Ask Your Lawmaker

Answer from: U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA)

Reporter: Nonprofits in Massachusetts are very much in need of financial assistance for their information and communication technology infrastructures. Are there federal monies available for this? And what can you do to help nonprofits meet this need? Rep. Capuano: Well, there are federal monies available for any general program. I don’t think there are any specifically targeted that I’m aware of (off the top of my head) for technology. But I do think there is money available in general for non-profits. They have to go through the grant process like everyone. Truth is, because there are so many grant programs I can’t answer a generic thing, ‘cause it depends on what kind of a charity it is – if it’s a hospital versus a daycare center versus a little league, even. There are different pots of money. So someone would have to call my office (or whoever), try to figure out what pot of money they’re looking for. We’ll try to help them find something, sometimes. If they can find something, we’ll try to help them go in the right direction and make that grant application – on the presumption that it’s a worthy thing, which most would do. We’ll try to support it as best we can. Happens all the time. Reporter: You get calls like that in your office and provide assistance? Rep. Capuano: As best we can. Yeah. The truth is, because the federal government is so big, usually the non-profits already know the pot of money they’re trying to get at. And we’ll give them some guidance but- we generally try to walk them through the process to the best of our ability. Sometimes they win, sometimes they don’t.

Answered on Jul 9th, 2009