Grant Opportunities for WV Companies

Targeting small businesses

1. West Virginia University Demo Day

   Demo Day offers the opportunity for all WVU students, faculty, staff and members of the community to showcase their innovative ideas, products or ventures and compete in a cash award pitch competition.
   Benefits: Receive up to a $1,000 in grant funding.
   Grant award target characteristics: The business venture or pro duct must show the power of solving problems and embracing ideas to create a new company or investment opportunity that shows signs of business preparedness and market opportunity.
   For more information: Go to Ideahub: Demo Day.
   
   

2. Robert C. Byrd Institute Agriculture Technology and Innovation Student Competition

   West Virginia 7th-12th graders can pitch in a competition that encourages innovation and problem-solving in agriculture and food production fields.
   Benefits: Receive up to $500 in grant funding.
   Grant award target characteristics: Winning ideas relate to agribusiness, plant and animal systems, resources management, power, structural and technical systems, and food products and processing systems.
   For more information: Point of contact: Tina Metzer, Phone: 304-490-9308. 
   
   

3. Robert C. Byrd Institute Early Stage Funding

   RCBI provides a number of funding options for new companies and entrepreneurs.
   Benefits: Receive early-stage grant funding and other in-kind assistance.
   Grant award characteristics: West Virginia companies who need assistance with early working capital needs for prototyping, marketing, and other needs.
   For more information: Go to RCBI: Early Stage Funding.
   

4. Governor’s Guaranteed Workforce Program

   This program answers the call for funding for West Virginia businesses who need help re-training employees who have been displaced by shifts in market forces.
   Benefits: Receive funding to help re-train and up-skill employees to meet your business needs.
   Grant award target characteristics: Must be pre-approved to receive employee training assistance funding.
   For more information: Phone: 304-558-2234 or go to WV Commerce: Training. 
   
   

5. Wheeling Heritage Show of Hands Grant

   A public pitch presentation that occurs three times each year where the fan favorite winner is chosen with audience participation.
   Benefits: Receive between $1,000 - $25,000 in grant funding.
   Grant award target characteristics: For Wheeling, WV, based companies.
   For more information: Go to Wheeling Heritage: Show of Hands.
   
   

6. U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Value Added Producer Grants

   These grants provide working capital to food companies for operating costs like marketing expenses or inventory.
   Benefits: Receive between $75,000 - $250,000 in grant funding.
   Grant award target characteristics: Targeted grantees include independent producers and groups like farmer or rancher co-ops that are producing and marketing value-added agricultural products.
   For more information: Point of contact: Kris Warner, West Virginia State Director Phone: 304-284-4860 or go to USDA: Value Added Producer Grants. 
   
   

7. FedEx’s Small Business Grant

   A grant competition for entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and products.
   Benefits: Receive between $1,000 - $25,000 in grant funding.
   Grant award target characteristics: The grant application is open to for-profit businesses that have been operating for at least six months, with no more than 99 employees. Previous winners include an eco-friendly alternative to plastic water bottles, a saffron/spice provider and a company that produced teddy bears in military uniforms that help children fall asleep.
   For more information: Email Fedex: Grant.
   
   

8. Visa Everywhere Initiative Grants

   This grant is focused on startups relevant to Visa’s business, with a product in market, showing sales and investment traction.
   Benefits: Receive between $1,000 - $50,000 in grant funding.
   Grant award target characteristics: The application seeks startups that can help merchants drive greater loyalty and customer conversion, how startups can help small and medium businesses accept digital payments and other digital solutions, and how startups can augment their products with voice, messaging and AI solutions.
   For more information: Go to Visa: Everywhere Initiative Grant.
   
   

9. LendingTree Grants

   These grants focus on funding solutions to help communities grow and prepare for the future. Benefits Receive between $5,000 - $50,000 grant award range.
   Grant award target characteristics: The application seeks passionate, growth-minded and communitycentric candidates. The most recent winner is an educational company that focuses on STEM and leading K-12 students through hands-on activities to prepare them for the future.
   For more information: Email Affliates at LendingTree  or go to LendingTree.
   
   

10. Chase Mission Main Street Grants

    This grant focuses on small businesses, products and mission oriented ventures.
    Benefits: Receive between $5,000 - $250,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: Past winners include a company that helps veterans find jobs after returning home (focused on the cyber and IT industry), a company that provides technical training to those in the healthcare field, a specialty grocery store and a mountain bike producer.
    For more information Phone: 212-270-6000 or go to Chase: Mission Main Grants.
    
    

11. National Association of the Self-Employed’s Growth Grants

    This grant focuses on the businesses of NASE’s entrepreneurial membership.
    Benefits: Receive between $1,000 - $4,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: Applicants must be National Association f or the Self- Employed members in good standing who demonstrate a business need that can be fulfilled by the grant. The application must show how the grant will improve business growth and long-term success.
    For more information: Email National Association or go to National Associate of the Self-Employed Growth Grants.
    
    

Targeting high-tech companies

12. TransTech Energy Conference Pitch

    Annually held in Cannonsburg, PA, this “new energy ” technology conference holds a pitch competition for tri-state startups.
    Benefits: Receive $30,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: The competition is aimed at research and development firms that are solving emerging problems with transitional energy technology.
    For more information go to Transfer Tech Energy
    
    

13. U.Pitch

    This Chicago-based pitch competition is aimed specifically at current and recent college student entrepreneurs.
    Benefits Receive between $500 - $7,500 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: Current and aspiring U.S. startup founders can present their unique product ideas and business models via a brief (140 characters or less) description and a 90-second pitch video explaining the idea.
    For more information: go to Future Founders: UPitch
    
    

14. Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge

    This visionary science and technology startup competition is designed specifically to address the needs of deep-tech entrepreneurs across several different industries and technologies.
    Benefits: Receive between $15,000 - $100,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: This grant focuses on companies doing transformative work in the fields of aeronautics, data, AI, digital health, energy, food, agriculture, environment, global health, biotech, industry 4.0, new materials, mobility, space and well-being.
    For more information: go to Hello Tomorrow: Startups
    
    

15. U.S. Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR)

    This grant is meant to help include businesses in the federal government’s research and development community.
    Benefits: Receive between $5,000 - $1,000,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: This grant supports domestic small businesses engaging in federal research and development that has the potential for commercialization.
    For more information: go to Small Business Innovation Research Grants
    
    

16. U.S. Small Business Technology Transfer Grants (STTR)

    STTR encourages technology transfer from research institutions to private companies engaging in high tech commercialization.
    Benefits Receive between $5,000 - $1,000,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: STTR grants are awarded to companies partnering with research institutions to commercialize technology. Both parties must establish an intellectual property agreement detailing the allocation of IP and rights to carry out follow-on research, development or commercialization activities.
    For more information: go to Small Business Technology Transfer Grants
    
    

Targeting women- and veteran-owned businesses

17. SBA’s InnovateHER Challenge

    This grant focuses on having an impact in the lives of women and girls.
    Benefits: Receive between $5,000 - $40,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: The focus is on products and services that have a measurable impact on the lives of women and families, have the potential for commercialization and fill a need in the marketplace.
    For more information: Point of contact: Kathleen McShane, Asst. Administrator  or go to SBA: Innovate Her Challenge  
    
    

18. WomensNet’s Amber Grants

    This grant focuses on passionate and savvy women entrepreneurs.
    Benefits: Receive between $1,000 - $11,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: While business details are vital, this grant focuses on women who believe in what they’re doing.
    For more information: go to Amber Grants 
    
    

19. 19. The Halstead Grant

    This jewelry business focused grant is unique.
    Benefits: Receive between $1,000 - $7,500 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: Targeting women business owners who make and sell jewelry, each summer Halstead awards a grant to a new jewelry designer working primarily in silver.
    For more information Phone: 800-528-0535 or go to Halstead Grant
    
    

20. Eileen Fischer Foundation’s Women-owned Business Grant

    This grant targets products and solutions for women’s personal transformation.
    Benefits: Receive between $1,000 - $10,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: Particularly interested in programs that encourage self-discovery and personal transformation, help women or girls find their inner strength and trust intuition or address any phase of a woman’s or girl’s life.
    For more information: Phone: 800-445-1603 or go to Eileen Fischer Foundation
    
    

21. Huggies’ MomInspired Grants

    Here’s a grant that focuses on funding ‘mom’preneurs and their business dreams.
    Benefits: Receive between $1,000 - $12,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics:Provides business counsel and money to fund women-owned startups and new product innovations.
    For more information: go to Huggies' MomInspired Grants
    
    

22. The McCormick Foundation’s New Media Women Entrepreneurs Grants

    This grant supports women entrepreneurs in the fields of news media and information.
    Benefits: Receive between $1,000 - $14,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: This grant provides seed funding for new women-led news ideas. It seeks to spotlight the creative assets of women to help address issues of opportunity, innovation, recruitment and retention of women in journalism.
    For more information: Point of contact: Jan Schaffer Phone: 202-885-8100 or go to New Media Women 
    
    

23. StreetShares Commander’s Call Veteran Business Award

    Provides a finance products focused on the military and veterans market including small business grants, lines of credit, factoring, and social-impact investing.
    Benefits: Receive between $1,000 - $5,000 in grant funding.
    Grant award target characteristics: This veteran-run and focused funding source based outside of Washington, D.C., offers unique financial products for America’s veterans by capturing the social loyalty that exists within the military community and harnessing that trust to de-risk financial transactions.
    For more information Phone: 800-560-1435 or go to StreetShares