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Research shows that compared to white business owners, BIPOC entrepreneurs receive less business financing, less frequently and at higher interest rates. Small business grants can be a useful alternative (or supplement) to more traditional types of funding.
Business Startup Grants For Minorities
Small business grants can be competitive and require lengthy application processes. The payoff, however, is free funds that you don’t have to pay back.
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Here are some grants that may be suitable for minority business owners and what you need to know to apply.
This federal portal is a great resource for finding applicable grants for your specific industry and eligibility. In total, Grants.gov offers eligibility guidelines, application information and deadlines for more than 1,000 small business grants.
All federal government agencies making grants will post their information on this site. More than two dozen federal agencies provide grants, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
In particular, minority-owned business categories can narrow searches based on your individual eligibility criteria, such as “small business” or “Native American tribal organization” or “nonprofit.”
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The SBIR and STRR programs provide business development grants to small businesses engaged in cutting-edge research and development. Eleven government agencies, including NASA, DOD, DOE, DHHS, and the National Science Foundation, have earmarked a portion of their research and development funds for this grant program.
Grant eligibility requirements and awarded amounts are largely specific to the program and individual grant you are applying for. You must have a US-owned and independently operated, for-profit small business with a principal investigator employed by your business. Your business must have 500 or fewer employees.
Do you operate your business in a rural area? If so, you may want to explore the Rural Business Development Grant Program from the USDA, which offers small business grants of between $10,000 and $500,000.
This program is available to businesses operating in rural areas with a population of less than 50,000. In addition, grant money must be used for projects that benefit your rural area or city. A variety of organizations are eligible for this program, including nonprofit corporations, federally recognized tribes, rural cooperatives, state agencies, and more.
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The USDA Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant Program assists qualified business owners who are unable to obtain more traditional business financing. This program, as the name suggests, provides both grants and business loans.
To be eligible for this grant program, your business must be in the water or waste disposal sector in an eligible area—a rural area or a city with a population of 10,000 or less, tribal lands or settlements in rural areas. Most state and local government agencies, private nonprofit organizations, and federally recognized tribes are eligible for this program.
MBDA provides grants to organizations that operate their Minority Business Centers throughout the United States. Through one of these centers, you can receive business advice, procurement matching and financial assistance for your minority-owned business.
In addition, MBDA also operates a separate ongoing grant competition program. In 2021, the program was seeking proposals to open and operate one of the four MBDA Export Centers.
Getting Canadian Government Funding For Your Business
The program helps socially or economically disadvantaged small business owners compete for set-aside and sole-source government contracts. Although the SBA 8(a) program is not technically a grant program, it provides excellent opportunities for minority-owned businesses. On top of the actual professional contract, those who qualify for the program have access to business opportunity specialists, a mentor-mentor program, as well as business coaching, counseling and executive development.
The nonprofit organization NASE operates their Growth Grants Program which awards micro-grants of up to $4,000 each. These grants are designed to help businesses grow.
Although NASE does not offer grants exclusively to minority-owned businesses, the program is designed for small businesses that cannot always find other methods of financing. Additionally, NASE Growth Grants can be used for a variety of business purposes—including purchasing equipment, hiring staff, or creating marketing materials.
AWGC provides grants to organizations and individual artists led by Asian American women in NYC. The nonprofit organization grants grants to businesses that use arts and culture to create progressive social change, raise awareness and action on issues affecting Asian American women, girls, and families, and to highlight and promote the central role of women in these projects.
Minority Business Development Agency
The AWGC typically awards five to eight project grants each cycle (usually on an annual basis) in amounts up to $15,000.
First Nations is a nonprofit organization that operates a national grant program that provides technical and financial resources to Native nonprofits and tribes.
The Operation HOPE Small Business Development Program is designed to assist small business owners in underserved communities. The nonprofit organization offers an eight-week entrepreneurship training program to minority business owners to provide business coaching, personal development, access to professional services and financial counseling.
The program helps business owners create and maintain business plans as well as access funding and other business resources.
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The NBMBAA Scale-Up Pitch Challenge is a grant competition that encourages business owners to brainstorm creative, scalable startup ideas. NBMBAA connects startups with early stage investors and venture capitalists and gives them an opportunity to pitch their business ideas. The winning business owner or team receives a $50,000 grant, second place receives $10,000 and third place receives $7,500. The People’s Choice Award is also given for $1,000.
This grant competition is a great option for Black-owned businesses looking for startup funding for their first business or trying to launch a new idea. You must be a member of the NBMBAA to participate and the competition is held annually.
The FedEx Small Business Grant Contest is a nationwide competition that awards grants to approximately 10 different qualified business owners each year. FedEx Print Services grants range from $15,000 to $50,000, plus $1,000 to $7,500.
Many of the winners of this grant competition are minority-owned businesses—and overall, grants are awarded to those with unique business ideas that positively impact society.
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Small business grant opportunities and other resources for women, black women, veterans and felons are also identified. Explore to see if that grant might be a good fit for your business as well.
Sally has more than a decade of experience in print and online journalism. She was previously a senior editor at SmartAsset — a Y Combinator-backed fintech startup that provides personal finance advice. There she edited articles and data reports on tax, mortgage, banking, credit card, investing, insurance and retirement planning topics. She has also held various editorial roles at AOL.com, Huffington Post and Glamor magazine. Her work has also appeared in Marie Claire, Teen Vogue, and Cosmopolitan magazines. The initial stages of starting a business are challenging to say the least. If the startup is a minority-owned business, the challenges seem to increase. This is especially true when it comes to financing from lenders.
Some financial institutions offer small business loans, but if they don’t think your business plan will work, they won’t approve you for a loan.
To avoid this challenge, small business owners can take advantage of grant opportunities to help increase their working capital.
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Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) grants were created to give small businesses the opportunity to perform research and development work for the federal government.
This competitive, award-based program pushes small businesses to see how much they can improve their technological and research development.
If your small business is in the early stages of collaborating with a nonprofit research group to develop groundbreaking technology, this grant is the best way to get seed money.
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Both SBIR and SBTT grants are offered by the US Small Business Administration. The SBA has long advocated for support of small and minority-owned businesses, so be sure to check their website for any new grants they may be offering.
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The Comcast Rise Grant is a program designed to provide small businesses with the resources and tools they need to survive the impact of the pandemic.
There are actually two different types of awards, depending on which aspect of the program you apply to.
If you need cash flow, you should apply to investment funds. If you need expert advice on technology and how to use it, they offer marketing services and tech makeover rewards.
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Every entrepreneur could use a little more business funding. The Comcast Rise Investment Fund awards $10,000 to small businesses nationwide.
So stay tuned and check back each year — you never know when your city will be back!
The award also includes top-of-the-line computer equipment and free internet, technical support and cyber security services for one year.
All of the above tools and resources can certainly help a struggling small business
Small Business Grants For Immigrants And Minorities
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