I hate to rain on the enthusiastic notion that grants are basically free money. Free money, whoo hoo! Matthew Lesko and a host of other "Free Grant Money" websites will assure you that you've been missing out on all sorts of dough for doing exactly what you've been doing. And they're wrong.
Grants refer to a variety of funding mechanisms, but are usually funds supplied for programs, research, investigations, or pilot projects. Someone wants something done and they'll fund you or your organization to do it. Grants for students or non-repayable scholarships usually stipulate that you graduate or at least maintain a certain GPA. Government grants require deliverables of some sort, and foundation grants require proof that you accomplished what you said you would. So why aren't they free?
Few funders will pay for 100% of any project's costs. You can do your best budget work, calculate indirect costs, and plan for all contingencies and still come up short in the final analysis, and this is to be expected because funders assume that you will take a small portion of the responsibility for the successful completion of your grant project. Responsibility for things like writing progress reports, keeping careful accounting of expenditures, writing publicity for the project, and making sure the project doesn't die by raising more funds.
Don't be swindled into thinking there's buckets of moolah just waiting for you. Grants are a serious business, and funders are looking for project commitment, not someone looking for free money. Now where's the link to that unclaimed property website?
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