistance, both financial and non-financial.

Programs in the Catalog provide information on the:

1. Federal agency administering a program;

2. Authorization upon which a program is based;

3. Objectives and goals of a program;

4. Types of financial and non-financial assistance offered under a program;

5. Uses and restrictions placed upon a program;

6. Eligibility requirements;

7. Application and award process;

8. Amount of obligations for the past, current, and future fiscal years;

9. Regulations, guidelines and literature relevant to a program;

10. Information contacts at the headquarters, regional, and local offices;

11. Programs that are related based upon program objectives and uses;

12. Examples of funded projects;

13. Criteria for selecting proposals;

14. Agency policies and Federal management policy directives pertaining to a program.

For Americans, the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance can be a great resource. Many individuals, business and organizations rely heavily on federal funding, and it is very convenient to have a resource which lists all of the types of funding available.