how small business grants work
grants are tailored to a specific purpose and the application process is generally rigorous and time consuming the federal government delineates what it terms the grant lifecycle which has three phases 1non federal grants of course may vary in how closely they are scrutinized and monitored but the process remains largely the same types of grants for small businessesthere are at least five different general types of small business grants available from myriad grantors within these five categories are opportunities too numerous to elucidate in one article and the categories can sometimes overlap the most comprehensive source for federal business grants is the government website grants gov which maintains a database of thousands of available business grants 2 grantwatch is on online database of over 27 000 grants including more than 1 000 small business grants 3 it has a free membership or you can pay for a subscription lasting a week 18 a month 45 a quarter 90 or a year 199 which provides added benefits such as keyword search and full grant info 4here are some grant examples that will help you understand what kind of help is available and where to look for it the u s small business administration sba a federal agency is a principal source of limited small business grants for certain defined purposes these include the u s department of agriculture also has grants for rural small businesses federal small business grants cannot be used for starting or expanding a business 10as noted above the sba provides grant money through step and its small business development centers that eventually funds small business support and development on the state or regional scale in addition the u s department of commerce has two programs that fund a variety of grants distributed statewide or region wide they are there are also states and regions that offer small business government grants here are just two examples from new york and texas corporations may offer grants as a way to burnish their image since philanthropy usually plays well to the public corporations are usually concerned about projecting a positive image to the public and philanthropy is one way to do that this can take the form of grants to worthy causes often nonprofit ones but it can also take the form of small business grants here are but a few of what is out there all grants are targeted to a specific goal but some are aimed solely at a defined group it could be the lgbtq community veterans or as with doordash above and the sogal foundation below see start up grants for small businesses restaurant owners doordash and self identified black women and nonbinary people sogal here are a couple of other examples as mentioned above federal small business grants cannot be used for starting a business fortunately plenty of other entities are more than happy to help out in that regard here are just three 