GRANTS

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This grant opens monthly and the amount sometimes goes up. Apply every month.

This grant is open monthly & has a application fee of $19. 

A quarterly program aimed at supporting small businesses that contribute positively to their communities (preferably impacting underrepresented communities).

Deadline: July 31, 2024

The objective of this program is to fund construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or acquisition of property for Homeless (defined by HUD) Shelters dedicated to the provision of stable, safe and adequate housing; with a goal of increasing capacity to pre-COVID levels.

Deadline: July 31, 2024

 Open to businesses in the South Side of Chicago, who have less than 50 employees, not part of a franchise, and make less than $1 million in annual revenue. 

Deadline August 5, 2024

Open nationwide to nonprofits. This cycle will focus on expanding access to food and shelter such as Food pantry remodeling, Community garden creation, Building repairs and renovations, and Beautification of community space.

Deadline: August 9, 2024 

“The Chicago Recovery Plan provides opportunities for the City to invest in catalytic developments that expand upon DPD’s existing investments and support.” “Open to community developers, business owners and entrepreneurs, and property owners.” Deadline: August 9, 2024

“Female entrepreneurs 22 years of age and older with businesses registered and operating solely in the United States. An applicant’s business must address a social issue directly or through its business model and must not be more than 3 years old. To be awarded grant funding, applicants must self-report a credit score and agree to a third- party background check.”.

Deadline: August 31, 2024

Open to certified minority-, women-, veteran-, and LGBTQ+ owned businesses by national or state organizations) in the following states California, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Te Texas, Washington, Pennsylvania, or New Jersey. The annual revenue of the should be between $250,000 to $10 million.

Deadline: September 5, 2024

Open nationwide to qualifying nonprofits 501(c)3 or elementary, middle, or high schools that provide athletic spaces to youth ages 6-24 in under-resourced communities. Prospective applicants are invited to join the informational webinar on June 26, 2024 see RFP or website for details.

Deadline: September 5, 2024

LegalZoom’s in partnership with the NBA and WNBA, will be awarding $1.5 million in grants to 150 small-business owners & $1.5 million in products & services to 3,000 entrepreneurs looking to start their own business. Small businesses that have been in operation for at least 3 months are eligible to apply for the individual $10,000 grants or up to $500 in LegalZoom products & services. Entrepreneurs are eligible to apply for up to $500 in LegalZoom products & services.

Deadline: September 13, 2024

Open to manufacturing businesses located in Cook County.

Open to manufacturing businesses located in Kane County

 Each year, the Federal Government awards about 10% of all federal contract dollars, or roughly $50 billion in contracts, to Small Disadvantaged Businesses. 

This program provides managerial, technical, and contractual assistance to Small Disadvantaged Businesses to ready the firm and its owners for success in the private industry. Eligibility of the 8(a) program relies in part on criteria for Small Disadvantaged Businesses but has additional requirements related to the business itself.

This program helps small businesses in urban and rural communities gain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities. These preferences go to small businesses that obtain HUBZone certification in part by employing staff who live in a HUBZone. The company must also maintain a "principal office" in one of these specially designated areas.

This program authorizes contracting officers to set aside certain federal contracts for eligible women-owned small businesses.

This program provides procuring agencies with the authority to set acquisitions aside for exclusive competition among service-disabled veteran-owned small business concerns. 

This program lets you apply to get training in areas of buisness like executive training, marketing, strategic & operations, financial analysis, business development, contract management, compliance and business software.

The SBA works with federal agencies to field a small portion of contracts selling natural resources is going to small businesses.

This program let you apply to get a mentor to learn from experienced government contractors

This program allows businesses to come together to compete for government contracts that have been set aside for small businesses.

BACP Entrepreneur Certificate Program is a free and optional program available to attendees of the free BACP business education webinar series. Designed with entrepreneurs in mind, the program offers participants the essential information they need to start and grow a business in Chicago. The program’s curriculum covers essentials in business planning, financing, marketing, legal topics, technology, and more.

Upon successful completion of the program, participants are eligible to apply for an entrepreneurial loan with BACP's partner bank, CIBC. The CIBC Entrepreneur Loan Program was created to support small businesses with important working capital. This low-interest, no-fee loan can range from $1,000 to a maximum of $10,000 for new businesses and $25,000 for businesses with one year of filed tax returns. All financing decisions are bank's decision.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/bacp/supp_info/bacpentrepreneurcertificateprogram0.html

The Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (IHCC) and Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) were selected to provide support to small business owners interested in contracting with the City of Chicago and assist subcontractors desiring to become prime contractors. The 2023 cohort participants were selected via an application process and began their programming with IHCC and WBDC in mid-October. Visit Chicago.gov/EDGE for more info.

Through the provision of technical assistance and capacity building services, the Nonprofit Capacity Building Program is able to support nonprofits disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nonprofit Capacity Building Program includes four types of programs: Readiness Summits, Monthly Webinars, Weekly Small-Group Workshops, and One-on-One Application Assistance.  

Upcoming Events: 

Individualized 1:1 application assistance, weekly group workshops, and monthly webinars presented by Greater Auburn Gresham Development Center (GAGDC) and Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC). Eligible organizations must complete an application and interview, which includes additional cohort details. To apply, navigate to the BACP Nonprofit Capacity Building Program ws. 

This app is a great tool to use to create marketing materials for your business from posts, media kits, workbooks, and more

Google Workspace is a great tool to get a professional email and create ones for your team. It also is a great tool to share docs and more. At only $12 a month; its a steal.

Contractor Foreman is a construction management software offering features like project management with Gantt scheduling and daily logs, financial tools including job costing and estimates, personnel management with GPS timecards and safety meetings, document management with RFIs and submittals, all while allowing for integrations with other systems and providing a client portal for communication; key features include unlimited projects, a dashboard, and robust reporting capabilities. 

Connecteam is a workforce management platform primarily designed for deskless employees, offering key features like shift scheduling, time tracking with GPS location stamping and geofencing, streamlined communication channels including chat and company updates, a centralized knowledge base for training materials, custom forms and checklists to manage daily operations, and employee directory for easy access to contact information - all within a single mobile app, allowing for efficient management

This site is good to buy your domains and create information only websites that are simple and affordable.

Contractor Foreman is a construction management software offering features like project management with Gantt scheduling and daily logs, financial tools including job costing and estimates, personnel management with GPS timecards and safety meetings, document management with RFIs and submittals, all while allowing for integrations with other systems and providing a client portal for communication; key features include unlimited projects, a dashboard, and robust reporting capabilities. 

Contractor Foreman is a construction management software offering features like project management with Gantt scheduling and daily logs, financial tools including job costing and estimates, personnel management with GPS timecards and safety meetings, document management with RFIs and submittals, all while allowing for integrations with other systems and providing a client portal for communication; key features include unlimited projects, a dashboard, and robust reporting capabilities. 

Constant Contact's key features include a user-friendly drag-and-drop email editor, robust contact management with segmentation capabilities, automation tools for email sequences, detailed reporting and analytics, a range of pre-designed email templates, mobile responsive design, social media integration, and the ability to create landing pages, making it suitable for small businesses to manage email marketing campaigns with ease.