Grants for college are a form of financial aid that does not usually get repaid. They cover a variety of education-related expenses, such as tuition and fees, room and board, and books and supplies. Grants along with scholarships are often called “gift aid,” or free money for college, but they are not the same.

There are essentially three financing options: the state’s National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), bursaries and scholarships that are usually specific to particular areas of study and universities, and bank loans.

Grants, work-study, loans, and scholarships help make college or career school affordable.

Free money for college: Government

• Federal grants. During the 2018-19 school year, students received $41.3 billion in federal grant aid to help pay for college.
• State grants.
• Employers.
• Volunteer organizations.
• Churches.
• Labor unions and professional associations.
• Fortune 500 companies.
• Banks and credit unions.

To qualify for the full $10,000 targeted EIDL grant, a business must:

1. Be located in a low-income community, and.
2. Have suffered an economic loss greater than 30%, and.
3. Employ not more than 300 employees.

This means any day-to-day expenses are a permissible use of your EIDL funds, giving you the freedom to spend it on anything like:

• Web hosting.
• Inventory.
• Office supplies.
• Accounts payable.
• Rent and utilities.
• Merchant fees.
• Bookkeeping and accounting services.

Borrowers will have their loans forgiven if they use the money for designated expenses. Mortgage interest, rent and utilities are also forgivable, up to 40% of the PPP loan. (Note that if your loan is forgiven, theses expenses covered by the loan are not tax-deductible, the IRS recently stated in Notice 2020-32.)

What happens if I don’t spend my entire PPP loan? Not being able to spend your entire PPP loan may seem like a good problem to have, but it can lead to having loans that need to be repaid (with interest) and potential ineligibility for loan forgiveness.

Once approved, the SBA requires lenders to disburse funds within 10 calendar days. Your loan is considered approved once the SBA assigns you a loan number. In general, the PPP loan funding timeline is around two weeks, from when you submit your application to the time the lender disburses funds.