Motor City Match Grant

The City of Framingham is accepting applications for its Microenterprise Assistance Program. The Microenterprise Assistance Program will provide ten one-time grants of $7,200 to eligible businesses. All start-up businesses and existing businesses must be physically located in Framingham and will be required to submit a business plan when applying for a Microenterprise grant. Funds can be used for payroll expenses, leases, business mortgages, or purchasing new equipment to expand business offerings.

The city of Haysville is offering a cash incentive to new businesses coming to the area. New restaurants can receive $20,000 to put toward the business within city limits. The $20,000 grants would be paid to the business over the first three years of operation, when small businesses tend to struggle the most.

The Merchants Fund Emergency Grant provides Philadelphia small businesses with up to $20,000 in grant funding to help recover from hardship caused by qualifying events such as fire, natural disaster, extreme acts of physical vandalism, utility failure, or highly disruptive public works projects. Administered by The Merchants Fund, the program prioritizes small and micro business owners that have been historically undercapitalized and cannot withstand a prolonged loss of revenue, with a preference for businesses earning less than $500,000 in annual revenue. To be eligible, businesses must be located in Philadelphia, generate annual revenue of $1.5 million or less, and demonstrate financial need for the grant. Ineligible business types include professional services such as medical, legal, insurance, graphic design, architecture, real estate, child and elder care, and nonprofit organizations. Applicants whose emergency does not clearly fall into one of the qualifying categories are encouraged to contact The Merchants Fund directly to confirm eligibility before applying.

The City of Houston Economic Development Grants program provides flexible grant funding to qualifying organizations whose projects help stimulate business and commercial activity within Houston. Administered by the Mayor's Office of Economic Development, the program is intentionally adaptable. Rather than a standardized application with fixed award amounts and deadlines, each grant is individually negotiated and structured to align with the city's broader economic priorities and initiatives. This flexibility allows funding to be tailored to a project's unique scope and impact, but it also means there is no single application form or set timeline. Instead, applicants move through a multi-stage process: an initial outreach to the Economic Development Division, a project presentation and scoring against the city's priorities, cross-departmental discussions about layering the project with other city plans, a formal application including a financial pro-forma, and ultimately approval by City Council.

This program assists in the creation of new small businesses or the physical expansion of existing small businesses in targeted commercial corridors by providing forgivable loans to qualified applicants. Eligible Applicants include new small business owners occupying vacant space, or expanding small business owners. The business must be located in a first-floor storefront unit with emphasis to the Creative Economy.