Grants For Mom-Owned Businesses

What Are Grants?

Grants are a non-dilutive sources of funding typically for businesses but can be for nonprofits or individuals. The grant recipients are chosen at the discretion of a foundation or organization. Applicants will have to meet the granting organization’s eligibility requirements and application process. The funding organization sets the amount of the grant and how the funding can be used.

In a lot of ways, grants are the best source of funding for small businesses with highly uncertain ROI and likelihood of success. The foundations and organizations who offer grants are trying to achieve a social impact goal, so they’re less focused on extracting a return on investment. This allows grantees to experiment and be bold in their venture.

Grant Competitions and Accelerators

Pitch Competitions

Some of the grants here are award as part of a pitch competition. Pitch competitions will require the grantee to be able to travel to the location of the competition since they are likely in person. When considering pitch competitions, it’s important to research the terms and conditions in the small print. Some of the awards may be grants, but some may be an equity capital award. The equity capital takes a cut of the business.

Fellowship and Accelerators

Some of the grants require participation in a fellowship or accelerator program. The goal is for the grantor to have more control and impact on the success of the venture when providing capital. Be sure to understand the requirements and if you can meet the commitments. Programs can from run from a few months to a yearlong with potential in person attendance requirements.

Our Research

Of the grants we could find, actually only two grants (!) are specifically for mom-owned businesses. However, when we expanded our criteria, we uncovered a much longer list of potential grants that a mom could potentially apply to depending on her personal situation.

We break down the grant into multiple sub-categories as follows:

• Mom Owned Businesses (2)
• Women Owned Businesses (18)
• Women of Color Owned Businesses (9)
• General Small Business Grants (23)
• LGBTQ+ and Minority Focused Grants (24)
• Start-up and Tech Focused (7)

Most lists on grants are highly segmented. However, as people increasingly become more diverse both culturally and identity-wise, those subsets of characteristics are not mutually exclusive. For example, a mom who identifies as a woman of color and LGBTQ+ and is starting her own business in clean-tech would be able to apply to grants in every sub-category listed. We ourselves identify as two to three of those above subsets, and we expect others will too. Therefore, we went ahead and covered the spectrum as comprehensively as possible in one very long listicle of 80+ grants.

We’ve highlighted some ofour top five picks based on grant size, frequency, and alignment to our mission. The rest are listed out -- if you work with the grant and have more information you'd like listed, reach out to us and we will gladly update this article.

A List of Grants

For Mom Owned Businesses

1. Founders First CDC’s Kitty Fund Mompreneur Business Grant

• Grant information
  • In recognition and loving memory of Founder’s First CEO’s mother.
  • $1000 micro grants. 25 recipients.
• Eligibility requirement
  • Must identify as a mom and hold the position of CEO, President, or Business owner.
  • Must have 2-100 employees and be an active US based business that ≥1 years old.
  • Annual revenue <$5M.
• Other grants from the same organization
  • Regional grants for founders in Chicago, Texas, Southern California, Pennsylvania/New Jersey, Twin Cities
  • Pride Fund for LGBTQIA+ and Stephen L. Tadlock Grant for Veterans
• Grant status
  • Closed for 2024.

2. The Mama Ladder International’s High Five Grant for Moms

• Grant information
  • Started by two mompreneurs who are helping other moms start their business.
  • $10,000 grand prize, $5000 for runner-up, $2500 for second runner-up, and $1000 each for the 21 honorable mentions and semi-finalists. Additional perks and rebates provided along with cash prizes for certain awards.
• Eligibility requirement
  • Identifies as a mom in a business where >50% is owned by mom(s)
  • Must demonstrate business revenue in the prior year and purpose of their business
• Other grants from the same organization
  • N/A
• Grant status
  • Closed for 2024.

Women Owned Businesses

3. The Amber Grant

• Grant information
  • This by far is the most well known grant for women owned businesses and is typically the first grant listed on any listicle.
  • $10,000 monthly award to 3 recipients throughout the year. $25,000 additional grant per year to 3 recipients from the monthly winners in preceding 36 months
• Eligibility requirement
  • A woman (>18 years old) owns 50% or more of a business operating in the US or Canada
• Other grants from the same organization
  • N/A
• Grant status
  • Ongoing.

4. Cartier Women’s Initiative Regional Awards

• Grant information
  • The Cartier Women’s Initiative (CWI) is working toward cultivating the next generation of female leaders. CWI’s vision and community is focused on impact entrepreneurship and their grants assess the leadership character of the applicant, the business itself, and the potential positive social impact.
  • $100,000 for first place; $60,000 for second place; $30,000 for third place
  • Awarded to 3 grantees (1st-3rd) in 9 regions (from 2023)
• Eligibility requirement
  • Too long to write up. Refer to their website's FAQ.
  • Note that this grant is also structured as a fellowship requiring a yearlong participation commitment.
• Other grants from the same organization
  • Science & Technology Pioneer Award
  • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Award
• Grant status
  • Closed for 2024.

5. IFundWomen Universal Grant Application Database

• Grant information
  • Varies - Depends on available grant(s) and matching criteria
  • As opposed to a single grant, an application to iFund will match the applier to any and all grants available in their database.
  • iFund has its own monthly Pay-It-Forward crowdfunding grant
• Eligibility requirement
  • Varies - Depends on available grant(s) and matching criteria
• Other grants from the same organization
  • Multiple grants in database
• Grant status
  • Ongoing

And the list goes on…

6. BMO Celebrating Women Grant Program

7. Boundless Future’s EmpowHER Grants

8. Boundless Future’s Her Village Grant

9. Block Advisors’ Fund Her Future

10. Ladies Who Launch’s Launch Program

11. Women Founders Network Fast Pitch Competition

12.  AT&T’s She's Connected (by AT&T)

13. Giving Joy’s Grant Program

14. McBridge Sisters She Can Fund Grant

15. Hello Alice’s Stacy's Rise Project

16. Papaya’s The Papaya Grant

17. Bank United’s Small Business, Big Dreams: Women in Business Challenge

18. Dell Technologies’ DWEN US Dream Tech Contest

19. Tory Burch Foundation’s Fellowship Program

20. Enthuse Foundation’s Annual Pitch Competition

Women of Color Businesses

21. Digital Undivided’s Breakthrough by JPMorgan Chase

22. Her Suite Spot’s HerRise Microgrants

23. Corporate Counsel CCWC Women of Color Entrepreneur Grant.

24. Fifteen Percent Pledge’s Dream Makers Founders Grant

25. Galaxy of Stars’ the Galaxy Grant

26. Publish Her’s Business Impact Grant (BIG) Program for Women of Color Business Owners

27. Tory Burch Foundation’s Women of Color Grant Program (in partnership with the Fearless Fund)

28. Hawai’i FoundHer’s Funding and Accelerator Program

29. Waves of Change Grant Program

Small Business Grants

30. Beyond Open’s Small Business Grant

31. Comcast Rise Grant

32. Amazon Business Small Business Grant Contest

33. Bizee Fresh Start Business Grant

34. US Chamber’s America's Top Small Business Award

35. FedEx Small Business Grant

36. Mainstreet’s Backing Small Businesses

37. National Association for the Self-Employed Growth Grants

38. Fearless Fund’s Strivers Grant

39. The Freed Fellowship Grant

40. Fast Break for Small Businesses

41. Get Jobber Grants

42. eBay Up & Running Grant (with Hello Alice)

43. The Halstead Grant

44. Venmo’s Small Business Grant

45. Lenovo’s Evolve Small

46. Verizon’s Digital Ready Grants

47. NGLCC Community Impact Programs

48. Audacy’s 1010 Wins

49. UPS 2024 Challenge

50. Progressive Driving Small Business Forward (with Hello Alice)

51. SubSummit Pitch Competition

52. AAPI Strong’s Restaurant Fund

LGBTQ+ and Minority Focused Grants

53. Asian Community Fund Grant

54. The Equality Fund Grant

55. Latino Equity Fund Grant

56. NAACP Backing the B.A.R. Grant

57. Wish Local Empowerment Program

58. Cadence Cash’ Thrive Grant

59. Shea Moisture’s Grant with Purpose

60. Founders First CDC Pride Grant

61. Founders First CDC Stephen L. Tadlock Grant for Veterans

62. Energy Communities’ State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) (with US government)

63. The Transform Grant

64. The Black Ambition Prize Competition

65. Greenhouse Accelerator’s Juntos Crecemos

66. Black Girl Ventures’ BGV Pitch

67. National Black MBA Organization Scale Up Pitch Challenge

68. REI’s Path Ahead Venture Navigate

69. US Chamber Foundation Coalition to Back Black Businesses

70. Support Latino Business Support Small Biz Grant

71. NAACP’s Powershift Entrepreneur Grant

72. Siete Food’s Siete Juntos Fund

73. Wear Pepper’s Start-up Grant For Black Women

74. Famous Amos and the National Black Chamber of Commerce Ingredients for Success Initiative

75. NBA Celtics’ Power Forward Small Business Grants

76. Merchant Maverick Grant Native American Businesses

Start-up and Tech Focused Grants

77. America’s Seed Fund NSF Project Pitch

78. Massachusett Clean Energy’s Innovate Mass

79. Grow NY 2024

80.. MIT’s $100K Entrepreneurship

81. Harvard’s President Innovation Funds

82. Visa’s Everywhere Initiative

83. SBA’s Funding Program Grants

America is Built on Small Businesses

With over 30 million small businesses in the US, America is built on small businesses. Yet starting a business is hard and can be expensive. But even micro-grants of a few hundred dollars can be go miles in helping a business get off the ground.

Getting into debt to start a business or living lean to pursue a dream is not uncommon.  As founders ourselves, we know the pains of starting up. We hope one of these grants can help you get your venture off the ground!

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