The federal government offers a number of grants to small businesses owned and managed by women. Most of these grants allow flexible use of the money as long as it doesn’t go toward startup expenses. The two major houses for information about federally sponsored grants are:
Grants.gov: This is the main databases of federally sponsored grants. You can search it with a keyword of “women” to identify grants of interest. If you’d like to apply for one of these grants, you’ll have to secure a DUNS number from Duns & Bradstreet, register at the System Award Management website and then create a Grants.gov account.
Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs: This website from the Small Business Administration can be used to identify grant to small businesses involved in federal research and development. A dozen federal agencies pool their grant information here for businesses with up to 500 employees.
There are also a number of national, regional and state grant programs that female entrepreneurs can tap. These include:
- Eileen Fisher: Until 2018, this company offered a grant program for women in business. It is currently reformulating its grants program and plans to reintroduce it in 2019.
- Amber Grant Foundation: The foundation awards $10,000 grants to women-run businesses. It is dedicated to a young woman named Amber who died before realizing her entrepreneurial dream. If you are passionate about your business, this program might suit you well.
- The Girlboss Foundation: Grants of $15,000 each are awarded every other year to female entrepreneurs. In addition, you receive marketing assistance and press exposure for your business. Grant winners must be women owning businesses in the art, music, fashion or design industries.
- The Halstead Grant: This $7,500 grant is awarded annually to female emerging silver jewelry artists. The program is designed to boost an artist’s career as she starts out. You must submit your design portfolio and answer 15 business questions to compete for this grant.
- FedEx Small Business Grant: This is a grant contest for women entrepreneurs and businesswomen who are involved in logistics, trade and other related industries. Ten winners are chosen each year with prizes ranging from $15,000 to $50,000.
- Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards: This program drives change by empowering women entrepreneurs. Each year, 21 women finalists (three from each continent) are awarded. The focus of the program is to support women who make concrete contributions to solving problems that challenge the planet’s future.
- Grants for Women: This is an online guide for women grants and scholarships. You can search by entering a keyword, or you can peruse the site’s directory of foundations and organizations that offer grants to women. The website filters out schemes and scams to protect applicants from fraud.
- Open Meadows Foundation: This organizations offers grants of up to $2,000 each to women who run projects that promote economic, racial and gender justice. It is an activist organization that encourages the building of community power through projects implemented for girls and women who have limited financial access. Recipient must have organizational budgets that do not exceed $75,000.
Grants are a wonderful boost for any small business, but unfortunately, aren’t always enough to go around. The next best thing is to obtain funding through a convenient, affordable small business loan, such as the ones we offer at IOU Financial. If you need up to $500,000 funding for your small business, contact IOU Financial today and we can have your money available in days.
