Most federal money is not for ordinary businesses: of the 315 grant opportunities on Grants.gov that list small businesses as eligible, just 3 are categorized Business and Commerce. What is real for a typical owner: 17 private and state small business grants are open today, 28 more run monthly or rolling, and every one is listed below with its deadline and the date it was verified against the funder’s own site. Checked weekly. Last verified August 31, 2026.
Key takeaways on small business grants
- 17 programs are open right now and 28 more run monthly or rolling. The full directory with deadlines is below.
- The SBA says plainly on its own grants page: “SBA does not provide grants for starting and expanding a business.” There is no federal fund for rent, payroll or marketing.
- Of the 315 federal grant opportunities open to small businesses on Grants.gov as of August 31, 2026, 297 are categorized Health and 109 Education. Categories overlap, so they sum to more than 315. Just 3 sit under Business and Commerce.
- The realistic federal routes are SBIR and STTR for research, and USDA REAP for rural energy. REAP grants are closed right now, though its guaranteed loans are open.
- Two programs that almost every grants list still shows as live are gone. FedEx retired its Small Business Grants Program after 2024, and comcastrise.com now redirects to a Comcast corporate page with no application form.
- For women, veterans and minority owners, the federal programs are certifications that open set-aside contracts, not cash. The cash grants there are private.
- The FTC is blunt about the scam version: “The only place to find a list of all available federal grants is at grants.gov. And that list is free.”
- State agencies are the most overlooked source, with a far smaller applicant pool. All 51 official pages are listed below.
What small business grants are, and what they are not
A grant is money you do not repay, given for a purpose the funder cares about, and that last part is where most applications fall over. A lender asks whether you can pay it back. A grant maker asks whether you will do the specific thing they want done, such as commercializing a defense technology or cutting a farm’s energy bill. Your business is the vehicle, not the point.
That is why “free money for your business” is the wrong mental model. The Federal Trade Commission puts it directly on its government grant scams page: “Real government grants require an application, and they’re always for a very specific purpose.” The same page says the government “won’t offer you free government grants of any kind, much less grants to pay for home repairs, medical costs, or other personal needs.”
Grants, loans and contracts are three different things
Plenty of programs described online as small business grants are not grants. USDA REAP offers guaranteed loans while its grant window is shut. The SBA 8(a), WOSB and HUBZone programs are certifications: the SBA’s certifications page describes what they unlock as “set-aside” federal contracts, and notes that WOSB benefits “only apply to federal contracting opportunities, rather than those in the private sector.” A set-aside contract can be worth more than a grant, but you do the work and invoice for it.
The count makes the point better than any argument. Grants.gov showed 315 grant opportunities open to small businesses on August 31, 2026, and here is where they sit by category.
The 3 Business and Commerce entries are two USDA rural energy listings and a NOAA marine education mini-grant in Alaska. If you run a bakery, a plumbing company or a salon, none of the 315 is for you: Congress funds general business growth through loans and contracts, not grants. Knowing which lever exists is what saves you the weekend.
Federal small business grants that are worth your time
Three federal routes are genuinely open to a for-profit small business.
SBIR and STTR, for research and development
These are the real federal small business grant programs, funded by eleven agencies out of their research budgets. The SBA frames the qualifying question as whether “your small business engage in scientific research and development”, and says they “encourage scientific research that helps meet federal research and development objectives” with “high potential for commercialization.” STTR adds a formal nonprofit research partner.
Award sizes are set per agency and per phase, so the number lives in each solicitation. Agencies also post their SBIR and STTR solicitations on Grants.gov.
USDA REAP, for rural energy projects
REAP pays part of the cost of a renewable energy system or an efficiency upgrade for a rural small business or an agricultural producer. It is the closest thing to a general-purpose federal grant a normal business can get, and it is one of only three Business and Commerce entries in the chart above.
Check the window first. USDA Rural Development’s program page said this on August 21, 2026: “The Agency is not accepting REAP grant applications at this time. Guaranteed loan applications may be submitted.” The grant covers up to 50 percent of eligible project cost; a higher percentage you sometimes see quoted is a grant combined with a loan guarantee.
State Trade Expansion Program, if you export
STEP is federal money that does not reach you directly. The SBA describes it as providing “financial awards to state and territory governments”, which run their own exporter programs. So you apply to your state, not to Washington.
Small business grants for women
This is the largest segment by search demand and the most misreported, because the federal side gives certification rather than cash. The Women-Owned Small Business programs make a business “eligible to compete for federal contracts reserved for the program’s certified participants”, in the SBA’s words, and those benefits apply to federal contracting only.
The cash comes from private programs, and the most actionable is the Amber Grant: three $10,000 grants awarded every month, a deadline on the last day of each month, and a $15 application fee. WomensNet runs it across Amber, Startup and Business Category tracks, plus three $50,000 annual grants that monthly winners become eligible for at year end. Its rules page is plain: “Each monthly grant runs from the 1st day of the calendar month until 11:59 PM Eastern Time on the last day of the same month.” So the deadline is always the last day of this month, which makes it one of the few grants you can act on today.
One honest caveat. The $15 fee is “non-refundable, regardless of outcome”, with waivers available on request. An entry fee at a private program is not the up-front fee scam described below, but it is still $15 you might not get back.
Small business grants for veterans
Search volume for veteran small business grants is high and the honest answer is uncomfortable: no federal program hands a veteran-owned business operating capital.
What exists instead is Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business certification, which opens set-aside federal contracts, plus free training and counseling. The SBA’s certifications page groups it with 8(a), WOSB and HUBZone as contracting programs. So the realistic sequence for a veteran who needs capital is certification, then contracts, then a loan against that contracted revenue. Anyone promising a veteran business grant from the VA or the SBA is describing something that does not exist.
Small business grants for minority-owned businesses
Same shape again. The federal 8(a) Business Development Program is a contracting program: the SBA says certified firms can “efficiently compete and receive set-aside and sole-source contracts” and get “one-on-one business development assistance.” The Minority Business Development Agency funds the business centers that help you rather than writing checks to you. The cash-grant layer here is private and corporate, and it changes fastest, so check a program’s dated status in the directory below before applying.
The full directory, checked weekly
Every named program below was checked against the funder’s own page on August 31, 2026. On that date the directory held 90 programs: 17 open now, 28 rolling or monthly, 22 closed or between cycles, 13 retired outright, and 10 where the funder does not publish a current status, so check those with the funder directly. Retired entries stay in the table so you do not waste an application on a program other lists still recommend.
Every deadline on this page comes from the funder’s own site: Galaxy Grants closes October 31, 2026, and the Business Freedom Grant runs three deadlines in its current cycle, an early one on September 30, 2026, a second on November 15 and a final one on December 31, 2026.
Two are worth calling out by name.
FedEx has retired its program. Its own page says the FedEx Small Business Grants Program ran “Starting in 2012 and continuing through 2024” and that “While the program is retired, you can still learn from their journeys.” No 2026 cycle exists.
Comcast RISE no longer has an application site. Both comcastrise.com and www.comcastrise.com now land on a Comcast corporate impact page with no application form, even though hundreds of articles still send people there.
The Visa Everywhere Initiative and Patagonia’s corporate grant program have both ended, and Patagonia’s only ever funded environmental nonprofits, not small businesses. Intuit’s QuickBooks and Mailchimp Small Business Hero Program has ended too: its marketing page still invites nominations, but the nomination site itself says the program is over. Pandemic programs like the Restaurant Revitalization Fund are gone too, folded into an SBA COVID-era archive.
Open now (17)
| Program | Funder | Amount | Deadline or cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Freedom Grant | Business Freedom Grant | up to $1,000 | Closes September 30, 2026, checked 2026-08-21 |
| EDGE Grant Competition | Delaware Division of Small Business | not published | Closes September 11, 2026 (Delaware businesses only), checked 2026-08-21 |
| Empower Growth Micro-Grant | Black and Brown Founders | not published | Closes August 31, 2026 (You must finish the funder's Bizscoreline step first,… |
| Galaxy Grants | Hidden Star | up to $2,500 | Closes October 31, 2026 |
| Get Nearshored Manufacturing Grant | Nearshore | up to $1,000 | Closes December 1, 2026 (The award was reduced mid-cycle), checked 2026-08-21 |
| Health Equity Grant | SpringWell360 | up to $1,000 | Closes August 31, 2026 (For a health-equity project, not a business), checked 2026-08-21 |
| Hey Helen Grant | Visionaries | up to $10,000 | Closes September 30, 2026 (Women-owned, US registered, under $1m revenue. $15… |
| Ignite | Women's Business Development Council | $2,500 to $10,000 | Closes September 13, 2026 (Connecticut businesses only), checked 2026-08-21 |
| Innovate Grant | Innovate Artist Grants | up to $1,800 | For artists and photographers, not businesses, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants | New York Foundation for the Arts | up to $5,000 | Closes September 15, 2026 (For an artist's own medical bills, not a business), checked 2026-08-21 |
| Secretsos Small Business Grant | Secretsos | up to $2,500 | Closes September 30, 2026 (Quarterly cycles), checked 2026-08-21 |
| Shophand $5k Small Business Boost Grant | Shophand | $2,500 to $5,000 | Closes November 30, 2026 (Only half the award is cash), checked 2026-08-21 |
| Skip Instant Grants | Skip | $1,000 to $10,000 | $1,000 tier open weekly, $10,000 tier closed, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Small Business Facade Improvement Program | City of Richmond, California | up to $15,000 | Closes December 31, 2026 (Oversubscribed, waiting list now), checked 2026-08-21 |
| Spark Good Local Grants | Walmart | $250 to $5,000 | Closes November 30, 2026 (Only nonprofits qualify), checked 2026-08-21 |
| The Breakthrough Grant | Her Agenda | up to $5,000 | Closes September 18, 2026, checked 2026-08-21 |
| The Halstead Grant | Halstead | $1,000 to $7,500 | 2027 cycle open, silver jewelry designers only, checked 2026-08-21 |
Rolling and monthly (28)
| Program | Funder | Amount | Deadline or cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amber Grant | WomensNet | $10,000 to $50,000 | Closes 11:59 PM ET on the last day of each month, checked 2026-08-21 |
| America's Seed Fund | National Science Foundation | up to $2,000,000 | Rolling by solicitation window, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Awesome Foundation grants | The Awesome Foundation | up to $1,000 | Monthly micro-grant for a project, if a chapter covers your city, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Binc Foundation emergency financial assistance | Book Industry Charitable Foundation | not published | Rolling, apply after the hardship, checked 2026-08-21 |
| CDFI Fund | US Department of the Treasury | not published | Funds the lenders, not your business, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Craft Emergency Relief Fund emergency grant | CERF+ with Etsy | up to $2,000 | Rolling, no deadline, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Entreprenista Evolve Grant | Entreprenista | up to $5,000 | Quarterly, the funder publishes no deadline, checked 2026-08-21 |
| For the Love of Labor grant | Carhartt | not published | For nonprofits in the skilled trades, not businesses |
| Founders Program scholarships | StartOut | up to $125 | No cash, it waives a membership fee, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Freed Fellowship Grant | Freed Fellowship | $500 to $2,500 | Monthly, plus a year-end grant, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Global NY Fund Grant Program | Empire State Development | up to $25,000 | Continuous, and it reimburses rather than pays up front, checked 2026-08-21 |
| HerRise MicroGrant | HerSuiteSpot | up to $1,000 | Monthly, closes on the last day of the month, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Hustler's MicroGrant | HerSuiteSpot | up to $1,000 | Monthly, open now, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Local Business Disaster Relief Fund | DoorDash | $5,000 to $15,000 | Quarterly, apply within 12 months of the disaster, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Outta Excuses Grant | Outta Excuses | up to $3,000 | Quarterly, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Pay It Forward | Spectrum Reach | not published | Open all year, and the award is advertising not cash, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) | Participating federal agencies, coordinated by SBA | not published | Agencies post on their own cycles, search Grants.gov, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Small Business Readiness for Resiliency (R4R) | US Chamber of Commerce Foundation | up to $5,000 | Pre-enrolment, you apply only when contacted, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) | Participating federal agencies, coordinated by SBA | not published | Same route as SBIR, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Small Certified Supplier Innovative Finance Program | Founders First Capital Partners | up to $5,000 | Quarterly, and it needs a diversity certification, checked 2026-08-21 |
| State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) | US Small Business Administration | not published | Awards go to states, apply to yours, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Texas Enterprise Fund | Office of the Texas Governor | not published | Deal-closing grants, negotiated case by case, checked 2026-08-21 |
| The Big Idea Grant | YippityDoo | up to $1,000 | Monthly for women-owned businesses, checked 2026-08-21 |
| The Bluegrass Bartenders Fund | The LEE Initiative | not published | Hardship relief for workers in Louisville, not businesses, checked 2026-08-21 |
| The Greatness Grant | Circle of Greatness | up to $1,000 | Quarterly, and it is $1,000 not $2,500, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Verizon Small Business Digital Ready grant | Verizon | up to $10,000 | Monthly awards, and you unlock the application by finishing two free courses |
| Women Founders Grant | Women Founders Grant LLC | up to $5,000 | Closes August 31, 2026 (Monthly cycle, $25 application fee), checked 2026-08-21 |
| Yéego Action Grant | First Peoples Fund | up to $2,500 | For individual Native artists, capped at $2,500, checked 2026-08-21 |
Closed or between cycles (22)
| Program | Funder | Amount | Deadline or cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asian Pacific Community Fund grants | Asian Pacific Community Fund | $5,000 to $15,000 | Funds nonprofits, not businesses, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Backing Small Businesses | American Express with Main Street America | up to $10,000 | Closed, the funder says so on its own page, checked 2026-08-21 |
| CO-100 | US Chamber of Commerce | $2,000 to $25,000 | Closed, the 2026 deadline passed on 7 August, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Catalyst Empowerment Grant Program | Genesis For Good Foundation | not published | 2026 cycles done, Southern California only, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Driving Small Business Forward | Progressive with Hello Alice | up to $50,000 | Last cycle was 2025, nothing announced for 2026, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Empower To Grow (E2G) Manufacturing in America grant | US Small Business Administration | not published | SBA says applications are now closed, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Evolve Small | Lenovo | up to $25,000 | Closed, and limited to ten metros, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Faire Small Business Grant Program | Faire | up to $5,000 | Closed, and the award is Faire credit not cash, checked 2026-08-21 |
| FedEx E-Commerce Learning Lab | Accion Opportunity Fund with FedEx | $5,000 to $10,000 | Both cohorts closed, and it is a four-month course, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Foundation for a Just Society grants | Foundation for a Just Society | not published | Invitation only, and it funds nonprofits, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Jobber Grants | Jobber | $10,000 to $100,000 | 2026 round closed, runs annually, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Main Street Grants | Allstate with Hello Alice | up to $20,000 | 2026 window closed on 23 June, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Rural Business Development Grants (RBDG) | USDA Rural Development | not published | Closed, and for-profit businesses were never eligible, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) | USDA Rural Development | $2,500 to $1,000,000 | USDA is not accepting grant applications, loans open, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Seed Capital Pitch Competition | Good Soil Forum | up to $150,000 | Closed on 15 August 2026, checked 2026-08-21 |
| She Seals the Deal Grant | Jennifer Blake | up to $5,000 | Round 1 closed, round 2 is a waitlist, checked 2026-08-21 |
| The Kirabo Grant | Kirabo Equity | up to $5,000 | Closed, one recipient a year, checked 2026-08-21 |
| The Spark Grant | Honeycomb Credit with Sengo | $1,000 to $3,000 | Entry window closed in July 2025 despite an Apply button, checked 2026-08-21 |
| The UPS Store Small Biz Challenge | The UPS Store | $5,000 to $25,000 | 2026 winner already named, entries closed in February, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Thrive Grant | Breva | up to $5,000 | Between cycles, next window opens 1 October, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Venmo Small Business Grant | Venmo with Hello Alice | up to $20,000 | Last ran in 2024, nothing since, checked 2026-08-21 |
| eBay Live x Up and Running Grants | eBay | up to $10,000 | 2026 window closed, returns most years in late May, checked 2026-08-21 |
Retired or defunct (13)
| Program | Funder | Amount | Deadline or cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| #MomsMeanBusiness | ZenBusiness | not published | Never a grant, it is free company formation, checked 2026-08-21 |
| COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) | US Small Business Administration | not published | Folded into the SBA COVID-era archive, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Comcast RISE | Comcast | not published | comcastrise.com now 301s, no application form, checked 2026-08-21 |
| David Bohnett Foundation grants | David Bohnett Foundation | not published | Invitation only, and it funds nonprofits, checked 2026-08-21 |
| FedEx Small Business Grants Program | FedEx | not published | Ran 2012 through 2024, no 2026 cycle, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Military Entrepreneur Challenge | Second Service Foundation | not published | The whole foundation shut down, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Open for Business Growth | Wells Fargo | not published | Grants go to nonprofit lenders, not to businesses, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Patagonia Corporate Grant Program | Patagonia | not published | Program ended; it funded environmental nonprofits, checked 2026-08-21 |
| QuickBooks and Mailchimp Small Business Hero Program | Intuit | up to $20,000 | Closes May 15, 2026 (Program has ended) |
| Restaurant Revitalization Fund | US Small Business Administration | not published | Funds exhausted in 2021, page archived, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Small Business Capital and Infrastructure Grant Program | Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity | not published | Discontinued, no future funding planned, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Visa Everywhere Initiative | Visa | not published | Program has ended, checked 2026-08-21 |
| ZenBusiness Grant Program | ZenBusiness | not published | Program has ended, checked 2026-08-21 |
Check with the funder (10)
| Program | Funder | Amount | Deadline or cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Small Business Grant | Amazon Business | $15,000 to $25,000 | Check current status with the funder, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant Program | USDA Rural Development | not published | For public bodies and nonprofits, not businesses, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Hello Alice small business grants | Hello Alice | not published | Check current status with the funder, checked 2026-08-21 |
| NASE Growth Grants | National Association for the Self-Employed | not published | Check current status with the funder, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Pathway to Opportunity Pitch Competition | Pathway to Opportunity | $1,250 to $5,000 | Check current status with the funder, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Program for Investors in Microentrepreneurs (PRIME) | US Small Business Administration | not published | Funds microenterprise organisations, not businesses, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Refugee Microenterprise Development Program | US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement | not published | Funds nonprofits, and it lends rather than grants, checked 2026-08-21 |
| State Forty Eight Foundation small business grants | State Forty Eight Foundation | not published | Arizona only, and you qualify by attending the funder's speaker series |
| Waterbury City-Specific Grant Program | Women's Business Development Council | up to $10,000 | Program page taken down, call before applying, checked 2026-08-21 |
| Wish Local Empowerment Program | Wish | not published | Check current status with the funder, checked 2026-08-21 |
State small business grants, agency by agency
State and city programs are the most underrated source, because the applicant pool is a fraction of the size. A state agency running a $25,000 facade improvement or workforce training program draws far fewer applicants than a national competition. They also change constantly, so the reliable move is to start at your own state’s official agency.
Every link below goes to a state or district agency’s own site and is checked weekly, because state sites reorganize often.
Two more calls worth making. Your local Small Business Development Center knows which programs are actually open this quarter, and city economic development offices run facade, hiring and relocation schemes that never get written up nationally.
How to spot grant scams
Grants attract fraud because the pitch writes itself. The FTC’s guidance is the clearest short list available. The points that catch most people:
- No agency asks for your details out of the blue. The FTC: “Government agencies will never call, text, message you on social media, or email to ask for your Social Security, bank account, or credit card number.”
- Never pay for a list. The FTC again: “The only place to find a list of all available federal grants is at grants.gov. And that list is free.” If a site wants a membership fee for access to government grant listings, close the tab.
- No up-front fees, ever, for a federal grant. “And no government agency will ever ask you to pay with cash, a gift card, a cash reload card, by wire transfer, or with cryptocurrency. Not for a grant, and not ever.”
- Made-up agency names. Scammers invent official-sounding bodies. The FTC names the “Federal Grants Administration” as an example of one that does not exist.
- Check the email domain. The SBA states that it “only communicates from email addresses ending in @sba.gov.”
If you have already paid someone, report it at the FTC’s fraud reporting site, then ask whoever moved the money to reverse it.
How to apply for small business grants
Grant applications are slow, and the slowest part is registration, not writing. Sequence it like this and you will not waste a month.
Get registered before you find a deadline
Federal applications go through Grants.gov, which needs a Unique Entity ID and an active SAM.gov registration first. That is free and slow. Start it while nothing is pending.
Read the eligibility section before the description
Most wasted effort goes into opportunities the applicant was never eligible for. Eligibility is narrower than the summary suggests, and an opportunity flagged open to small businesses is often open to universities and hospitals chasing the same pot.
Answer the funder’s question, not yours
Grant makers fund outcomes they already decided to fund. Read the stated objective and write about how your project delivers it, in their language. An application that leads with how badly you need the money answers a question nobody asked.
Have the boring documents ready
Expect to need formation documents, an EIN, recent financials, a project budget and often a business plan. Assemble the pack once and reuse it. Applying in an evening is what lets you enter the monthly and rolling programs consistently, which is where the realistic odds sit.
What to do if grants are not the answer
For most small businesses they are not, and that is fine. The SBA Office of Advocacy counts 36,207,130 small businesses in the United States, of which it says “82.3 percent, or 29,811,495 firms, have no employees.” A few hundred federal opportunities, mostly clinical research, were never going to cover that.
The cheaper lever is usually demand rather than funding. BrightLocal’s 2025 survey of 778 SMB owners and managers found only 40 percent have a dedicated website, which is striking given how much local buying starts with a search. If you are weighing a grant application against getting findable, our guide to how much a website costs in 2026 and our rundown of affordable website design both cost less to act on than a grant cycle takes to close. UENI builds the site for you from $24.99 a month after a $79 setup fee.
After that, local SEO for small business and a sensible small business advertising budget move revenue faster than a grant of the same size, because you control the timing. Still deciding whether you need a site? This walkthrough is the shorter read.
Frequently asked questions about small business grants
Does the government give grants to start a business?
No. The SBA states on its own grants page that “SBA does not provide grants for starting and expanding a business.” Federal small business grants do exist, but they fund research, rural energy, education and health projects, not general startup capital.
What is the easiest small business grant to get?
Nothing is easy, but the shortest paths are rolling private programs and state or city programs where the applicant pool is small. The Amber Grant closes on the last day of every month, so there is always a live deadline. Federal research grants have the longest odds.
What is the $10,000 small business grant?
The best-known one is the Amber Grant: WomensNet awards three $10,000 grants every month to women-owned businesses, with a deadline on the last day of each month. Other $10,000-level awards, such as Hey Helen and WBDC Ignite, come and go by cycle, so check a program’s current status in the directory before applying.
Can an LLC get grant money?
Yes. Most private and corporate grant programs accept any legal business structure, LLCs included, and the federal SBIR and STTR programs require a for-profit US small business, which an LLC satisfies. What matters to funders is the eligibility list on the specific program: ownership (women, veteran, minority owned), location, industry and revenue stage, not the entity type.
Are small business grants taxable?
Usually yes. Grants to a business are generally treated as taxable income unless the program’s terms or a specific law say otherwise. Ask your accountant about the individual program rather than assuming, because pandemic-era programs had special treatment that does not carry over.
Are grant-finding services legit?
Treat them with suspicion. The FTC’s rule of thumb: “The only place to find a list of all available federal grants is at grants.gov. And that list is free.” So never pay anyone for access to government grant lists or for a promise to win you a grant. A small application fee charged by a legitimate private program, like the Amber Grant’s $15, is a different thing from a service selling you a list.
Do you have to pay back a small business grant?
No. A grant is not a loan, and repayment is not part of the deal. The exceptions are breaking the program’s terms, such as spending the money on something the grant did not cover, or misreporting, in which case a funder can claw the award back. Read the terms before spending, and remember grants are usually taxable income.
Sources
- Grants.gov, Search2 API, opportunity counts by category, retrieved 31 August 2026. Grants.gov API guide
- US Small Business Administration, Grants. SBA grants page, read 21 August 2026
- US Small Business Administration, Certifications. SBA certifications, read 21 August 2026
- USDA Rural Development, Rural Energy for America Program. REAP program page, read 21 August 2026
- Federal Trade Commission, Government Grant Scams. FTC consumer advice, read 21 August 2026
- FedEx, Small Business Grants Program. FedEx program page, read 21 August 2026
- WomensNet, Amber Grant rules. Amber Grant rules, read 21 August 2026
- SBA Office of Advocacy, Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business, February 2026. SBA Advocacy FAQ (PDF)
- BrightLocal, SMB Marketing in 2025, survey of 778 SMB owners and managers, published 7 August 2025. BrightLocal research
