The Real Deal on US Grants

I see a lot of ads that advertise about "free grants from the United States Government" and I get to wondering just how much of this is true. Hey -- if there's that much money floating around I wouldn't mind having a bit. I can think of a couple of cool projects I'd like to finance at the government's expense and one of them involves a hot tub!

If this is actually possible - if I can actually get free money from the Federal Government - it shouldn't be privileged information. Silly me. I learned really quick that a lot of the sites that purport to help you discover how to apply for such grants - if they actually do exist - are just independently operated sites set up to make money.

To wit:

The site www.technologygrantnews.com has a cool official sounding name. But to get the information contained there you need to subscribe to there monthly newsletter which runs about 35.00 a year. The site mentions that "...grants offered by U.S. Government agencies, or designated for Public Sector-Non Profit Organization or Educational Government Partnerships. Grants for Non Profit Organizations. Non Profit Organizations with a current 501(3) classification from the U.S. Internal Revenue Code are eligible to apply..." Sounds good to me, but in order to get any other info from these guys I need to pay. And cheap bastard that I am -- I don't want to!

I kept looking -- which wasn't difficult because there are over 700 thousand sites dedicated to federal money and grants. The next site was www.freegovmoney.net. Catchy title and it definably caught my eye. But again

"pay to play." And baby I don't pay.

The site www.books4you.addr.com will hook you up with everything you need to know for just $19.95.

I'm starting to see a trend here.