where do i search for government grants for convicted felons?
September 7, 2010 by Guest Author
Filed under More Grants Answers
Can you answer bookwurm’s question?:
I am looking for legitimate grants in order to start a business.
Help this member out and add your own comments below.
No, there are no federal grants for convicted felons. And no, even for non-felons, there are hardly any grants for starting a business.
You can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov – these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support a for-profit venture.
Even if you buy books on “how to get grants” or list that supposedly has information on grants — all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently.
Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT – Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program
Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women’s Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women’s business center that will train women entrepreneurs
There is a non-profit organization called Prison Entrepreneurship Program which is described as “a Houston-based nonprofit organization that leverages the skills of senior business executives to constructively redirect these talents and equip inmates and former inmates with entrepreneurial training—enabling them to productively re-enter society.”
http://prisonentrepreneurship.org/
As for small business loans, felons typically find it hard to get one, even SBA. SBA adopts a “cautious” approach to lending to felons and oftentimes bases its decision on how serious the crime committed was and whether there is strong likelihood that the offense will be repeated again.
Yup. The guy above is right. You also can not get any Federal or State student loans for school if you have a drug conviction.