The Washington State Department of Commerce (WSMA) is opening this statewide grant opportunity to fund nonprofit organizations that provide business training, technical assistance and support with accessing financing for small businesses, especially those with five or fewer employees in Washington.
Donor Name: Washington State Microenterprise Association (WSMA)
State: Washington
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/22/2024
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
This grant opportunity is intended to support nonprofit ESOs and others that provide businesses with the training, technical assistance, and financing tools they need to grow their businesses in rural and urban communities. To ensure that business services are available to businesses in every county of the state, applicants will need to designate which areas they are predominantly offering their programs.
WSMA is dedicated to strengthening Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) as they engage with economic development partners and others to help the smallest businesses to grow sustainably, equitably and financially throughout Washington state.
Funding Categories
- $20,000 (Best for Beginning ESOs)
- Must have at least 1-year experience providing business training, technical assistance or financing services to very small businesses;
- Existing relationships with businesses from historically marginalized communities;
- Ability to track and document grant impact and outcomes;
- Intention to develop the organization as an ESO or an embedded ESO.
- $40,000 (Best for Emerging ESOs)
- Organization has at least 3 years’ experience providing business training, technical assistance or financing services to very small businesses;
- Dedicated business training and/or technical assistance capacity (the ability to deliver business programing, multi-session curriculum or specialized content);
- Ability to reach an average of at least 15-20 entrepreneurs per month with comprehensive business services over the grant period;
- Existing relationships with businesses from historically marginalized communities;
- Existing internal reporting processes;
- Relationships with regional business resource partners.
- $80,000 (Best for Established ESOs)
- Must have 5+ years of comprehensive experience providing business training, technical assistance or financing services to very small businesses;
- Innovative, effective approaches to providing business services to an underserved community, microenterprises within a priority industry, programming with specialized content or reaching a new geographic region, etc.;
- Serves a priority industry sector, community, and/or region with specialized services;
- Experience engaging in a multi-organization collaboration with formal relationships with existing business financing partners;
- Existing connections to an underserved community;
- Ability to reach an average of at least 20-35 entrepreneurs per month with comprehensive business services over the grant period;
- Project could be used as a model for other organizations.
Uses of funds
Applications may apply for funds to provide direct services to the businesses in their network. These business training, technical assistance and/or microlending services are intended to support small businesses, especially those with 5 or fewer employees.
Applicants may also apply these funds to strengthen their organizational capacity to better serve targeted microenterprises. Though these are not considered traditional capacity building grants, they are designed to support the ESOs in building systems, awareness, skills and strategies as an organization to strengthen their services. These activities must be tied to training, technical assistance and/or access to financing services your organization provides to the businesses in your network. As an example, these funds could be spent on training staff, board or other volunteers in ways that focus on business development services. Other capacity building examples include exploring innovative outreach strategies, testing new business programs, technical assistance tools and/or financing options that support small businesses or expand programming into underserved communities. Your organization will need to be clear about your organization’s capacity building needs that the grant request is seeking to address.
Support for programs that provide:
- Training: Provide multi-session training programs or comprehensive business training webinars or workshops that build the capacity of small businesses to attract new customers, manage their finances, fine tune their operations, apply for financing, etc.
- Business Technical Assistance: Assistance to small businesses that includes but is not limited to support for accessing federal and state loans/grants, business coaching, helping businesses with implementing their business plans, troubleshooting, improving marketing strategies or accessing financing, etc.
- Microlending or Financing Support: Assistance to organizations that provide support for accessing microloans and other financing resources for microenterprises. Funding is available to provide technical assistance, loan processing, outreach, business counseling, and other services. However, the loan amount itself and/or any fees associated with it that are normally paid by the borrower cannot be covered with these funds; this funding prohibition applies as well to any type of other lending or financial instrument.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible organizations include Existing, Embedded, or Emerging non-profit Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) or other non-profit organizations located in Washington State that support and provide business development services to microenterprises, especially in historically marginalized and under-resourced communities in Washington state. Unfortunately, academic institutions are not eligible for funding at this time.
WSMA is committed to ensuring that access by all communities, including Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), veterans, rural, woman-owned enterprises, LGBTQ+, entrepreneurs with disabilities, justice involved entrepreneurs, young adults and others historically shut out from funding, training programs, financing and other opportunities. Grantees will be required to describe how their current and intended programs ensure diversity, equity and inclusion in delivery of services and their sensitivity to the issues of race and gender. When considering funding, WSMA will prioritize organizations that focus on and have demonstrated experience with serving one or more of these communities.
Applicants must have:
- Applicants must have IRS 501c3 nonprofit status documented. If orgs do not currently have a 501c3 filed with the IRS, they must have a relationship with a fiscal partner with a federal 501c3 status to apply for these funds.
- Note: WSMA will only fund organizations with a Fiscal Sponsor for two (2) years. After that time, ESOs will be required to have their own federal status as a nonprofit.
- Nonprofit or quasi-governmental applicants with different formal IRS designations will also be considered. For example: Chambers of Commerce, Economic Development Districts, etc. that provide business services to small businesses are eligible to apply.
- Unfortunately, academic institutions are not eligible for funding at this time.
- Organizational ability to provide business training, technical assistance, microlending or referrals to financial services to the microbusinesses in Washington state.
- Track record of collaboration with relevant and diverse community stakeholders in planning, implementation, and evaluation of the work.
For more information, visit WSMA.
