Grant Funding for Small Businesses
Since many small business starts-ups can not qualify for funding from banks or the Small Business Administration (SBA), grant funding offers a glimmer of hope. This is especially true given the hype promoted on the Internet and late night TV infomercials regarding grants opportunities. However, securing grant funding is not easy. It requires an enormous amount of research, dedication and preparation.
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Grant Accessibility
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Grant funding is available from government sources and private foundations. The originators or sponsors of the funding sources, whether government or private, are very specific about the type of businesses, ventures, projects or causes they fund. So, once small business owners have a clear funding objective, they can research and match that objective with the funding resources available to support that type of objective.
Government Grants
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Most small business government grant funding go to non-profits. Government grants provided to "for profit" small businesses are very restrictive. For example, "for profit" small businesses who qualify have to meet specific size standards established by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). According to Grants.gov, "they vary from $0.75 million to $28.5 million for size standards based on average annual revenues and from 100 to 1500 employees for size standards based on number of employees". There are no such size restrictions for non-profit organizations.
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Private Foundations
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Private foundations also favor non-profits. Private foundations are often non-profit business entities themselves consisting of either large organizations, an interlinked network of organizations or a private, wealth philanthropist. The most noted examples are the Bill Gates and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose core mission is to address global poverty, and the Kaufman Foundation, whose core mission is to advance entrepreneurial success. The mission of the small business owner must be in tune with the mission of the foundation to obtain grant funding from any foundation.
Finding a Match
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Once small business owners have a solid business plan and a well defined mission, they should visit websites such as Grants.gov and the Foundation Center to research options and find a funding match. These are large scale aggregation sites with search features where one can search for the appropriate government or private foundation grant.
Grant Proposals
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Once small business owners find a match, then and only then should they write a grant proposal. This is because each source has very specific proposal writing and submission guidelines in addition to funding cycles. In addition, the proposal must be extremely focused and detailed as to how it complies with the guidelines. According to University of North Carolina article on Grant Proposals, "the majority of grant programs recruit academic reviewers with knowledge of the disciplines and/or program areas of the grant. So, details and specificity are keys.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit public funding issues image by Kelly Young from Fotolia.com
