Article - Government Grants - governmentgrant-resource.com

DISADVANTAGES OF GOVERNMENT GRANTS

One of the trends of the past century has been the gradual movement in Europe and North America towards a closer government involvement in the everyday lives of citizens.  There seems to be an almost paternalistic sense in government that leaders know the best choices and decisions for the people who elected them to office.  Ideas of a grand scale are no longer part of government agendas; instead, elected officials concern themselves with the minutiae of the governed, especially with regulating behaviors and products, with the ostensible goal of making our lives safer, healthier, better.  The result is an infringement of freedom in supposedly free societies, as the sole aim of the politician is to silence the yelps of the noisy minority.

Because most members of the Western democracies are too sated by material possessions and the distractions of leisure time to take interest in politics, there is no one watching that government leaders do not take away the most basic of liberties.  The excuse that such restrictions are made for the benefit of the populace as a whole does not make the “reforms” any more palatable.  The elected claim that they have the ability to think and plan long-term, and that they grasp the issues at hand.  Their enhanced vision apparently has justified the invasion of Iraq, making abortions easier to obtain, taxing smokers out of existence, and even making fox hunting illegal.  All have reasons that sound good to enough people to avoid protests, but not enough to help the government shed its image as Father of the People.

One of the most insidious forms of government paternalism is the grant – free money that seems like a form of assistance, but often is another channel for the government to use in regulating the life of the citizen, so the process can have disadvantages.  Before you accept a government grant, here are some reasons why finding individual assistance through private nonprofits may be a better idea:

·      Despite what the government says about needing to increase private donations, individual benefactors give more to nonprofits than any source but the government itself.

·      "Donations from individuals" is the only category of giving that has consistently increased over the past several decades.

·      Nonprofits have found that individual donors are a reliable revenue stream once a solid plan of solicitation is established.

·      Nonprofits that have solid roots in the community are more stable than government programs, that change with political winds.

·      These solid roots often take the form of members who not only provide large amounts of money through donations, but also volunteer their time and energy to projects put on by their organization, which means that people seeking assistance often receive a far more personal touch.

Here are some facts about government grants, whether you choose federal, state, or local sources of public assistance:

·      Federal grants are usually high, but they are given first to people who are putting together a project that solves a problem and can easily be copied in other parts of the country.

·      Once a nonprofit gets a state grant, it usually gets the grant year after year.  It can be very hard for a new person or organization to get on the state grant list – this process usually is very political.

·      If you live in a rural area, there may be only limited funds for any grants at all.  Even in larger areas, grant money is usually immediately set aside for established programs.

·      Government grants usually involve a deadline that is strict, and a long, drawn-out process of review that can be confusing.

·      If you do not fill out your forms correctly, your application may be rejected without any sort of notice.

·      Because government entities have to be very careful about how they track money, funds can be kept away from their grants for months.

·      Grant staff are usually occupied with a large amount of paperwork that has nothing to do with grant-giving itself, so response time will be slow.

·      In the deficit era, spending is going down, making grants harder and harder to come by.