These grant sites have been around for many years, but they're now enjoying a resurgence. The political rhetoric in Washington has all but equated the phrase stimulus check with free grant.

My family runs a grant writing consulting business, and we've probably seen at least a slight uptick in random individuals contacting us. But scams related to supposed free money are legion and always have been, even if stimulus-related hype has added a new dimension to them. For example, in a post from last I August I wrote this about Matthew Lesko, otherwise known as the guy in the question-mark suit:

The cliché goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch. In grant writing, many snake-oil salespeople of various stripes want to entice you with promises of vast quantities of free money that turn out to be nothing but a mirage. For example, you may have seen infomercials for Matthew Lesko, the doofus dressed in a question mark-covered suit who touts billions of dollars for the average guy. Think about it logically: were there really this vast flow of money out there, wouldn’t everyone be seeking or taking it?** The story doesn’t pass the credulity test. In January, my father, Isaac, wrote a post about legitimate how nonprofits can expect to apply for stimulus funds in this post, which was an effort to explain how stimulus funding actually works. It seems like a large number of people—including many nonprofit and public agencies—just expect to head to D.C., get their pillowcases filled with cash, and then drive home. This, of course, isn't how it works.