Free Money Is What Infomercial Personalities Call Your Purchase

STAGE ONE

I can't tell you how many times people have come to me saying they want to start a nonprofit and want me to be their grant writer. I bristle every time they say the phrase, “I want to get some of that free money to get a building and run my programs.” 🤦🏽‍♀️

I slowly shake my head and inform them that there is no such thing as free money. 

“Have you been watching infomercials? Did you purchase a book promising a list of all of these grants or ‘Free Money’ you could apply for?”, I ask. 

“Yeah,” they say. “It’s grant money—money you don’t have to pay back, right?” 

“Did you read the book?”, I ask.

“Yeah, I read the book and it listed all this grant money out there. I just need a grant writer.”

“No, you don't. A grant writer can’t get you that money. Your organization doesn’t qualify for 95% of those grants.” 

They look at me with the oddest expression. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I explain to them that the information these guys put in these books is 100% true. There is money out there for people to collect buttons; sew quilts; buy equipment; pay for utilities, rent, and mortgages—but you will never ever be eligible for any of it.

Again, the look…They ask why not? And I explain to them it's because Funders designate these grants for a specific population, group, or geographical area that is so specific, no one else qualifies. 

Take for example cute little Aunt Lily, who lived in a retirement home where she and 13 cute little old ladies came together, every Tuesday, and collected buttons. Now, what they did with these buttons, I can't tell you—maybe they sewed the buttons onto little socks and made sock puppets for sick kids in hospitals. Or maybe they were competitive button collectors (they exist, I looked it up) who belong to a Regional, State, or Local button club. Maybe they collected the buttons and made fabulous vests adorned with all types of different buttons and held fashion shows? I can’t tell you for sure what these ladies did with those buttons in their past time, but they collected buttons and met every Tuesday, for years.

When Ms. Lily passed away peacefully in her sleep, the dozen of women in her button-collecting club learned that she put money in her will to fund this Tuesday gathering. But because Lily’s children set it up as a public charity, the grant guidelines had to be posted publicly. But the grant criteria were specific to the button club—down to the eligibility stating that the grant was to fund the Button Collection Club at Shady Pines Senior Assisted Living home. The women would “apply” every year, and the funds would be disbursed to The Shady Pines Senior Assisted Living home.

So you see, the listing in the book is technically not a lie, there is grant money for collecting buttons; the author just failed to mention that only the women in Shady Pines would qualify for the grant. In the infomercial or in the book, he just circled in red “a grant to fund button collecting.”

The same goes for the grants for equipment, utilities, and mortgage. Those grants are specifically for government agencies like HUD to pay for Section 8 to cover tenants’ rent (which ultimately pays the owner’s mortgage).

Do you see? And the grants to cover utilities are meant to subsidize low-income residents’ utility bills. The grant funds the SHARE program. Hint, that’s the big red circle the TV personality circled to prove “there are government grants to pay for utility bills.” There are. You just won’t ever qualify for them because they are earmarked for public agencies and public programs.

Do you see why these claims aren’t technically lies—and why you won’t be able to get your money back refund? They’re half-truths, or what I call lies of omission. These infomercial personalities know that 98% of the people who purchase their books believing that they're getting access to free money don't qualify for the grants.

That’s why the only free money to come from this situation is the $29.95 you spent on that book of government grants.

Multiply $29.95 times the thousands of insomniacs in America, and you can see why they keep spreading these untruths. It’s profitable.

My question to you is this: Are you giving away free money?