NORA Façade RENEW Program

The Signage Improvement Program is a grant available to developers, business, and commercial building owners in Oxford, AL that wish to improve their signage. The program is divided into two types of funding for either a “brick and mortar” business or a mobile unit. The “brick and mortar” fund has a total pool of $7,000 and the mobile unit has a total pool of $3,000. The program is a 70/30 grant that may not exceed the amount of $1,000 per address, per year for the “brick and mortar” category and mobile units may not exceed the amount of $500 per unit, per year for the “mobile unit” category. Applicants may not apply for both, but only one category.

The KC Small Business Grant provides established small businesses in Kansas City, Kansas with a one-time grant of up to $10,000 to help offset expenses that support expanded daily operations and business growth. Administered by the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City's Department of Economic Development, the program is designed to stimulate economic growth, attract new investment, and strengthen neighborhood vitality by supporting existing businesses that are primed for expansion. To be eligible, a business must be located in Kansas City, KS, have fewer than 25 employees, and have been operating for at least one year. Grant funds may be used for renovation costs (such as sheetrock, flooring, and painting), façade improvements, inventory, equipment, and marketing (including webpages and signage). Certain business types are ineligible, including home-based businesses, liquor stores, payday loan businesses, hookah and vape shops, and new businesses operating less than one year.

The Lifting Up Small Businesses in the Bronx grant program awards a total of $145,000 to 26 Bronx small businesses each cycle, including 25 grants of $5,000 and one $20,000 grand prize. Administered by the Bronx Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Optimum Business, the program is designed to strengthen the borough's small business ecosystem, empower local entrepreneurs, and foster broader economic growth across Bronx neighborhoods. Beyond the cash grant, grant recipients who are current Bronx Chamber of Commerce members receive a complimentary 6-month extension of their membership, while recipients who are new to the Chamber receive a full year of complimentary membership. As part of the application, business owners must describe how the grant funding would help their business grow and how it will strengthen the community the business serves. To qualify, applicants must operate a business with a brick-and-mortar location in a Bronx community that Optimum serves, employ 10 or fewer people, have been in operation for at least one year, and be in good standing with all federal, state, and local laws and taxing jurisdictions. Bronx Chamber of Commerce membership and Optimum Business customer status are not considered in the evaluation, and grants are distributed by check to selected recipients.

The LA County Sidewalk Vending Cart Program provides mobile food and merchandise vendors operating in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County or within the City of Los Angeles with free California Retail Food Code-compliant food carts, along with accompanying grant funding to support business formalization. Administered by the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) in partnership with the Los Angeles City Community Investment Department (CID), the program distributes 341 fully permitted carts at no cost while supplies last. Vendors operating in the unincorporated areas of LA County may also qualify for a $5,000 grant to cover operational costs and permitting fees (available alongside fruit, hot-holding, cold-holding, or integrated grill cart awards, but excluding the raw-to-cooked cart), or for a $500 grant for merchandise-only vendors (selling goods exclusively, no food or beverages) to help with business registration and compliance costs. The program distributes five types of California Health Code-compliant carts, each approved by the LA County Department of Public Health: Cold-Hold Carts (for commercially prepackaged ice cream), Cut Fruit Carts (for assorted fresh-cut or whole fruit and prepackaged low-risk items), Hot-Holding Carts (for prepackaged hot foods and precooked items from a permitted kitchen or commissary), Integrated Grill Carts (for reheating and serving precooked meat and items prepared off-site), and Raw-to-Cooked Carts (a newer, advanced cart equipped to safely handle, store, and cook raw proteins and ingredients on-site). Awardees receive multilingual technical assistance throughout the process to help secure the required Compact Mobile Food Operations (CMFO) Health Permit from the LA County Department of Public Health (with a 75 percent CMFO permit subsidy from DEO), along with the Sidewalk Vending Registration Certificate (for unincorporated areas) or the City of Los Angeles Sidewalk and Park Vending Permit, and related requirements such as the California Seller’s Permit, Food Handler Certificate, commissary space, and Fictitious Business Name (FBN/DBA) registration. To qualify, applicants must be at least 18 years old, live in Los Angeles County, operate a sidewalk vending business in either the unincorporated areas of LA County or the City of Los Angeles, be self-employed and operate no more than one permitted cart at any given time, vend non-prepackaged food (for the food cart program), and demonstrate the ability to transport and store the cart in accordance with California Health Code regulations. Vendors in the City of Los Angeles must additionally demonstrate direct financial impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, since that portion of the program is funded by federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) recovery dollars. Applicants cannot have previously received a code-compliant cart or equivalent equipment from any other public or government source, and only one cart will be awarded per address or applicant. The application is a two-phase process. Applicants first complete the online application for eligibility review, with notifications typically sent within 2 to 4 weeks. If conditionally accepted, applicants must then attend mandatory Sidewalk Vending and CMFO educational workshops, secure the required business documents, confirm cart transportation and storage logistics, submit the Public Health CMFO Permit Application, obtain the finalized CMFO Health Permit and sidewalk vending permit, and complete final cart pickup. The entire process from initial application to cart distribution typically takes up to 8 weeks. Applications are reviewed and scored monthly, with a lottery used when the number of qualified applicants at the same score exceeds the carts available in that month. Applications not selected automatically roll over for consideration in future months until all carts have been distributed.

Vantage Ventures provides structured, direct, hands-on support to scalable early-stage startups in West Virginia through an accelerator program that helps startups test critical assumptions, create prototypes and products, gain early traction with customers, and prepare to pitch investors. Accepted applicants to the Accelerator Program will receive up to $10,000 in technical assistance funding provided by the federal government's Economic Development Agency as well as access to free co-working space in Reynolds Hall and at Ascend WV locations across the state.