Grants Were Never Meant to Fix Bad Government

December 10, 2025

Over the past few years, we’ve seen billions in federal financial assistance flow to states and local governments — ARPA, IIJA, IRA, and now a new generation of competitive and formula funding. These dollars have been transformative. But they’ve also revealed something uncomfortable:

Too often, grants are being used to patch over systemic issues, not advance strategic ones.

What Grants Are Actually For

Federal financial assistance exists to achieve programmatic goals and objectives that align with national priorities: public health, infrastructure, resilience, innovation, equity, and efficiency.

They are tools for implementation, not avoidance.

Grants were designed to help governments do more good, not to compensate for what hasn’t been done. They fund progress, not procrastination.

What Grants Are Not For

Grants are not a substitute for good governance. They are not a safety net for bad habits.

Yet, in practice, we see them used to:

• Paper over budget forecasting gaps rather than strengthen fiscal planning.
• Avoid hard conversations with elected officials, unions, or community stakeholders.
• Offset years of deferred maintenance or underinvestment without fixing the root causes.
• Substitute for intergovernmental engagement, leaving opportunities and risks unseen.
• Fund the same project design, even as costs explode, instead of value-engineering or phasing.
• Mask a lack of innovation or unwillingness to rethink service delivery.

Grants were never intended to underwrite dysfunction. When we treat them that way, we trade short-term relief for long-term risk.

The Real Work: Governance Before Grants

The governments that succeed in this new era of funding share a common trait — they treat grants as amplifiers of sound governance, not replacements for it.

They invest in:

• Data-driven budgeting and forecasting.
• Cross-departmental planning that connects capital, operations, and maintenance.
• Continuous intergovernmental engagement to anticipate policy changes.
• Innovation cultures that test, adapt, and modernize.

When governance is strong, grants create momentum. When governance is weak, grants merely delay the inevitable reckoning.

The Path Forward

The next phase of federal funding — with its tighter oversight, political conditions, and return-on-investment expectations — will test whether governments have built real capacity.

Success won’t come from chasing the next NOFO. It will come from governing well enough that you can use federal dollars strategically, not desperately.

Let’s stop treating grants as bandages. Let’s start treating them as accelerators — for ideas, outcomes, and the kind of leadership that endures after the funding ends.

Because grants don’t make governments better. Governance does.

Managing grants efficiently, without compromising compliance and integrity, can be a challenging task. If your organization is navigating the complexities of grant management, we can help you enhance oversight, streamline processes, ensure outcomes and reduce the risks of waste, fraud, and abuse. Reach out today to learn how our expertise in grants management can ensure your programs meet their goals, stay compliant, and make the best use of taxpayer dollars. 

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