On the Grants - Siti
I'm Siti (IGN Sietie_), and I just spent the last eight hours of my life recording and organizing every grant the Department of Commerce has ever issued to businesses on the forums. Some of what I found surprised me, and some didn't. If you've ever asked any of the following:
"Which business ideas get the most government money?"
"Which businesses most reliably garner government money?"
"How much does the DoC spend on grants?"
"Will my grant proposal be met with fat stacks of cash or heart-wrenching, devastating rejection?"
then this article is for you.
Every grant proposal requesting to fund the establishment or development of a restaurant was accepted. There are four such documented requests publicly available from late 2023 and spread throughout 2024. The lowest amount of $DC awarded in one of those grants was 5k and the highest was 15k.
Real Estate grant requests are among
the more numerous of those publicly recorded.
These companies largely deal in buying, renovating, and selling real estate. A few of
them specialize in renting and apartments.
Construction companies are counted
separately. The largest grant ever given was to
a real estate firm, doling out 60k $DC.
While many players love casinos, clubs, and other recreational businesses, this love does not seem to aptly characterize the members of the Department of Commerce. Most grant proposals for businesses and prospective businesses in the Entertainment and Gaming sectors are rejected. Those that do find themselves granted are often meager compared to subsidies issued to businesses in other sectors. For those curious, the one 40k subsidy granted to a firm in the Entertainment sector was awarded to Seathree Studios.
Most proposals for subsidies for mining and manufacturing companies are granted. These subsidies also tend to be fairly lucrative. There's a degree of overlap between mining and manufacturing companies, as dedicated manufacturing companies tend to focus on luxury goods like vehicles and jewelry, both of which rely on a cheap, steady supply of minerals. Likewise, as mining companies grow, the most natural sector for them to expand into is that of refining and selling the minerals they already deal in.
Agriculture-focused businesses tend to receive the most grants they apply for. As may be expected, the Agriculture industry is the only major industry based mostly outside of Reveille.
Redmont's Financial sector is broad in scope and deep in execution. The sector is host to a variety of investment firms, banks, insurance companies, financial advisors, and even a privately-run stock exchange. The 2nd largest pool of grant applicants come from businesses in the financial factor, which usually get accepted. The sector is also fairly lucrative for the new businesses developing within it.
The Media sector far outpaces every other in Redmont in terms of genuine expected value for requested grants. Media companies often struggle to find their footing: investors or advertisers with deep pockets. The reliability of grant money for media firms may ease the worries of any daring entrepreneur looking to dip their toes into the market. Media grants are also spread fairly evenly between aspiring start-ups and experienced firms looking for some extra wind in their sails.
The vast majority of grant applications come from retail firms, and it's not even close. Perhaps caused by this at least in part, grants issued to retail firms tend to be pretty small.
The plurality of grants requested by retail firms are classified as start-up grants. Many retail companies requesting start-up grants do not aspire to become general stores or chain supermarkets but attempt to corner the market on one specific good or kind of good. This genre of business contains your clothing stores, your gun stores, and your enchantment stores.
Innovations grants tend to be requested by larger, more established businesses aiming to develop their abilities to produce goods in-house, expand to new locations or expand to cover new goods. The fact that innovation grants happen to be requested by general stores and start-up grants tend to be requested by specialty shops is perhaps telling of the relative success general stores often find compared to their more specialized cousins.
Law firms make bank. Three-quarters of grant requests from law firms are accepted. Many of our Legal sector's more successful faces have applied for start-up and/or innovation grants. Legal grants also tend to be fairly substantial in value.
Redmont's Construction sector is rather underdeveloped. The statistics of grants issued to
construction firms may partially explain why that
is. Construction firms tend to be awarded less money than even nonprofits applying to the DoC for charity money to distribute to new players. Still, the Construction sector is rather diverse, with firms specializing in both construction and demolition.
Grant requests for philanthropic endeavors tend to be laughed out of the virtual halls of the DoC. Still, a 6k grant was once given to one such non-profit.
The rest of the businesses that have requested grants don't fit quite as nicely into a specific box. This "Other" category consists of transportation companies, research institutes, vehicle rentals, and even firms focusing on getting their clients hired to
different corporations.
This dataset includes data from both before and after the application format for requesting grants was reformed. Many pre- and post-reform categories and money-pools don't line up so neatly. In these cases, I used my own discretion to decide whether a given firm was requesting a grant for R&D or innovation purposes, for example. I have no aim to defame or deride any firm or individual with this report.
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