Small business grants: 21 options to apply for free funds for your business

You may be guilty of fraud, too, which could cause legal issues for you and your business. From pandemic support packages to cash prizes for innovation, grants come in all shapes and sizes. Here are some of the most common small business grants you’ll encounter.
You can compare a variety of crowdfunding platforms that offer different terms, such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo and StartEngine, to find the model that works best for you. It’s also important to keep in mind that you’ll likely need to sign a personal guarantee with your application — which means you’ll be held responsible for paying back the debt if your business can’t. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page.
The grants are awards for marketing, business operations, and a number of other purposes. The Small Business Association operates a development opportunity known as the State Trade Expansion Program or STEP. The program provides financial awards to states and local governments to help small businesses with export development. You may also be able to secure grants from regional or state government agencies. Funding opportunities will vary by location, but here are a few examples of where you might find local and state small business grants. IFundWomen offers a variety of grants in partnership with major corporations.
Each year, the program chooses 50 small-business owners to participate in a yearlong initiative that includes workshops, networking groups, a $5,000 business education grant and a culmination presentation. Tory Burch Fellows participants also receive access to 0% interest loans through Kiva. If you plan to start a business — or have just launched a new endeavor, you may be able to get a $2,500 startup business grant from Incfile.
There are specific needs those businesses must meet and it’s a competitive field, but there is grant money if you fall into this category. This annual competition awards grants to small-business owners in a variety of industries. You can sign up to receive an email when each application period opens. To be eligible, you’ll need to have been selling your product or service for at least six months.
The best part about grants is that the money is yours to keep, and you’ll never have to pay it back after using it for your startup. The Visa Everywhere Initiative is a great example of a corporate small business grant, and it awards over $500K in cash prizes to fintech businesses working to improve financial services. Where small business loans typically come from privately owned companies, government grants are free money from federal, state and local agencies. This immediately puts a reputable name to your funding, though it does ― as is standard for government procedures ― introduce lots of paperwork. With the help of grant application experts on your side, this paperwork can feel more like a hill than a mountain. You can find startup business grants at government and state agencies, private corporations and nonprofit organizations.
Finding the necessary funds to launch your small business can be a formidable task. If finding eager investors or applying for a business loan seems risky, you may be tempted to consider applying for a grant, or “free” money that does not need to be paid back. However, the grant application process is not an easy one and grants are typically only given to organizations that exist to meet needs for the greater good, not merely for profit. Therefore, helpful resources is important to fully understand all the nuances of seeking out both state and federal grants, before relying on them as means of business funding.
Federal small business grants amount to billions of dollars each year—the online database grants.gov helps to connect small business owners with federal grants available to them. For-profit businesses will have better luck accessing grants on the state level and through private foundations. In some instances, federal funds are provided to state or local areas to administer. As an example, the state of Texas offers grant opportunities in the areas of production agriculture, health and nutrition, rural health and economic development within the state. Once your small business is established and operating with a positive outcome, some federal programs may be available to you. However, this will most likely be in the form of a lower-interest loan or contracting opportunities, rather than a grant.