What Types of Funding are Available for For-Profits and How Do I Find Them?
So, there are definitely funding options available for for-profit businesses, and I want to share my experience with the three that I found most popular in the education consulting space along with sharing some tips on how to find the funding opportunity that is right for you and your business.
The three funding opportunities I found most often were pitch-style funding opportunities, business grant opportunities and philanthropy funding opportunities.
Pitch-Style Funding: Now this isn’t an opportunity for those who just want to fill out an application and be done. A pitch competition is a serious commitment because you have to have a very thoughtful, crafted pitch of who you (and your business) are, what your mission is, and how that aligns to the organization that's hosting the pitch competition. So that can be a pretty intricate process.
Business Grants: The second type of funding opportunity I want to share (and that I personally lean towards) are business grants. There are a number of different business grants provided by a number of different organizations that you could qualify for that don't always require the intricacy that a pitch-style funding opportunity would. A business grant will require quite a bit of work up front, but it is often a bit more straightforward than that of a pitch-style funding opportunity.
Philanthropic Funding: This style of funding is often more long-term than the other two. With philanthropic funding, you can often renew your funding with the funder because along with supporting your business, they are interested in building a strong relationship with you, your growth and your business. Because of this, philanthropy funding opportunities usually require more ‘reporting back’ to your funder about how you and your business are doing and what you are using your funding for.
Now before I give you some examples, I want to touch on how important it is to review the funding guidelines for each opportunity. I have found that with the pitch-style of funding opportunity, the person or business requesting funding is often required to give a stake of equity in their business in exchange for the funding. If it’s not equity, the funding can also actually turn out to be a loan that the fundee must pay back in a certain amount of time (as is the case with the Echoing Green incubator, which is popular with folks in the education sector).
So I just want you to be cognizant of the funding terms, and what exactly you are expected to provide in exchange for funding, because for me personally, I’m not interested in giving anyone a stake in my company. Once I gained clarity on that, I then knew that a lot of those pitch-style funding opportunities were not a fit for me, and switched my focus to business grants. If you Google ‘Business Grants’ you’ll find a ton. I mean, even the SBA, the Small Business Administration, provides business grants that don’t require an exchange in equity.
Another thing to note is that it’s important to remember that each funding opportunity will have different parameters and requirements for applying and (hopefully receiving) the funding past the funding itself. Some may require a mentorship to be carried out between you and a member of the funder’s team. Others may require you to notify the funder of what exactly you are spending your funding on. So it’s really important to be aware of the relationship the funder is expecting (and has likely outlined) after you receive the funding.
How do I find Funding Opportunities?
Alright, now we’re getting into the nitty gritty, and I know you might be expecting some elaborate hoops to jump through, but it’s really as simple as a Google Search! Just start by doing some research on different funding opportunities at the local and national levels.
Now when you’re looking for business grants specifically, in my opinion, I recommend getting as niche as you can. What I mean by that is getting super clear on what you are trying to get funding for and what other organizations support your mission. So for example, I could do a pretty surficial search for grants for ‘business grants for black women in entrepreneurship’ or ‘business grants for black women in education’. Or I can get even more niche and specific by searching and applying for grants specifically for ‘black women entrepreneurs leading businesses in the education sector focused on diversifying education leaders.’ Notice the difference? One was just purely an identity marker versus another is the identity marker that I hold as an entrepreneur including who my target client is and the mission of my business.
A great reason to get niche with your business grant searches and applications is that the more niche the business grant focuses, the better positioned that you are to be a fit.
Now, once you’ve found the funding opportunity you want to apply for, I want you to treat the organization/business you are applying for funding from like a new client avatar. So when I say client avatar, if that language is new for people I mean a client profile.
So when you choose your funding opportunity, you want to take the time to research them so that you can deeply and intimately know how to inform your messaging and your approach. You actually want to deeply and intimately know the funder, know their priorities, know their goals. You want to be able to speak to that and align yourself with why you should be chosen for that funding opportunity. You do not want to copy and paste the same few paragraphs you used in your last grant application that was a little similar to this new one because you want to show the funder that you can align with their mission. By doing so, you are better positioned for the grant opportunity.
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