This book provides an overview of the six grant types, provides criteria for defining a block grant and uses that criteria to provide a list of current block grants, examines competing perspectives concerning the use of block grants versus other grant mechanisms to achieve national goals, provides a brief historical overview of the role of block grants in American federalism, and examines recent changes to existing block grants and proposals to create new ones. The authors also describe key sources of information on government and private funding, and outlines eligibility for federal grants. Moreover, how to develop and write a grant proposal is also discussed in this book. In preparation for writing a proposal, the report first examines preliminary information gathering and preparation, developing ideas for the proposal, gathering community support, identifying funding resources, and seeking preliminary review of the proposal and support of relevant administrative officials. The second section covers the actual writing of the proposal, from outlining the project goals, to finally developing the proposal budget. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.