Minority-owned businesses, including Black entrepreneurs, could obtain $10,000 grants from Citizens Bank.
The Providence, Rhode Island-based bank is offering funding through its annual Small Business Community Champion Award Contest. Prospective recipients should apply soon: the contest ends at 5 p.m. Eastern Tuesday, February. 7.
All told, the grants will provide $10,000 each to 30 small businesses, including 10 minority-owned and 10 women-owned businesses, where Citizens operates. The funding, now in its sixth year, aims to recognize small businesses’ positive contributions to their communities, per a news release.
To date, the program has awarded almost $1 million, helping 82 small businesses to grow, offer valuable products and services to customers, and support community growth. Citizens Bank is part of Citizens Financial Group Inc., which calls itself one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions. It reported assets of $226.7 billion in late December 2022.
Grants can be a plus for small businesses because they offer funds that don’t have to be paid back, unlike loans. Companies can use grants for several purposes, including expanding their establishments, working capital, recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, or helping benefit their community.
Sometimes grants are offered to stimulate minority entrepreneurship in a community. Minority firms finding it difficult to gain capital to start up or expand may also turn to grants to access such funding.
For the Citizens contest, businesses must answer questions on how they will use the award to strengthen and sustain their business and how they would use it to support their community’s growth and evolving needs and behaviors.
Eligible applicants should be for-profit small businesses with at least five full- or part-time employees or contractors for no less than 51% of any calendar year with up to $3 million in annual revenue.
Businesses applying must be either a Citizens Bank account holder in good standing as of January 24, 2023, or based in the bank’s footprint, which includes several states. The rules, eligibility, submission requirements, and more information on the grants and contest can be found here.