Evanston Entrepreneurship Support Grant

Driving organic traffic from search engines can be a meaningful way to support or grow your business because it can consistently deliver people interested in your products or services to your website…for free. We will help. This program aims to support Black-owned or minority-owned (BIPOC) businesses by providing free SEO evaluations and advice. There is currently no cap on the number of possible marketing grant recipients per month. Grantees will be selected on a rolling basis. There is no application deadline. This grant provides free marketing services only. There is no longer a cash component to this grant.

Getting access to capital is hard enough as a woman, and even harder at the very beginning stages of starting a business. The Women Founders Grant awards $5,000 merit-based grants to women founders and business owners.

The city of Salem offers a matching grant program in the Riverfront Downtown area to businesses that need help financing construction or renovation projects. Companies can get up to 50% of their eligible project costs covered, up to $300,000.

A skilled workforce is essential to accelerating our economic recovery. The Chicagoland Chamber is committed to helping the region’s companies equip their employees with the skills needed to grow, thrive, and succeed. Since 2019, more than 93 companies have participated in this program, resulting in 3,325 employees expanding their skill sets. Whether you work with one of our training providers, have an existing trainer you like to work with, or conduct internal training using company staff, you may be eligible to receive a 50% reimbursement through this program.

The Digital Sandbox KC Grant provides early-stage technology entrepreneurs and startups in the Kansas City region with up to $20,000 in proof-of-concept funding to support the development and validation of new digital technology innovations. Administered by the Technology Venture Studio within the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) Innovation Center and supported by partners including the Missouri Technology Corporation, the program is designed to help founders advance early-stage concepts toward commercialization and prepare them for follow-on funding. Awardees are selected quarterly and, in addition to funding, receive critical project feedback, mentorship, and industry support. Funds may be used for proof-of-concept needs such as project personnel and consultants, market research and validation, equipment, prototyping, and beta testing. Notably, the program does not fund businesses directly — instead, approved projects are funded through a contract between Digital Sandbox KC and a project vendor selected by the client business, and that vendor cannot hold any ownership stake in the company. The program broadly serves new innovation in information technology, with past recipients working in areas such as mobile apps, big data, software platforms, hardware, tangible products, and health care IT.