Minority-Owned Business Grants Open Right Now — August 2026

All 43 programs, sorted by what you actually receive

Every program is placed in one of four tiers by the instrument a founder ends up holding, not by how the program markets itself. Tier 1 is a grant: money you keep. Tier 2 is capital — a loan you repay, a state credit enhancement, revenue-based finance, or a tax credit that lands with an investor. Tier 3 gives you a certification or free expert help and no cash at all. Tier 4 is not open right now, whatever a listicle says. Program names link to the GrantCompass record for that program, where the eligibility detail lives.

• Tier 1 — grants, open now: 7 programs. Four have a dated deadline; three run on rolling or city-corridor windows.
• Tier 2 — capital, not a grant: 22 programs, all open. 20 are CDFI or state loans, one is revenue-based financing, one is an investor tax credit.
• Tier 3 — certification or free support: 3 programs, all open. Real value, zero cash.
• Tier 4 — not open: 11 programs. Between intakes, closed for the cycle, paused, or ended for good.

Tier 1: the 7 grants a minority-owned business can apply to today

• Black & Brown Founders Empower Growth Fund$5,000 (four awards) · Underrepresented founders with 12 months of revenue · Open August 31, 2026 — the only date its own page publishes, attached to the required Bizscoreline step No intel on file yet
• Buckeye State Credit Union Small Business Recovery Grant$125,000 – $200,000 (3 grants) · Minority-owned or minority-controlled businesses trading 2+ years; local priority to Summit County, Ohio, but open nationally · Open Closes September 30, 2026 No intel on file yet
• Secretsos Small Business Grant$2,500 (quarterly) · Underserved owners turned down for bank credit · Open Q3 closes September 30, 2026 · $15 fee 6 intel fields — locked
• Galaxy Grant for Women and Minority Business Owners$2,500 · Women and minority business owners, any stage · Open Closes October 31, 2026 · free to apply 6 intel fields — locked
• Chicago INVEST South/West Small Business GrantUp to $250,000 · Businesses in 10 South and West Side Chicago corridors · Open Rolling by corridor — only one corridor’s window is open at a time 6 intel fields — locked
• Philadelphia COVID-19 Small Business Relief Grant / Commerce Department Small Business GrantUp to $50,000 · Philadelphia corridor and micro-enterprise businesses · Open Rolling — the city opens intake windows periodically 6 intel fields — locked
• Antares REACH Grant Program & Boost CampUp to $20,000 · Underrepresented founders with product/market fit · Open Rolling Boost Camp intakes — the last dated grant cohort closed January 5, 2026 6 intel fields — locked

Closing in the next 90 days

4 programs on this page have a firm published deadline between today and November 25, 2026, sorted soonest first. Every other open program here is rolling or window-based, which means there is nothing to race — and one of these four, the Galaxy Grant, is free to enter and takes about half a minute.

Tier 2: where the money for minority-owned businesses actually is

This is the part of the landscape that listicles flatten, and it is the part that pays. A CDFI — a Community Development Financial Institution — is a Treasury-certified lender whose mandate is to serve borrowers conventional banks decline. They underwrite on cash flow and character rather than on a credit score alone, they do not close, and they are usually easier to win than a national grant competition with tens of thousands of entrants. Accion Opportunity Fund publishes an approval figure of roughly three quarters for applicants who complete its full process; the Black & Brown Founders grant above makes four awards in total.

Three of these instruments deserve their real names before you spend time on them. The Indiana Venture Capital Investment tax credit pays the investor, not the business — a 30% credit for money put into a minority-owned Qualified Indiana Business, which is a reason for someone to fund you rather than money you can apply for. Illinois’s Advantage Illinois and Indiana’s Legend Fund are credit enhancements: the state buys a participation in a bank’s loan so the bank will lend to you on better terms. You still apply to the bank, and you still repay. Founders First is revenue-based financing, repaid as a share of monthly revenue, with $10,000–$15,000 grants attached to its accelerator rather than offered on their own. None of the three is a grant, and all three are routinely listed as one.

• Illinois Advantage Illinois Participation Loan Program (PLP)Up to $2M participation · Loan — state participation · IL · Illinois small businesses; minority, women, veteran and rural owners are the named priority
• Ohio Minority Business Direct Loan Program$45K-$1.5M · Loan — 1.5% fixed · OH · Ohio-certified MBEs financing equipment or owner-occupied property
• Indiana Venture Capital Investment (VCI) Tax Credit25-30% of investment · Tax credit — paid to the investor · IN · Investors in certified Indiana startups — 30% rate for minority-owned firms
• LiftFund — CDFI Small Business Loans$500–$1,000,000 · Loan — CDFI · 14 states · Underserved owners across 14 southern and southwestern states
• TruFund Financial Services — CDFI Small Business Loans$500–$1,000,000 · Loan — CDFI · NY/AL/LA/TX · Minority- and women-owned businesses in NY, AL, LA and TX
• Rhode Island Small Business Assistance Program (SBAP)$2,000–$750,000 · Loan — state · RI · Rhode Island businesses under 200 employees that banks decline
• LISC Entrepreneurs of Color Fund — Small Business LoansUp to $500,000+ · Loan — CDFI network · 11 states · Minority-owned businesses in 10 metro areas
• Pursuit — CDFI Small Business Loans$10,000–$500,000 · Loan — CDFI · 6 states · Immigrant, minority and early-stage owners; ITIN accepted
• Mountain BizWorks — Western NC Small Business Loans$1,000–$500,000 · Loan — CDFI · NC · Entrepreneurs in the 26 westernmost North Carolina counties
• DreamSpring — CDFI Small Business Loans$1,000–$350,000 · Loan — CDFI · 27 states · Women, immigrant, rural and owners of colour across 27 states; ITIN accepted
• Carolina Small Business Development Fund — Small Business LoansUp to $350,000 · Loan — CDFI · NC · North Carolina start-ups and existing businesses, all 100 counties
• Accion Opportunity Fund — Small Business Loans$5,000–$250,000 · Loan — CDFI · National · Underserved owners nationally; no minimum credit score
• Founders First Capital Partners — Revenue-Based Financing + Grant Support$25K–$250K RBF + grants · Revenue-based financing · National · 51%+ women-, minority-, veteran- or LMI-owned service businesses
• HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation / Hope Credit Union) — Small Business LoansUp to $250,000 · Loan — CDFI credit union · 5 states · Deep South entrepreneurs; dedicated Black- and women-owned tracks
• Mississippi Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Loan Program$35,001–$250,000 (up to $500,000 with 50% match) · Loan — state · MS · Mississippi minority- and women-owned businesses
• Pacific Community Ventures — Good Jobs Loans$10,000–$200,000 · Loan — CDFI · 10 states · Businesses creating quality jobs for low-income workers
• Minnesota Emerging Entrepreneur Loan Program (ELP)$5K–$150K · Loan — state · MN · Minority-, women-, veteran-, low-income- or disability-owned Minnesota businesses
• Virginia Small Business Financing Authority (VSBFA) Microloan Program$10K-$50K (SWaM); up to $150K · Loan — state · VA · Virginia small businesses, with a dedicated SWaM track
• Working Solutions — CDFI Small Business Loans$5,000–$100,000 · Loan — CDFI · CA · Bay Area owners; no credit score, no collateral, ITIN accepted
• Ohio Micro-Loan Program$10K-$45K at 0% · Loan — 0% interest · OH · Certified Ohio minority- and women-owned businesses
• Kiva U.S. — 0% Interest Microloans for Small Business$1,000–$15,000 at 0% interest · Loan — 0% interest · National · Underserved owners with no bank access; character-based lending
• Indiana Legend Fund — Small Business Loan Participation ProgramLender-set loans · Loan — state participation · IN · Indiana small businesses borrowing from CDFI and mission lenders

Tier 3: certifications that unlock contracts, not cash

The distinction matters because certification and grant-hunting are different projects with different time horizons. A grant application is an evening; 8(a) certification is a document exercise measured in weeks, after which the payoff arrives as contract flow over nine years. State and city MBE certification, and the federal DBE certification used for transportation contracts, work the same way: they are not on this page as separate rows because they are administered state by state rather than as national programs, but the logic is identical — the certificate is a key, not a cheque. If your revenue could come from selling to a government or a large corporate supplier, certification is the higher-expected-value use of the same hours.

• MBDA Business Center ProgramFree services (no cash grant) · Support program — free services · National · Minority-owned businesses wanting free consulting and contract help
• SBA 8(a) Business Development ProgramSole-source up to $4.5M (mfg: $7M) · Certification — contract access · National · Socially and economically disadvantaged owners chasing federal contracts
• Operation HOPE — 1 Million Black Businesses (1MBB)Free program + capital access · Support program — free · National · Black entrepreneurs seeking coaching and capital readiness

Tier 4: the 11 that are closed, paused, or gone — and what changed

The legal landscape for race-conscious business grants moved between 2023 and 2025, and founders are still being sent to programs that closed as a result. The Fearless Fund Strivers Grant — a $20,000 award for Black women-owned businesses — was terminated in September 2024 under a settlement with the American Alliance for Equal Rights. The settlement bars the contest from operating; the Fearless Fund itself continues as an investor. That is a matter of record, not a prediction, and it is why the program appears here marked ended rather than quietly dropped. Comcast RISE, which paired a $5,000 cash grant with a marketing and technology package, last ran a cycle in May 2024 and has announced no window since; our catalog records it as winding down. Neither program will be helped by a founder filling in a form.

A second category wastes more time than the closed ones, because it never closes and never pays you: programs that fund organisations rather than founders. The MBDA Capital Readiness Program awards $400,000 to $1,000,000 to nonprofits and CDFIs so that they can deliver capital-readiness services free of charge. Mastercard Strive USA works the same way — the grant goes to a local partner organisation, which then runs a program you may be eligible for. Both appear on dozens of “minority business grants” lists with an application link a business owner cannot use. They are marked here so you find that out in ten seconds rather than an afternoon.

The five between intakes are ordinary annual programs on a calendar: Sephora’s $100,000 beauty grant historically opens around October and closes about four weeks later; the Black Kitchen Initiative has moved its deadline between September and March across cycles; the Black Girl Ventures pitch program closed its 2026 cohort in May; the Kirabo Grant has closed 2026 with 2027 dates unannounced; and Founders First’s supplier grant runs quarterly in principle without a published window. Starring any of them in the database is the low-effort move — the alert arrives when the round reopens, and you do not check.

The numbers behind “minority-owned business grants”

Of the 736 US funding programs GrantCompass tracks, 43 are tagged minority-owned; 32 of those are open on August 27, 2026 and 7 of the 32 are grants. The shape below is the honest one, and it is not the shape a search result implies.

• 7 of 32. Only 7 open minority-owned programs are grants. The other 25 are real money or real value — but a loan, a credit, or a certificate, and each demands a different afternoon from you.
• 4 dated deadlines in the whole slice. Everything else that is open is rolling or opens on a window nobody publishes in advance. Scarcity here is in dated grants, not in open doors.
• $35,000 is the median published ceiling across the six open grants that state a numeric maximum — and that median is carried by two municipal programs. Four of the seven pay $5,000 or less.
• 20 lenders never close. If you need more than $50,000, the honest route for a minority-owned business in 2026 is a CDFI, not a grant competition.
• 2 of the 11 closed rows were never payable to a business at all. MBDA Capital Readiness and Mastercard Strive fund the organisations that help you.

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