Virginia Renewal Eneergy Fund Grants

Square Financial Services, Inc. and Square Banking are investing where traditional banks don’t. The Cornerstone Grant offers more than just money — it provides mentorship, visibility, and resources for small business owners who face barriers to funding. Four winners will receive a $10,000 grant, one year of financial guidance, and features across Square’s platforms.

VCEDA’s Coalfield Workforce Development and Training Fund is a source of loan and/or grant funds to assist with workforce development and training in the VCEDA Region. Eligible applicants for the Coalfield Workforce Development and Training Fund include for-profit enterprises or entities, governmental or corporate instrumentalities in the coalfield region of Virginia, not-for-profit enterprises or entities, nonprofit industrial development corporations, economic development authorities, or industrial development authorities. Funds may be approved as loans and/or grants. Funds may be approved and used for workforce development and training and associated costs, including costs and expenses of curriculum development, training equipment, training facilities construction, instructional materials, stipends, scholarships, tuition, internships, training or retraining instructional costs, retraining costs, recruiting expenses, job advertisements, pre-employment classes, assessments, classroom instructional expenses, process skill instruction, and/or instructor travel expenses, and costs associated with the foregoing. The program is funded from revenues that were previously generated by the Coalfield Employment Enhancement Tax Credit.

The City of Chicago helps support business and neighborhood vitality through Community Development Grant (CDG) awards. CDGs use proceeds from the 2024 Housing and Development Bond and other funding sources to support a variety of eligible, business-related investments in construction and real estate development. Large grants exceeding $5 million are intended to support eligible commercial, cultural, industrial, institutional, social service and mixed-use projects. Grants are intended to support approximately 25% of total project costs involving new construction, rehabilitation or both. Private and non-profit developers, tenants and property owners are eligible to apply individually or jointly during competitive, semi-annual funding rounds.

In order to foster job creation and economic development in West Virginia, and stimulate SBIR and STTR results across the State, the West Virginia Legislature initiated the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Investment (EII) Fund. This money is earmarked to provide a monetary award when a business successfully submits a federal SBIR or STTR proposal and receives a Phase I or Phase II award. The amount of the State matching funds awarded is dependent on the existing balance in the EII Fund at the time of application and is typically not a 100% match. There are two award periods during the year for submitting SBIR/STTR Phase I or II matching fund applications: January and July. No preference will be given to the order in which applications are received. Closed Phase I or II SBIR/STTR projects are not eligible for matching funds. In addition to these Phase I and Phase II award periods, businesses can also apply for a Phase 0 award upon submitting a Phase I SBIR or STTR proposal. These Phase 0 awards are distributed as a $2,500 grant and can be applied for during any month of the year.

The Innovate Alabama Supplemental Grant Program provides additional resources for small businesses whose proven business models and technologies are helping accelerate innovation in the state. Small businesses who have an active Phase I or Phase II Federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant are eligible for non-dilutive funding from the Innovate Alabama Supplemental Grant Program. This unique grant program provides support for recipients who do not need to exchange shares of their company for the grant. These businesses have proven through scientific review that their technologies are viable, valuable and scalable.