Federal Loans - Federal Grants

Federal small business loans grants government

The federal government offers grants and financial help including:

Direct Payments with Unrestricted Use - Financial assistance from the Federal government provided directly to beneficiaries who satisfy Federal eligibility requirements with no restrictions being imposed on the recipient as to how the money is spent. Included are payments under retirement, pension, and compensatory programs.

Direct Loans - Financial assistance provided through the lending of Federal monies for a specific period of time, with a reasonable expectation of repayment. Such loans may or may not require the payment of interest.

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance is a government-wide compendium of Federal programs, projects, services, and activities that provide assistance or benefits to the American public. It contains financial and nonfinancial assistance programs administered by departments and establishments of the Federal government.

A "Federal domestic assistance program" may in practice be called a program, an activity, a service, a project, a process, or some other name, regardless of whether it is identified as a separate program by statute or regulation. It will be identified in terms of its legal authority, administering office, funding,
purpose, benefits, and beneficiaries. "Assistance" or "benefits" refers to the transfer of money, property, services, or anything of value, the principal purpose of which is to accomplish a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by Federal statute. Assistance includes, but is not limited to grants, loans, loan guarantees, scholarships, mortgage loans, insurance, and other types of financial assistance, including cooperative agreements; property, technical assistance, counseling, statistical, and other expert information; and service activities of regulatory agencies. It does not include the provision of conventional public information services. (Information provided by Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance) 

There are many groups of organizations that are eligible to apply for government grants. Typically, most grantee organizations fall into the following categories.

• Government organizations
• Educational Organizations
• Public Housing Organizations
• Non-Profit Organizations
• For Profit Organizations
• Personal or Individuals
• Small Businesses

    * 500 employees for most manufacturing and mining industries
    * 100 employees for all wholesale trade industries
    * $6 million for most retail and service industries
    * $28.5 million for most general & heavy construction industries
    * $12 million for all special trade contractors
    * $0.75 million for most agricultural industries

Note that about one-fourth of industries have a size standard that is different from these levels. They vary from $0.75 million to $28.5 million for size standards based on average annual revenues and from 100 to 1500 employees for size standards based on number of employees. 

Note on Individual Grants:

If you register as an Individual, you will only be able to apply to grant opportunities that are open to individuals. An individual cannot submit a grant application to a grant opportunity that is just open to organizations.
(Information provided by Grants.gov) - Grants.gov is a central storehouse for information on over 1,000 grant programs and provides access to approximately $400 billion in annual awards.