2026 RFP

GRANT GUIDELINES

TIMELINE

  • Eligibility Survey & Grant RFP Release: October 16, 2026

  • Virtual Information Session for Applicants: October 29, 2026, 11:30 am ET; register via Zoom

  • Applications Due: December 11, 2026 

  • Finalist Interviews (virtual): March 1-5, 2027

  • Funding Decisions: Week of April 12, 2027

  • Agreements and Initial Award Disbursements: by April/May 2027

Note: Applicants may direct questions to inquiries@nysmallbusinessfunders.org. In addition to the October 29 virtual information session, the Collective will publish and update an FAQ on the website to reflect questions submitted by applicants. 

HOW TO APPLY

After reviewing this information, if you believe your project is a good fit, please visit www.nysmallbusinessfunders.org and click on the “apply” link which will take you to the online application portal, beginning with an Eligibility Survey. The website also has links to an Application Preview, Scoring Rubric, and other information.

WHO WE ARE

More than 227,000 small businesses employ 1.6 million workers In New York City alone, creating jobs, opportunity, and wealth. A 2020 research study on local small business needs conducted by Next Street found that an estimated 68% of revenue generated by local businesses stays within the community, making them a vital economic driver. However, a capital gap of $45 billion annually exists and the gap is magnified for marginalized entrepreneurs, for whom equitable access to social, financial, and knowledge capital is often out of reach.

The NY Small Business Funders Collective (the 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.

With a commitment to increasing equitable access to social, financial, and knowledge capital for historically excluded small business owners in the region, the Collective is launching its third Request for Proposals.

OUR WORK IN THE MOMENT

Business ownership drives and creates game-changing wealth for people, families, and whole communities. For those seeking to address systemic biases in our economy, focused attention on widening avenues for business ownership should be a top priority. And with the Great Ownership Transfer upon us, this issue is more relevant – and can have more impact – than ever. Similarly, doing nothing will widen the wealth and opportunity gaps already devastating our future.

The Great Ownership Transfer & Other Matters of the Moment

Current data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that over half (52.3%) of U.S. employer-businesses are owned by people who are at or near retirement age (55+). Nationally, an estimated $10–14 trillion in business assets and 12 million businesses will change hands over the next decade through business-owner retirements. 

With this generational shift, known as the “Great Ownership Transfer”, the time has never been more ripe to address the patterns and biases that lock certain people out of business ownership, keep businesses from reaching meaningful valuation, and create instability for local legacy businesses trying to keep their doors open.

At the same time, a series of intersectional issues are compounding the risk:

  • A third of U.S. business owners have no succession plan, are not connected to a ready market of buyers, or are unsure what will happen to their business when they retire; another 22% plan to simply close,

  • Formal networks connecting buyers with retiring owners skew heavily toward those already positioned to benefit, replicating the same access patterns that created the wealth gap in the first place,

  • Rising tariffs, rents, fees, and health insurance costs are squeezing already-thin margins — leaving less capital, time, and certainty available for the succession planning that keeps ownership, and wealth, in place,

  • Entrepreneurs from undercapitalized and historically excluded communities face double the loan-denial rate of well-resourced peers, making financing to acquire a business that much more out of reach,

  • Immigration enforcement is putting immigrant-run businesses at heightened risk of sudden closure and loss to their families and communities, and

  • A new SBA rule bars green card holders from qualifying for SBA-backed loans entirely, impacting plans to start, maintain, or grow a business.

And locally:

  • In New York City alone, where legacy businesses comprise the very fabric and identity of many of our neighborhoods, 38% of business owners are expected to retire within 10 years (JPMC Survey, 2026),

  • Non-employer solopreneurs, NYC’s fastest growing small business segment, are least likely to seek and survive an ownership transition,

  • Business closures across NYC have outpaced openings in three of the last five quarters, with mom-and-pops squeezed by surging insurance and utility bills, higher prices for materials and supplies, persistent rent pressures, and the mounting burden of navigating permits, regulations, and fees (CUF, 2026), and

  • City Council has held joint-oversight hearings on the impact of ICE actions on local business, treating it as a documented and material economic threat.


According to Ownership Capital Lab, two converging systemic risks will shape the future of workers, communities, and markets: the historic extremes of wealth inequality and the wave of retiring business owners. “Without intentional investment, many of these firms will be absorbed by absentee acquirers, further concentrating wealth, or will shutter, taking jobs and local economic anchors with them. Together, these dynamics create a pivotal inflection point marked by concentrated business ownership, widening wealth gaps and regional economic fragility–conditions that demand coordinated, scalable solutions.”  

A SOLUTIONS STRATEGY

Local businesses circulate three times more money in the community than absentee-owned corporations. Furthermore, proven tools like employee ownership preserve local economies by building more durable businesses, with higher sales and productivity, faster growth, and fewer layoffs. If just 10% of the companies changing hands over the next 3-5 years transitioned to employee ownership, 57,000 small businesses and 2.6 million jobs would be preserved, supporting families and communities across the U.S (Ownership Capital Lab, 2025). In fact, a national study by Rutgers and Bank of America showed that 72% of employees would rather work for an employee-owned (vs. investor-owned or state-owned) company.

According to New Majority Capital, “business ownership is one of the largest drivers of wealth in the U.S., yet is often inaccessible to historically underserved entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) expands access by enabling people to purchase proven, cash-flowing businesses, creating wealth faster, preserving jobs, and keeping local businesses rooted in their communities.”

Building on a track record of collaboration, innovation, and partnership, the Collective is embarking on a new round of grantmaking with small business succession planning and acquisition as its focus. As done in two previous rounds, the Collective seeks to discover and support proximate, community-led initiatives involving a wide range of cross-sector players. 

Specifically, this Request for Proposals aims to reveal and fund innovative solutions that build pipelines of transition-ready businesses and capital-ready buyers, as well as strengthen the systems that help businesses and buyers connect with each other. By opening up access to deal flow and capital, the Great Ownership Transfer is an opportunity for historically excluded entrepreneurs to increase participation, preventing closures, keeping wealth local, and preserving jobs and community value.

In detail,

  • The Collective’s intention is to provide multi-year flexible funding to partnerships led by  nonprofit organizations;

  • Partnerships should be working with and serving small businesses; while we do not specify a cap for business size, the Collective has a particular interest in serving micro-business and small business with annual revenues under $1MM

  • Partnerships must be led by nonprofit organizations, who serve as the primary applicant, and may include corporate partners, other nonprofits, and/or city and state agencies

In the application, you will be asked to further detail characteristics of the small businesses your partnership serves.

The Collective is seeking timely and innovative interventions that strengthen the region’s economy by broadening access to business ownership for historically excluded founders, including both aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs. Cognizant of the generational transfer of wealth now underway, the Collective will partner with nonprofit intermediaries who are:

  • Building a pipeline of transition-ready businesses (supply),

  • Building a pipeline of prepared, capital-ready buyers (demand),

  • Strengthening the systems that help businesses and buyers connect,

  • Embracing community-based alternatives such as Employee Ownership and Entrepreneurship through Acquisition as tools to avoid closure/vacancies and thus preserve community and jobs

In keeping with our collaborative approach in previous rounds of grant-making, successful applicants will be a lead 501(c)3 organization who is working in partnership with at least one other community group and can demonstrate proximity, trust, and history with the communities it serves.

To be eligible, a 501c3 nonprofit must apply and lead the partnership. Partners to the lead applicant may include, but are not limited to: 

  1. A corporate partner (i.e. fund, capital provider, etc.)

  2. A public agency

  3. Small businesses 

  4. Nonprofit partner(s)

Applicants may prioritize one or some of the following solution areas in support of historically excluded entrepreneurs in the five boroughs of NYC.

A SAMPLE OF POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS/INTERVENTIONS:

  1. CAPITAL: Unlock capital products specifically designed for ownership transfers (ETA, ESOPS, worker ownership conversions, community search funds, etc.)

  2. AWARENESS: Expand knowledge of ownership alternatives such as Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA), Social Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (sETA), Employee Ownership (EO), and other community-based options that carry significant benefits for owners, workers, and community members

  3. RESOURCES: 

    • Coordinate networks & facilitation between owner/buyer (with cultural alignment)

    • Upskill TA providers (so they can help small businesses improve their valuation, gain awareness about options like employee ownership, and position themselves for a meaningful exit)

    • Bring TA and outside experts such as accountants, attorneys, and mediators to the table

      • Culturally competent advising, planning, and legal services

      • Guard against one-size-fits-all models and predatory practices

      • Community-based, multilingual, trusted providers

The Collective holds no monopoly on good ideas and welcomes additional interventions.

Our desire is for the nonprofit partner leading the application to operate at the local level, and be intimately familiar with the challenges historically excluded entrepreneurs face in their community. We are most interested in hearing about your unique approach, and what data/research grounds your work. One element of the evaluation process utilizes a scoring rubric, which is available as part of the proposal packet. Reviewers will include funders of the Collective as well as experts in the small business ecosystem. 

The Collective is committed to learning and positively impacting the small business ecosystem in NYC. Our tradition is to fully engage with the cohort of grantees to discover and learn about new ideas, solutions, and pathways to access in the realm of succession planning/acquisition. Awardees will work with the Collective to select measurable objectives for their project. Awardees will also participate in a learning cohort facilitated by the Collective for the grant period, offering the opportunity for peer networking and shared best practices among lead and partner organizations. 

Modeling the collaboration we seek from applicant groups, the Collective exists through the commitment of its eight funders who themselves are engaged in a participatory learning and impact journey.

WHAT WE’LL DO

Terms: Multi-year Partnership Grants, pending funds in Year 2

Size of Awards: Expected to range between $100,000-$150,000 annually

  1. Award disbursements are anticipated to be in annual installments, with interim and final reporting required.

  2. The Collective seeks to fund one project per borough but remains open to organizations that serve multiple boroughs and will ultimately fund those projects that best fit the grant guidelines.  

  3. Preference will be given to lead organizations that are a 501c3 with diverse leadership that represents the populations they serve. We are also interested in partner organizations with diverse leadership teams.

  4. Applicants must demonstrate ability to identify and/or foster a collaboration with partner organizations that serve small businesses owned by historically excluded entrepreneurs.  

WHO’S ELIGIBLE

To be eligible for a grant award, the LEAD APPLICANT must be: 

  • A nonprofit organization with evidence that it (a) has been recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Code; (b) is fiscally sponsored by a Section 501(c)(3) organization; (c) or is a governmental unit within the meaning of Section 170(c)(1) of the Code;

  • Located within and/or primarily serving residents of Bronx, Kings, Richmond, New York, Queens counties.

Additionally:

  • While the lead applicant must be structured as a 501c3, partner organizations are not required to have 501c3 status. 

  • All industries and business sectors within the small business ecosystem are welcome to apply.

Who’s Exempt/Ineligible Uses:

  • Organizations may only serve as a lead applicant for one partnership, but members of a partnership may be included in more than one application

  • Partnerships may include capital providers, but funding from this grant may not be used for direct lending or capital purposes.

  • This grant opportunity is primarily intended to support programmatic service delivery partnerships. 

  • A secondary purpose to effect policy and systems change is welcome, but proposals that are solely focused on policy or systems change will not be considered. 

  • Funds may not be used for any direct lobbying activity or inherently religious activities or programs.