Can this possibly be the product of a bureaucracy?  Grants.gov, a website provided by the Department of Health and Human Services, is pretty amazing by my high standards. 

If you're looking for grants to support your organization's work, check out this "single, secure Web site to find and apply for federal grants."

You can register for email notification of grant opportunities.  And they offer webcasts to familiarize you with the available resources.  They offer "context specific help"--click on a Help button on any page and the assistance provided relates to that page! You can also find tutorials, a training demonstration, email and phone support.  Goodness, can polite and helpful clerks at the Divison of Motor Vehicles be far behind?

Maybe this is familiar to you, as they seem to have done a great deal of promotion of the site.  But if it's news to you (as it was to me until today) take a look.  Others have approved of it as well, it appears, as the site was among 10 semifinalists from federal agencies (and 50 overall) for the six $100,000 Innovation in American Government awards in 2005. 

I also learned today, through some grant research on National Endowment for the Arts guidelines, that applying online through Grants.gov is optional at many governmental sources of funding.  However, they will soon require use of this system.  As a former foundation program staff member, this seems like a good idea to me--and the government is WAAAY ahead of the foundation community with this coordination, convenience and online access.

 

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