Funding is the act of providing resources, usually in form of money (Financing), or other values such as effort or time (sweat equity), for a project, a person, a business or any other private or public institutions. When a request for funding is made then fundraising is being attempted.
Funds can be allocated for either short-term or long-term purposes.
Among the main sources of funding, there are:
Donations, subsidies and grants are described as soft funding or crowd funding, i.e. funding that has no direct requirement for return of investment.