I have delt with both private funding and provincial funding in canada in the startup and operating of a 110 acre farm show/museum . Private funding be it from the public donations /bequests [and we are getting bequests as members pass on ,not the way I prefer rather have my friends than money!] or money we raise though our club is far easier to manage than money have aquired though the province. In order to qualify for funds you have to &amp;quot;tailer make &amp;quot; your request. Fortunately our application writer also works for the local member of parliment so knows the ropes!! Even with his help it takes a lot of work to apply and now after the fact when you do recieve the grant the paper work trail is due bi-monthly even if nothing happens! And you better have a darn good bookkeeper [lucky for us we do !] but still require a chartered accountant from time to time. Our grants had to be spent EXACTLY on what we said in application and if we couldn&#039;t spend the money on that project [due to supplier donations] surplus had to be returned .But since have recieved a government grant our profile in the public eye has risen and local government support  is greater. Part of our last grant [$75000 ca] was for a museum consultant [$25000 ca.] and that was hard money to give to someone to tell us what to do! [Could have built another storage building ] but out of his report we found some other avenues we had overlooked. One thing in as large a project as museum in South Bend engineering costs will hurt ,unless you have a member thats interested, with our projects the local building inspector covers us. At the present time I am involved in negociations with the county museum reguarding all the agriculture equipment in their collection ,which we have allready at our location ,and the moving of a log cabin to the farm site. As the members who are dealing with the city or with the #3 project are finding out this takes time ....lots of time. I,ve been 3 plus years on the artifacts and going on 4 on the log cabin. So a year on something as big as South Bend is nothing. A lot of ego&#039;s to pet  [happens here ] and hope you don&#039;t have a municipal election before the paper is signed or its back to square one especially if old council is out. And just when you think nothing is going to happen SURPRISE you win ! What you win is a whole new set of problems!! Just keep smiling it make them wonder what is he up too now?