Psst! Wanna find out about billions in free money? Without paying anyone a penny?

Here's how: those websites that tell you how to find free money don't tell you that the federal and state governments give out the information for FREE, too. Here's some federal websites that will give you free information about money:

Grants clearinghouse
This website will give you all the grants announced by the federal government, without costing you a penny! Here's the trick that "free money" people don't tell you: you can't apply for it. That's because most grants are earmarked for nonprofit organizations and state and local governments. It's the nonprofits and government agencies that create programs from the grant money for you, and most of THOSE are not outright grants.

Here's a way of finding out what's for individuals on the federal level. Go the the Clearinghouse, and click "find grant opportunities." Then click on "advanced search." Go to the part of the page that says, "Search by eligibility." You see, there is "beneficiary eligibility" (the groups of people the government wants to ultimately help) and "applicant eligibility" (the people who can actually apply for the money). Highlight the groups that apply to you: individuals, small business, for profit organizations other than small business. Then put in your keyword at the box at the top of the page. Also, in "search by funding instrument type," be sure to highlight "grant."

Bet that cut your list down short. The truth is, most "grants" for businesses are not for start-ups, but are contracts to do work. On another post, we will get into the *few* kinds of outright grants that are available for business.

See these, too:
Government Benefits, Grants, and Financial Aid
This simply gives an alphabetic rundown on financial aid and benefits available through the federal government.

Gov.Benefits: State Benefits
Click on your state, and see what's available to you.

Government Sales and Auctions
Roundup of federal land and property sales.

Government May Owe You Money
Don't go to people who can help you find money the feds owe you for a fee. Find it for free--yourself--on this website. Old pensions, bank failures, FHA/HUD insurance refunds. It's all here!

Missing Money
See if your state owes you money, too. Links to all the states that have searchable databases listing money owed to people.