What Is a Grant?

Abstract

Grant giving is almost as old as charity and may even be as old. Four thousand years ago the Chinese set aside properties to support religious observances, and wealthy Egyptians of that same period established funds to maintain the pyramids of assorted pharaohs. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, which recorded the deeds of good men in order to assure them of a proper reception in the next world, contains an entry for one deceased philanthropist which may be regarded as the first record of, or at least the forerunner of, the bricks and mortar grant. It noted that the man in his lifetime “gave bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, raiment to the naked; he gave a boat to a man who had none.” Feeding the hungry and clothing the poor are charitable acts. Giving a man a boat provides him with the means to carry on his work and thus qualifies as a very early example of grant making.