Corporate Small Business Grants, Compared
FedEx, Amber, HerRise, Galaxy, IFundWomen, eBay, AT&T, Sephora, Ulta and more — in one table, with the part every brand page buries: whether the window is actually open.
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Which brand grants deserve your time?
Answer three questions and this ranks all 25 brand grants for your business — open windows first, dead ones labeled as dead.
Answer the three questions above, then choose “Rank these 25 for me”. Every program below is also listed in full in the comparison table further down the page.
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See your matches — free →Updated August 18, 2026 — every deadline verified against the GrantCompass catalog and official program pages. Where a sponsor publishes no current figure, this page says so rather than repeating an old one.
The master comparison table
This is the page’s core asset and the reason it exists: a single place where the famous brand grants sit side by side with their real status, rather than twenty-five separate marketing pages that each imply their own program is the one that matters. Status classes: open means a window is accepting applications now; rolling means a recurring cycle with a monthly or quarterly cutoff; closed for 2026 means a real window ran and ended this year; retired or paused means no cycle is announced and, in several cases, the sponsor has said the program is over.
| Program | Sponsor | Award | Cadence | 2026 status | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NC IDEA SEED Grant | NC IDEA | $50,000 | Twice yearly (spring + fall) | Open — closes Aug 24, 2026 | North Carolina startups |
| NC IDEA MICRO Grant | NC IDEA | $10,000 | Twice yearly (spring + fall) | Open — closes Aug 24, 2026 | North Carolina early-stage founders |
| Galaxy Grant | Galaxy of Stars (Hidden Star 501(c)(3)) | $2,500 | Annual | Open — closes Oct 31, 2026 | Women and minority owners |
| Amber Grant for Women | WomensNet | 3 × $10,000/mo + 3 × $50,000 year-end | Monthly | Rolling — next cutoff Aug 31, 2026 | Women founders, any stage |
| HerRise MicroGrant | HerSuiteSpot / Yva Jourdan Foundation | $1,000/month | Monthly | Rolling — next cutoff Aug 31, 2026 | Women founders, women of color prioritized |
| Freed Fellowship Grant | Freed Studio | $500/mo + $2,500 year-end | Monthly | Rolling — next cutoff Aug 31, 2026 | Any founder, small and scrappy |
| IFundWomen Universal Application (IFW by Honeycomb Credit) | IFundWomen | Varies by sponsor cycle | Always-open intake | Rolling — intake always open | Women founders matching sponsor cycles |
| Breva Thrive Grant | Breva (AI platform) | $5,000 per quarter | Quarterly | Reopens Oct 1, 2026 | Community-impact businesses |
| Ulta Beauty MUSE Accelerator | Ulta Beauty | $50,000 each (8 brands) | Annual cohort | Reopens for the 2027 cohort | BIPOC beauty brands |
| The Coramino Fund (LISC × Gran Coramino) | LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) / Gran Coramino Tequila | $10,000 | Annual, ~1-week window | Closed for 2026 — awarded April | 5 cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, LA |
| US Chamber CO—100 (formerly Dream Big Awards) | US Chamber of Commerce Foundation | $25,000 + ten × $2,000 | Annual | Closed for 2026 — ended Aug 7 | Any US small business ($50 entry fee) |
| AT&T Small Business Contest | AT&T | $50,000 + four × $5,000 | Annual | Closed for 2026 — ended Jul 31 | Any US small business |
| eBay Up & Running Grants | eBay (in partnership with Hello Alice) | $10,000 + equipment kit (10 sellers) | Annual | Closed for 2026 — ended Jun 25 | Active eBay Live sellers |
| Sephora Beauty Grant (Fifteen Percent Pledge) | Sephora / Fifteen Percent Pledge | $100,000 (1 winner) | Annual | Closed — next cycle not announced | Beauty brands with $100K+ revenue |
| Sephora Accelerate | Sephora | Not disclosed by sponsor | Annual cohort | Closed — 2027 info due spring 2027 | Emerging beauty brands |
| Visa She's Next | Visa Inc. | Not published by sponsor | Irregular | No US cycle open or announced | Women-owned small businesses |
| Visa Everywhere Initiative | Visa Inc. | Not published by sponsor | Regional windows | No US window published | Payments & commerce startups |
| Block Advisors Fund Her Future | Block Advisors by H&R Block | $50,000 + five × $10,000 | Annual (2024, 2025) | No 2026 cycle announced | Women founders |
| Progressive Driving Small Business Forward | Progressive Insurance | $50,000 toward a commercial vehicle | Annual (opened May in 2024–25) | No 2026 cycle announced | Businesses needing a commercial vehicle |
| FedEx Entrepreneur Fund & Boost Camp | FedEx (with Hello Alice and the Global Entrepreneurship Network) | $10,000 (30 recipients) | Annual | 2026 cycle awarded — next unannounced | Growth-stage founders |
| Stacy's Rise Project | Stacy's Pita Chips (PepsiCo / Frito-Lay) with Hello Alice | $25,000 (historical) | Discontinued | Retired — ran 2019–2024 | Women-founded CPG brands |
| Eileen Fisher Women-Owned Business Grant | Eileen Fisher, Inc. | No figure published | Discontinued | Retired — official pages removed | Mission-driven women-owned businesses |
| FedEx Small Business Grant Contest | FedEx | Retired (2024: $50K + nine × $20K) | Discontinued in the US | Retired by FedEx after 2024 | No longer open to US businesses |
| Walmart Spark Good Local Grants | Walmart Foundation | $250–$5,000 | Three cycles a year | Open — Cycle 3 closes Nov 30, 2026 | 501(c)(3) nonprofits, schools, government — not for-profit businesses |
| Mastercard Strive USA | Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth | Funds organizations, not businesses | Organizational funding rounds | No small-business application | Nonprofits, CDFIs and lenders — not individual businesses |
Open Rolling Reopening Closed for 2026 Retired or paused
Brand grants by the numbers
Two numbers on that panel do the real work. The first is the split between what is live and what is not: fewer than a third of the most-searched brand grants in the United States are in a state you can act on this week, which is the single fact a search result for a brand name will never tell you. The second is the effort spread. Fifteen minutes to thirty hours is a two-hundred-fold range inside one category, and it means "apply to grants" is not one activity — it is two, and they deserve different places in your week.
A third number is worth stating because it is uncomfortable. 5 of these 25 sponsors publish no current award figure on any reachable official page. Every aggregator that shows a confident dollar amount for those programs is quoting a previous cycle, a press release, or another aggregator. GrantCompass shows an empty field instead, because an empty field is true and a stale number is not.
These 25 are the famous ones. The database tracks 665.
Corporate grants are a small and noisy corner of US small-business funding. The GrantCompass database holds 665 programs across federal, state, city, corporate and foundation sources. 154 of those are corporate or foundation programs like the ones on this page, and 95 are open right now. Filter to the slice you care about, star the ones worth watching, and we watch the deadlines for you. That part is free.
Every row carries locked intel
Behind each of the 25 programs above sits a Win Layer: the research that answers "what do winners of this actually look like?" rather than "what is the deadline?". Across these 25 programs there are 152 such fields on file out of a possible 175 — two programs carry all seven, the other twenty-three carry six — and they stay locked on free surfaces.
- Approval odds
- What winners look like
- How it is judged
- Rejection traps
- Required documents
- Cash-flow timing
- Clawback risk
Pro unlocks all seven fields on all 665 programs, plus deadline alerts. $49/mo · $249/yr.
Open right now, or running on a rolling cycle
NC IDEA SEED Grant — open, closes August 24, 2026
The NC IDEA SEED Grant awards $50,000 to five to seven North Carolina startups per cycle, and the fall 2026 window closes at 5:00 pm EST on August 24, 2026.
NC IDEA runs the most substantial open window on this page. The fall 2026 cycle opened July 27 and closes August 24 at 5:00 pm EST, a cutoff the organization states three separate times with the words "No Exceptions". Selection runs long after that: semi-finalists on September 18, finalists on October 23, in-person pitches on November 6, recipients announced November 11. The program is restricted to companies headquartered and majority-operating in North Carolina, and NC IDEA states that companies with more than $250,000 of revenue in the last twelve months — $500,000 for food and beverage — are less likely to be considered. Applicants may enter SEED or MICRO in a cycle, not both. This is also the heaviest application in the set at roughly 30 hours of work. Full NC IDEA SEED profile →
NC IDEA MICRO Grant — open, closes August 24, 2026
The NC IDEA MICRO Grant awards $10,000 to fifteen North Carolina companies per cycle, on the same August 24, 2026, 5:00 pm EST deadline as SEED.
MICRO is the lighter half of the same program, and it is the better first application for most people reading this. Fifteen companies receive the full $10,000 each cycle, paid 75 percent up front and 25 percent at the two-month mark, and the application takes roughly eleven hours rather than thirty. Eligibility requires the company to be headquartered and majority-operating in North Carolina with at least one founder living in the state, and to be actively moving forward — customer discovery, a prototype, testing, or early revenue. Recipients are selected and notified on October 23, 2026. Remember the either-or rule: a company applies to MICRO or SEED in a given cycle, never both. Full NC IDEA MICRO profile →
Galaxy Grant — open, closes October 31, 2026
The Galaxy Grant awards $2,500 to women and minority business owners, is free to enter, and closes October 31, 2026.
Galaxy of Stars, a project of the Hidden Star 501(c)(3), runs the lowest-friction application in this entire set. The official page describes it as free and fast, taking about thirty seconds, with no essays and no fee — and the deadline is October 31, 2026, with winners announced the following week. Note the award figure carefully: the sponsor's own page states $2,500. Aggregator listings widely repeat a larger number, and the GrantCompass catalog carried $4,250 until this page's build; the sponsor's figure is the one that counts. At thirty seconds of effort the expected-value math is unusual — this is the one program on the page where "apply and forget" is a rational strategy rather than a cope. Full Galaxy Grant profile →
Amber Grant for Women — rolling, next cutoff August 31, 2026
WomensNet awards three separate $10,000 Amber Grants every month plus three $50,000 year-end grants, with a cutoff of 11:59:59 pm Eastern on the last day of each month.
The Amber Grant is the most recurring opportunity in the corporate-grant world, and the structure is more generous than most summaries convey. WomensNet awards three $10,000 grants each month — the general Amber Grant, a Startup Grant, and a Business Category Grant tied to a rotating theme — and monthly winners are then considered for one of three $50,000 year-end grants announced in January. One application enters you across the tracks. The cutoff is the last day of the month at 11:59:59 pm Eastern; the next is August 31, 2026. There is a $15 application fee, which WomensNet describes as the only fee it charges, and the sponsor publishes a waiver path by email. Roughly two and a half hours of work. Full Amber Grant profile →
HerRise MicroGrant — rolling, next cutoff August 31, 2026
The HerRise MicroGrant awards $1,000 every month to a woman-owned business, closing at 11:59 pm on the last day of each month.
HerSuiteSpot and the Yva Jourdan Foundation run HerRise as a monthly $1,000 award, with winners announced at the HerSuiteSpot First Friday Mixer the following month. It carries a $15 non-refundable administrative fee paid at checkout. The program prioritizes women of color and is deliberately small — a single winner each month — but the application takes roughly thirty minutes, which puts it in the same "recurring habit" tier as Amber and Freed rather than the "serious project" tier. Because volume is high, the sponsor does not notify non-winners, so silence carries no information. Reapplication each month is permitted, and for a program like this persistence is the whole strategy. Full HerRise profile →
Freed Fellowship Grant — rolling, next cutoff August 31, 2026
The Freed Fellowship awards a $500 monthly grant plus a $2,500 year-end grant, with a $19 application fee and a midnight Eastern cutoff on the last day of each month.
Freed Studio's monthly fellowship is the smallest headline check on this page and one of the more interesting packages behind it. Monthly Fellows receive $500 with no strings, and standout Fellows are considered for a $2,500 year-end grant; the award also carries a sixty-minute strategy session, a podcast invitation, and a year of community membership. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and must arrive by midnight Eastern on the last day of the month. The $19 fee is real and is the main filter on the applicant pool. Unlike most of this set, Freed is open to any founder rather than restricted by ownership category. About two hours of work. Full Freed Fellowship profile →
IFundWomen Universal Grant Application — rolling intake, always open
The IFundWomen Universal Application is an always-open profile that matches women founders to sponsor-funded grant cycles as those cycles launch; it is not itself a grant with a fixed amount.
This is the most misunderstood entry on the page. The Universal Application is a matching mechanism, not an award — you build a profile once and sit in the database so you are already there when a brand-sponsored cycle opens. Award sizes therefore vary entirely by whichever sponsor is funding the current cycle, which is why this page declines to publish a single dollar range: no figure on the reachable official pages supports one. One structural change worth knowing: Honeycomb Credit acquired IFundWomen in 2025, and the brand now operates as IFW by Honeycomb Credit with the intake integrated into the Honeycomb platform. Budget about four hours to build a complete profile. Full IFundWomen profile →
Walmart Spark Good Local Grants — open, but not for for-profit businesses
Walmart's Spark Good Local Grants award $250 to $5,000 through local stores and are open now in Cycle 3, which closes November 30, 2026 — but eligibility is restricted to nonprofits, schools and government entities, not for-profit small businesses.
This program appears on nearly every "corporate small business grants" list, and for most readers of such a list it is not applicable. Walmart's own page limits eligibility to 501(c)(3) public charities, government entities, schools and faith-based organizations. If you run a for-profit business, this is not your grant, and this page would rather tell you that than pad a count. If you do run a qualifying organization, the mechanics are worth knowing: the program is now called Spark Good Local Grants, awards run $250 to $5,000 from individual stores, clubs and distribution centers, and applications run in three discrete cycles rather than continuously. Cycle 3 opened August 1 and closes November 30, 2026. You need a Spark Good account verified by Deed, and decisions are made before the next cycle opens. Full Walmart Spark Good profile →
Closed for 2026 — and what is known about the next window
Breva Thrive Grant — reopens October 1, 2026
The Breva Thrive Grant awards $5,000 per quarter with no equity and no strings; the Q3 2026 window closed July 31 and the Q4 window runs October 1–31, 2026.
Breva is the only program on this page with a confirmed, dated reopening, which makes it the natural thing to put in a calendar today. The award is a flat $5,000 per quarter, there is no application fee — the sponsor states no purchase or payment of any kind is necessary — and the cycle is genuinely quarterly rather than nominally so. The Q3 2026 window ran July 1–31 and closed; recipients from that round are notified September 15. The Q4 window opens October 1 and closes October 31, 2026. Only one winner per quarter, so treat it as competitive despite the modest size, and lead with quantified community impact rather than adjectives. About four hours of work. Full Breva Thrive profile →
Ulta Beauty MUSE Accelerator — closed, 2027 cohort next
The Ulta Beauty MUSE Accelerator gives $50,000 to each of eight early-stage beauty brands per cohort; 2026 applications closed June 28, 2026, and the official page directs applicants to the 2027 cohort.
MUSE is the most valuable closed program here, and the cash is not the main prize. Eight brands per cohort receive $50,000 each, one of them receives an additional $10,000 through the Fifteen Percent Pledge, and the program has distributed more than $1.5 million to over 32 brands since 2022. The real asset is the retail-readiness pathway and merchandising mentorship — the route toward Ulta shelf space. Applications for the current cohort closed June 28, 2026 at 11:59 pm PT, and the official page now says to check back next year when applications open for the 2027 cohort, with no dates yet published. Eligibility covers the United States and Canada and requires you to be already selling physical products in Ulta's beauty categories. Full Ulta MUSE profile →
US Chamber CO—100 (formerly the Dream Big Awards) — closed August 7, 2026
The US Chamber's CO—100 awards $25,000 to its top business and $2,000 to each of ten top honorees; the 2026 application period closed August 7, 2026 at 11:59 pm ET.
Two things about this program are commonly reported wrong. First, the name: the Dream Big Awards URL now redirects to CO—100, which is the current program. Second, the entry fee — the official FAQ states it is $50, not the several-hundred-dollar figure that circulates, and the program rules publish a no-fee entry method as well. The award structure is a $25,000 prize for the single CO— Top Business plus $2,000 to each of ten Top Honorees drawn from the CO—100 list, alongside US Chamber membership, summit entry and national media coverage. Chamber membership is not required to enter. Honorees for 2026 had not been announced when this page was updated, and no 2027 cycle is published. Full CO—100 profile →
AT&T Small Business Contest — closed July 31, 2026
The AT&T Small Business Contest awards a $50,000 grand prize and four runner-up prizes of $5,000; the 2026 entry window ran May 1 to July 31, 2026 and has closed.
Five businesses are funded per cycle: one grand prize of $50,000 bundled with a device, a year of AT&T business services, mentorship and a feature episode, plus four runner-up awards of $5,000 paid by check. Entries for 2026 opened May 1 and closed July 31. Be careful with notification dates circulating for this contest: AT&T's official rules page was still serving the previous cycle's rules when this page was checked, so any "finalists notified by" date you see for 2026 is likely lifted from 2025. The previous cycle's winner was announced in January, which makes a late-2026 or early-2027 announcement the realistic pattern. At about an hour of work it is one of the cheapest applications here when the window is open. Full AT&T contest profile →
eBay Up & Running Grants — closed June 25, 2026
The 2026 eBay Live x Up & Running Grants awarded $10,000 to each of ten sellers plus a live-selling equipment kit; the application period closed June 25, 2026 and no 2027 window is announced.
eBay selects ten sellers per cycle, each receiving a flat $10,000 grant together with eBay Live mentorship and a professional live-selling equipment kit — $100,000 in total. The gating requirement has always been being an active eBay seller in good standing, and the 2026 cycle narrowed further to eBay Live sellers specifically, which is a meaningful tightening if you sell on the platform but do not stream. Applications closed June 25, 2026, judging is under way, and recipients are introduced at eBay's winter seller check-in. Note that eBay's own materials give slightly different closing times across pages; the corporate press release is the primary source. No 2027 window has been announced. Full eBay Up & Running profile →
The Coramino Fund — closed for 2026, awarded in April
The Coramino Fund awarded $10,000 each to twenty small businesses in 2026; the window opened March 31 and closed April 6, 2026, and no 2027 round is announced.
Run by LISC with Gran Coramino Tequila, this has the shortest application window of almost any US small-business grant — roughly one week, start to finish. The 2026 round opened March 31 and closed April 6 at 11:59 pm Pacific, and twenty businesses received $10,000 each; the program has supported more than 170 businesses across its rounds. One eligibility detail matters more than any other and is widely misreported: it is a city-level program, not a state-level one. Eligible businesses are in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston or Los Angeles specifically — not anywhere in Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Texas or California. Additional gates: five years or less in business, no more than three locations, no more than thirty employees. Given the one-week window, subscribing to LISC alerts is the entire strategy. Full Coramino Fund profile →
Retired, dormant, or with nothing announced
Sephora Accelerate — closed, 2027 information due spring 2027
Sephora Accelerate closed its 2026 applications on March 31, 2026, and the official site says information for the next cycle arrives in spring 2027.
Accelerate is an incubator rather than a grant program, which is why no dollar figure appears in the table above: Sephora publishes none anywhere on the official site. What it does publish is the substance — mentorship, curriculum, resources, and the opportunity to launch at Sephora, which is the part participants actually care about. The 2026 cycle ran March 2 to March 31, 2026, closing at 5 pm PST, and the cohort was announced in summer 2026. The official page now reads: stay tuned for updates and application information coming spring 2027. Anyone quoting you a specific Accelerate grant amount is quoting a number the sponsor has not published. Full Sephora Accelerate profile →
Sephora Beauty Grant — closed, next cycle not announced
The Sephora Beauty Grant awards $100,000 unrestricted to one beauty brand per cycle; the Fifteen Percent Pledge grants index currently lists it as Application Closed with no new cycle announced.
Run with the Fifteen Percent Pledge, this is the largest single check on the page. One winner receives $100,000 in unrestricted funding plus pro-bono consulting and recognition at the Pledge's gala. Eligibility is tight: a US consumer-packaged-goods business with at least $100,000 in annual revenue, at least one year of trading, majority ownership by underrepresented founders, selling in beauty, haircare, makeup, skincare, fragrance, or bath and body. One trap worth naming. The sponsor's award page still displays a cycle timeline — opens late October, closes late November, winner announced in February — with no year stamp on it. Those are the previous cycle's dates, already awarded. The grants index is the honest surface, and it says closed. Full Sephora Beauty Grant profile →
Visa She's Next — no US cycle open or announced
Visa's She's Next US program currently publishes no open application, no dates, and no award figure; the only 2026 She's Next activity found was outside the United States.
This is the honest version of an entry most listicles fill with a confident number. Visa's own US She's Next page carries a notify-me signup and nothing else: no window, no criteria, no amount. The $10,000 figure that circulates widely describes past US awards and is not published by Visa on any reachable official surface, which is why this page shows no figure rather than repeating one. Verified 2026 She's Next activity was non-US — an Ireland cycle that opened in March and closed April 9, 2026. If you see a US She's Next deadline quoted anywhere, check it against Visa's own page before spending an hour on it. Worth watching, not worth planning around. Full Visa She's Next profile →
Visa Everywhere Initiative — no US window published
The Visa Everywhere Initiative runs as separate regional tracks with their own windows; no US window is currently published, and the 2026 regional prizes located were materially smaller than the figure commonly quoted.
Everywhere is a pitch competition for payments and commerce startups, structured regionally rather than nationally, so "is it open?" has a different answer in each geography. The 2026 regional windows identified had already closed by mid-year, and the published prize structures were smaller than the six-figure number that circulates in aggregator listings — the largest single 2026 regional prize located was $25,000. Visa's own program pages were unreachable to automated checking during this build, so this page publishes no award figure and flags the commonly-quoted one as unverified. For most US small businesses this is not a grant to plan around; it is a competition for a specific kind of fintech company. Full Visa Everywhere profile →
Stacy's Rise Project — retired after the 2024 cohort
Stacy's Rise Project ran from 2019 to 2024 and has been retired; Stacy's now directs its funding through the Stacy's Entrepreneur Fund in partnership with NAWBO.
This one is worth saying plainly because it is still listed as live on plenty of grant round-ups. Stacy's own website describes the program in the past tense — from 2019 to 2024 it supported women founders with funding, community, and mentorship — and then describes what replaced it: a donation through the Stacy's Entrepreneur Fund supporting founders via NAWBO's Established and Ready to Grow program. The successor is not a cash grant you apply for; it is a sponsored education and mentorship place. Historically Rise awarded $25,000 per recipient to women-founded CPG businesses with annualized sales between $25,000 and $1 million. If Stacy's Rise is on your list, take it off. Full Stacy's Rise profile →
Block Advisors Fund Her Future — no 2026 cycle announced
Block Advisors Fund Her Future awards $50,000 to one business and $10,000 to five more; as of August 2026 the official page and FAQ still describe the 2025 cycle and no 2026 window has opened.
Fund Her Future is a genuinely strong package when it runs: $100,000 in total funding across six women-owned businesses — one $50,000 grant and five of $10,000 — plus a year of complimentary tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll and business-structure services. The catch as of this update is that it is not running. The official page still headlines the 2025 recipients, and the live FAQ still quotes the 2025 application window that closed on May 30, 2025. The program's usual rhythm would have opened a window in spring; that window passed without an announcement. Nothing indicates discontinuation, so this belongs on a watch list rather than a to-do list. Full Fund Her Future profile →
Eileen Fisher Women-Owned Business Grant — retired, official pages removed
The Eileen Fisher Women-Owned Business Grant no longer has a live official page; the grants overview returns a 404 and the program URL redirects away.
This is the clearest example on the page of why status-checking beats listicle-reading. The Eileen Fisher grant appears on a great many "grants for women-owned businesses" lists in 2026. Checked directly, the company's grants overview returns a page-not-found, the women-owned business grant URL redirects to an unrelated journal page, and the Eileen Fisher Foundation site lists no business-grant program of any kind. There is no official source from which to quote an award amount, so this page quotes none, and the dollar range that circulates in listings is unsupported by any live official page. Treat this program as retired until Eileen Fisher publishes something that says otherwise. Full Eileen Fisher profile →
FedEx Small Business Grant Contest — retired by FedEx after 2024
FedEx retired the US Small Business Grant Contest after its 2024 cycle; the company's own page describes the program in the past tense and its recipient archive stops at 2024.
This is the single most-searched dead program in the category, and the correction is unambiguous because FedEx published it. FedEx's small-business grants page states that the program ran from 2012 through 2024 and that, while it is retired, you can still learn from past recipients' journeys. The final 2024 cycle awarded one $50,000 grand prize and nine awards of $20,000. FedEx's US small-business funding now runs through the Entrepreneur Fund instead. Two traps to avoid: a FedEx Small Business Grant Contest still operates in roughly thirty international markets, which is not open to US businesses; and several grant-aggregator sites publish confident 2026 US dates for this contest that do not correspond to anything FedEx has announced. Full FedEx contest profile →
FedEx Entrepreneur Fund and Boost Camp — 2026 cycle awarded, next unannounced
The FedEx Entrepreneur Fund awarded $10,000 to each of thirty entrepreneurs in its 2026 cycle, announced in May 2026; no 2027 application window has opened.
This is the program that replaced the retired contest, run with Hello Alice and the Global Entrepreneurship Network. The structure is a Boost Camp with 150 participant seats, from which thirty entrepreneurs receive $10,000 grant packages — the 2026 recipients were announced in May 2026. The program has distributed $1.2 million since 2022. Applications for the 2026 cycle are closed and no next window is published. The previous rhythm opened in mid-October and closed in late November, so autumn is where to look, but that is a pattern rather than an announced date and this page will not print it as one. If you searched for the FedEx grant and landed on the retired contest, this is the program you actually wanted. Full FedEx Entrepreneur Fund profile →
Progressive Driving Small Business Forward — no 2026 cycle announced
Progressive's Driving Small Business Forward grant awarded $50,000 to each of twenty businesses in 2025 toward a commercial vehicle; no 2026 cycle has been announced and the program page has been taken down.
Two corrections matter here. First, what the award actually is: $50,000 directed toward the purchase of a commercial vehicle and related expenses, plus a twelve-week virtual accelerator — not a general grant bundled with insurance, which is how it is often summarized. Second, the timing: the real pattern is an opening in early-to-mid May with a June close, not the January-to-March window that circulates. As of this update Progressive has announced nothing for 2026, its program page redirects to a generic commercial-insurance page, and the application host no longer carries a page for it. Eligibility, when it ran, was ten or fewer employees, under $5 million in revenue, and a demonstrated need for a qualifying commercial vehicle. Treat any 2026 deadline you see for this program as unverified. Full Progressive grant profile →
Mastercard Strive USA — funds organizations, not individual businesses
Mastercard Strive USA awards up to $250,000 per organization to nonprofits, CDFIs and lenders; it runs no national application through which an individual small business can request a grant.
This entry is a category error that propagates widely, so it is worth stating flatly. Strive USA's Innovation Fund awards grants of up to $250,000 per organization from a $1 million pool, and its recipients are intermediaries — nonprofits, community development financial institutions, credit unions, fintechs and universities that serve small businesses. There is no path on Strive's site through which a small business applies for a Mastercard grant, and no $10,000 small-business award exists. The benefit to a business is indirect and real: if a Strive-funded organization operates near you, its services improved because of this money. But it is not a grant you can apply for, and a listing that presents it as one is sending you to a form that does not exist. Full Mastercard Strive profile →
The truth about brand-sponsored grants
Quick answer: corporate grants are marketing programs with a funding budget attached, which is why their windows move, their cycles pause, and their applicant pools are enormous. Treat them as lottery tickets you buy with hours, not as a funding plan.
A corporate grant is not a government program. Nobody is obligated to run it again. The budget sits inside a brand-marketing line, the window opens when the campaign calendar says so, and a reorganization can end the whole thing without an announcement. That single structural fact explains almost every frustrating thing about this category.
A program that closed in March one year can open in October the next. Dates published on aggregator sites are copied from the previous cycle far more often than they are checked. Verify the window on the sponsor's own page before you write a word.
Several programs in this set tell applicants outright that non-winners receive no notification. A program going quiet for eight months is not evidence that it died, and a program that died rarely says so.
Low-friction applications draw huge volume by design — that is the marketing point. A 30-minute application competing nationally is a different bet than a 30-hour application competing inside one state.
Across the 25 programs on this page the median application takes about 4 hours, and the range runs from 15 minutes to 30 hours. The 30-hour applications are not 120 times better; they are usually just more selective about who bothers.
GrantCompass does not publish odds it cannot source. No sponsor in this set publishes a verified approval rate, so this page does not quote one. Where a program publishes its own award count — how many winners per cycle — that number appears in the comparison table, because it came from the sponsor.
The questions people actually type before they apply
Are corporate small business grants worth applying for?
Corporate grants are worth applying for when the application cost is small and the money is unrestricted — and they are a poor use of time when neither is true. Across the 25 brand programs tracked here the median application takes about four hours, and five of them take two hours or less. At that price a national grant is a reasonable weekly habit for a founder who reuses one strong business narrative. The calculation inverts at the top of the effort range: one program on this list asks for roughly 30 hours of work, which is a serious project that should only be started when the fit is obvious and the window is confirmed open. The useful discipline is to separate the two tiers explicitly. Keep a short list of low-effort recurring programs you apply to on a schedule, and treat every high-effort program as a decision you make once per cycle, on purpose.
Do brand grants charge an application fee?
Most brand-sponsored grants are free to enter, but a meaningful minority charge a fee, and the fee is rarely visible until the final step of the form. Two of the recurring microgrant programs on this page charge a per-application fee in the $15 to $19 range, and one national awards program charges an entry fee in the hundreds of dollars. None of those fees is disclosed on the marketing page that ranks in search — they appear on the payment screen. Sponsors describe the fee as a filter that reduces low-effort volume, and it does exactly that, which is why fee-charging programs are often a better statistical bet than free ones despite costing money. The rule that protects you: before you start writing, click through to the final screen of the application and confirm what it costs. Budget the fee as part of the application, not as a surprise.
What happens when a brand grant closes — does it come back?
A closed corporate grant reopens only if the sponsor chooses to fund it again, and there is no obligation and often no announcement either way. Three distinct outcomes hide behind the word "closed." A program can be between cycles, with the sponsor's own page saying so and naming a rough return window. It can be dormant, with a cycle skipped and no statement at all. Or it can be retired, where the sponsor has quietly redirected the budget elsewhere and the old landing page simply stops being updated. Aggregator sites almost never distinguish between those three, which is how a program that last ran in 2023 keeps appearing on "grants open now" lists in 2026. The practical difference matters: a between-cycles program is worth watching, a dormant one is worth a low-cost check each quarter, and a retired one should be dropped from your list entirely.
Can you apply to more than one brand grant at a time?
Applying to multiple brand grants simultaneously is normal and expected, with two specific exceptions worth knowing. Nothing in a typical corporate grant's terms restricts you from holding applications at several sponsors at once, and the recurring monthly programs are explicitly designed for repeat entry — several of them allow you to reapply every cycle. The exceptions are structural rather than legal. Some sponsors run two tiers of the same program and require you to choose one, not both, in a given cycle. And a few programs deliver funding through local partner organizations rather than a national form, which means your real application is a relationship with a specific nonprofit and cannot be duplicated across regions. The efficient pattern is a single well-written core narrative — what the business does, what the money changes, what evidence supports it — adapted to each sponsor's stated priorities rather than rewritten from scratch.
Are corporate small business grants taxable income?
Grant money paid to a for-profit business is generally taxable income in the United States, and brand-sponsored grants are no exception. The Internal Revenue Service treats amounts received by a business that are not gifts, loans, or capital contributions as gross income, and sponsors routinely issue a Form 1099 for cash awards. This surprises founders who mentally file a grant alongside a prize or a gift. It matters at the size these programs award: a $50,000 unrestricted grant is not $50,000 of spendable cash once the tax is set aside. Some awards also arrive partly as in-kind value — software, insurance, equipment, retail placement, mentorship — and the treatment of in-kind components varies with what is actually transferred. GrantCompass is a funding-discovery tool and does not give tax advice; confirm the treatment of any specific award with your accountant before you plan around the full headline number.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Galaxy Grant still open in 2026?
Yes. The Galaxy Grant is open and closes October 31, 2026, with winners announced the following week. It is free to enter and the sponsor describes the application as taking about thirty seconds. One correction worth carrying: Galaxy of Stars states the award is $2,500. Larger figures appear widely in aggregator listings and were carried in the GrantCompass catalog until this page was built; the sponsor's own figure is the one to trust. The grant is open to women and minority business owners.
What is the IFundWomen Universal Grant Application?
The Universal Application is an always-open profile, not a grant with a fixed award. You complete it once and sit in a matching database, so that when a brand-sponsored cycle launches you are already a candidate for it. Award sizes therefore depend entirely on which sponsor is funding the current cycle, and no single dollar range is published on the reachable official pages. One structural change to know: Honeycomb Credit acquired IFundWomen in 2025 and the brand now operates as IFW by Honeycomb Credit, with the intake integrated into the Honeycomb platform. Budget about four hours to build a complete profile.
When does the Amber Grant close each month?
The Amber Grant deadline is the last day of each calendar month at 11:59:59 pm Eastern Time; the next cutoff is August 31, 2026. WomensNet awards three separate $10,000 grants every month — the general Amber Grant, a Startup Grant, and a Business Category Grant on a rotating theme — and monthly winners are then considered for one of three $50,000 year-end grants announced in January. A single $15 application enters you across the tracks, and WomensNet publishes a fee-waiver path by email.
Is the HerRise MicroGrant legitimate, and does it cost anything?
HerRise is a real monthly $1,000 grant run by HerSuiteSpot and the Yva Jourdan Foundation, and it charges a $15 non-refundable administrative fee at checkout. Applications close at 11:59 pm on the last day of each month and winners are announced at the HerSuiteSpot First Friday Mixer the following month. The program prioritizes women of color. Because application volume is high, the sponsor does not notify non-winners — so hearing nothing back is the normal outcome and carries no information about your application.
When is the NC IDEA grant deadline?
Both NC IDEA grants close on August 24, 2026 at 5:00 pm EST, a cutoff NC IDEA states with the words "No Exceptions". SEED awards $50,000 to five to seven companies; MICRO awards $10,000 to fifteen companies. You may apply to one or the other in a cycle, never both. Both require the company to be headquartered and majority-operating in North Carolina. MICRO recipients are notified October 23, 2026; SEED runs longer, with semi-finalists September 18, finalists October 23, pitches November 6, and recipients announced November 11.
Is the Stacy's Rise Project still running?
No. Stacy's own website describes the Rise Project in the past tense, stating that from 2019 to 2024 it supported women founders with funding, community and mentorship. The funding has been redirected to the Stacy's Entrepreneur Fund, delivered in partnership with NAWBO through its Established and Ready to Grow program — which is a sponsored education and mentorship place rather than a cash grant you apply for. Historically Rise awarded $25,000 to women-founded consumer-packaged-goods businesses. If it is on your list, remove it.
When does the Sephora Beauty Grant open again?
No new cycle has been announced. The Fifteen Percent Pledge grants index lists the Sephora Beauty Grant as Application Closed. Its award page still shows a cycle timeline — opening late October, closing late November, winner announced in February — but those dates carry no year stamp and belong to the cycle already awarded, which is a common way stale dates spread. The award itself is $100,000 unrestricted to a single winner, and eligibility requires a US beauty business with at least $100,000 in annual revenue and at least one year of trading.
Can I apply to the Ulta MUSE Accelerator right now?
No. Applications for the current cohort closed June 28, 2026 at 11:59 pm PT, and Ulta's official page directs applicants to check back next year for the 2027 cohort, with no dates yet published. When it runs, eight early-stage beauty brands each receive $50,000, one of them receives an additional $10,000 through the Fifteen Percent Pledge, and participants get retail-readiness support and merchandising mentorship. Eligibility covers the United States and Canada and requires you to be already selling physical products in Ulta's beauty categories.
Why does this page show no award amount for some programs?
Because the sponsor publishes none. 5 of these 25 programs have no current award figure on any reachable official page — either the program is between cycles and the page has been stripped back, or the sponsor never published a number in the first place. Aggregators fill that gap with a figure from an earlier cycle or from another aggregator, which is how wrong numbers propagate for years. GrantCompass leaves the field empty and says so. An empty field is accurate; a confident stale number is not.
What this means for your business
The workable strategy in this category is small and dull: keep the four rolling monthly programs on a recurring calendar entry, put the two dated reopenings (Breva on October 1, the Galaxy deadline on October 31) in your calendar, and stop re-reading listicles about the eighteen that are shut. The free GrantCompass eligibility check does the wider version of that job — it maps all 665 US programs to your actual business in about sixty seconds and gives you a ranked report.