NY Small Business Funders Collective Announces Grant Opportunity

to Help Local Entrepreneurs Join the Great Ownership Transfer

Awards for “Successful Succession” adds to $2.2 million already granted

New York, NY (October 16, 2026) - With demographic shifts dramatically reshaping every aspect of the economy, the NY Small Business Funders Collective (the Collective) today launched a grant program to promote successful succession models for small businesses in New York City, where 38% of business owners are expected to retire within the next 10 years. 

In making grants available to nonprofits supporting the local business community, the Collective, including JPMorganChase, M&T Bank, Principal® Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, Santander Bank, MetLife Foundation, Capital One, and BankUnited, hopes to expand opportunities for historically marginalized entrepreneurs, investors, and operators who face barriers to acquiring, growing, and sustaining small businesses during the unprecedented ownership transition that will see approximately 12 million U.S. businesses change hands over the next decade. By supporting successful succession, the Collective aims to help preserve jobs, maintain community-serving businesses, strengthen local economies, and expand pathways to business ownership and wealth creation.

With reports showing one-third of all U.S. business owners have no formal succession plan and another 22% simply plan to close when they're ready to retire, the need and opportunity are stark. Solopreneurs, the NY region’s fastest growing small business segment, are the least likely to have stable transition plans in place. And with business closures outpacing openings in three of the last five quarters, the stamina needed to withstand current pressures means many postpone succession planning efforts.

To address these issues, and the opportunities they present, the Collective is focusing its third RFP on interventions that build pipelines of transition-ready businesses and prepared capital-ready buyers, as well as strengthen the systems that help businesses and buyers connect with each other. Beginning today, nonprofits and their partners can apply to the “Successful Succession Grant Program” for projects that support entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA), employee ownership conversions, worker cooperatives, valuation enhancement, acquisition-readiness programs for prospective buyers, community-centered search funds, and others initiatives that prevent small business closures, preserve jobs, and widen avenues of opportunity for a diverse group of players to buy, sell, inherit, and operate thriving enterprises in their local community.

The eight funders of the Collective shared the following joint statement:  

“Much has been said about the great wealth transfer underway. This moment presents a significant opportunity to expand who participates in wealth creation and ownership. Growing the number and diversity of people who are well-positioned to buy, sell, or strengthen the systems that support successful ownership transitions is a practical way to ensure broad participation in this unprecedented moment. Since its founding, the NY Small Business Funders Collective has sought to match moments of pressure with moments of innovation, lifting up the nonprofit ecosystem that supports local small business. This is again one of those moments, and we are proud to support efforts that keep small businesses thriving for the next generation.”

Applications for the Successful Succession Grant Program open October 16, 2026 and are due December 11, 2026. Those interested in learning more can visit www.nysmallbusinessfunders.org to obtain grant guidelines, application link, and details on our October 29 virtual information session.  

A Collaborative Effort for Collective Impact

The NY Small Business Funders Collective is a group of philanthropic entities coming together to strengthen the local small business ecosystem across the New York region. Funders of the Collective share the belief that entrepreneurship is a powerful lever for innovation, community vibrancy, and economic development. Through pooled grantmaking, the Collective aims to change ecosystems and increase opportunity by creating thriving local economies with and for those who live, work, and are rooted in our communities.

The Collective is a fiscally-sponsored project of Philanthropy New York.

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