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Startup grants for Black founders: 6 confirmed programs, and the ones that closed
By Solomon Wiesen, editor. Updated October 2026. Editorial standards | How this site is funded
As of October 2026, six grant programs for Black founders, or for underrepresented founders including Black founders, can be confirmed on their sponsors’ own websites. One is taking applications today: the Sephora Beauty Grant, which closes November 6, 2026. Most of the big names from the 2020 and 2021 wave of corporate pledges are gone or no longer restricted by race.
- Open now: Sephora Beauty Grant, $100,000, closes November 6, 2026 (beauty brands with $100,000+ revenue).
- Closed for 2026: Famous Amos ($150,000 across three winners) and amika Rooted in Growth ($50,000 each); watch for 2027 rounds.
- Gone or paused: Fearless Strivers (closed by a 2024 court settlement), Black Ambition Prize (no 2026 applications), Google Black Founders Fund.
- NYC and NYS offer training and loans for Black founders, not cash grants; CitizensNYC grants up to $5,000 are open to any owner.
Every program below was checked against its own website in October 2026. Anything that could not be confirmed there was left out, which is why the list is short.
What each confirmed grant pays a single winner
Award per winning business, as published by each sponsor. Green bars are taking applications as of mid October 2026.
The six confirmed programs
| Program | Who it is for | Amount | Timing as of October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sephora Beauty Grant (Fifteen Percent Pledge) | Underrepresented founders, Black founders included. US beauty product brands, 51% or more owned by underrepresented founders, in business at least one year, $100,000 in annual revenue | $100,000 plus pro bono consulting | Open October 6 to November 6, 2026. Winner announced early February 2027 |
| Famous Amos Ingredients for Success (with U.S. Black Chambers) | Early-stage Black-owned businesses | $150,000 in total to three winners | Closed. The 2026 round ran March 31 to June 1 |
| amika Rooted in Growth (with Fifteen Percent Pledge) | Underserved founders, Black founders included. US hair care brands, 51% or more owned by underserved founders, revenue under $2.5 million | $50,000 each to four brands | Closed. The 2026 round ran July 21 to August 21 |
| NAACP Powershift Entrepreneur Grant | “Rising and established” Black entrepreneurs | $25,000 | Not open. No date posted |
| Power Forward Small Business Grant (NAACP, Vistaprint, Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation) | Black-owned small businesses in New England | $25,000 | Described as rolling, but NAACP lists all its grant applications as closed for the season |
| Black Farmer Fund | Black farm and food businesses in nine Northeast states, New York included | Case by case. Low-interest loans and gifts | No deadline. Interest forms are under review |
Four of the six are aimed at Black owners specifically. The two Fifteen Percent Pledge programs use a wider definition: the business has to be majority-owned by founders the Pledge calls underrepresented or underserved, a group that covers Black founders along with women, Latino, AAPI, Indigenous and LGBTQIA+ founders.
None of the six funds an idea on paper. Sephora wants a year of operating history and $100,000 in annual revenue. Rooted in Growth is for hair care brands that sell, or want to sell, through professional distribution. Famous Amos comes closest to a startup grant: it describes its applicants as early-stage Black-owned businesses and has run since 2020, and the 2026 window opened March 31, so put a reminder in your calendar for March 2027.
If you sell a beauty product, Sephora’s is the application to work on this month. $100,000 is the largest single award in the table, and you apply by completing a business profile in the Pledge’s Business Equity Community before November 6.
I would treat the two NAACP rows as dormant until NAACP says otherwise. The Powershift page states that the grant “is not currently open,” and NAACP’s grants index gives no reopening date. Powershift money has been handed out at Black Entrepreneurs Day, and that event’s site still shows November 22, 2024 as its most recent broadcast.
Black women founders have two more real options from the usual lists, both open to women of any race. The Amber Grant pays $10,000 grants monthly, and the next cutoff is October 31, 2026. The Tory Burch Fellows Program takes applications from September 22 to November 17, 2026 and requires $75,000 in annual revenue; its current page describes coaching and advisors and lists no grant amount.
Still on other lists, no longer available
These are the programs other grant lists still recommend. Each one has closed, paused or changed its rules since 2023.
Fearless Strivers Grant
The Fearless Fund’s contest paid $20,000 each to four businesses at least 51% owned by Black women. The American Alliance for Equal Rights sued in August 2023. On June 3, 2024, the Eleventh Circuit ruled 2 to 1 that the contest likely violated 42 U.S.C. § 1981, the federal law against racial discrimination in contracts, and ordered a preliminary injunction. On September 11, 2024, the two sides settled, and the Fearless Fund agreed to close the contest permanently. I think that case explains the rest of this section: programs written for Black owners in 2020 now define eligibility by location or by a broad “underrepresented” category.
Black Ambition Prize
Black Ambition named a $1 million grand prize winner every year from 2021 through 2024 and says it has awarded about $13 million to 131 entrepreneurs. Its application page now says it will not accept new applications for the prize competition in 2026, with no return date. The 2025 rules let founders “from any background traditionally overlooked in venture capital funding” apply regardless of race, and the site posts a SAFE term summary next to the prize terms, so do not assume the money is a grant.
Google for Startups Black Founders Fund
Google’s Black Founders Fund page is written in the past tense. It says the fund was established in 2020 and awarded more than $40 million, and it has no application link. In March 2025 a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch the company had “not yet opened applications in the U.S. for Google for Startups Funds in 2025.” The page shows no sign that changed.
Coalition to Back Black Businesses
This American Express-backed program, run through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, gave $5,000 grants to 1,697 business owners, with $25,000 follow-on grants for a smaller group. The Foundation’s page now says the initiative “is no longer active,” and the last award it lists is dated June 21, 2023.
Comcast RISE and FedEx
Comcast RISE launched in October 2020, initially for Black-owned small businesses, and soon widened to all BIPOC owners. By its May 2025 round, the City of Cambridge’s notice offered a $5,000 grant plus services to businesses at least two years old with 100 or fewer employees, with no race requirement. The FedEx Small Business Grant Contest is retired; FedEx says it ran from 2012 through 2024.
Pages that have gone quiet
- NAACP Keep It Local Business Fund: the page describes the November 2023 round, 20 grants of $5,000.
- NAACP x Bacardi Backing the B.A.R.: the page describes round three, about ten $10,000 grants for Black-owned bars and restaurants, with applications that closed May 24, 2024.
- Fifteen Percent Pledge Achievement Award: $200,000 for a Black-owned e-commerce business with at least $100,000 in revenue. The page is still labeled 2025. If new dates appear, it becomes the largest Black-owned-only award on this page.
- BOSS Impact Fund, which made grants to Black women entrepreneurs: the site’s footer and application link both say 2024.
Pitch competitions
A pitch competition pays whoever wins the room, so count it as a long shot. BGV Pitch, from Black Girl Ventures, awards up to $15,000 after a three-minute pitch, with the audience picking the winner; applications are closed and no events are scheduled. The National Black MBA Association’s Scale-Up Pitch Challenge has a $50,000 grand prize and requires an active NBMBAA member on the team. The National Black Business Pitch gives up to $10,000 each to three Black-owned companies pitching corporate buyers, but its site still shows 2025 dates.
New York City and New York State
Neither the city nor the state runs a cash grant for Black founders. What exists is training and cheap debt. The city’s program is Black Entrepreneurs NYC, launched in September 2019, which offers mentoring and a free 40-hour startup course and pays out no money. The city’s financing page lists loans only, including the Contract Financing Loan Fund (up to $1,000,000 at a fixed rate of up to 3%, for contractors on city-funded work) and the NYC Future Fund (revenue-based loans of $25,000 to $500,000).
The state’s closest match is Empire State Development’s Bridge to Success Loan Program, open only to New York State-certified minority- and women-owned businesses. Its bridge loans run $75,000 to $200,000 for up to 24 months, to help you perform a state contract. Carver Federal Savings Bank is the participating lender for New York City. The state’s page was last updated in March 2023, so confirm with the lender that it is still writing these loans. Nonprofit lenders that serve founders of every background are listed in business funding with bad credit in NYC and NYC small business loans.
The one local grant worth knowing is open to owners of any race. CitizensNYC’s Neighborhood Business Grants pay up to $5,000 to businesses in the five boroughs that have operated for at least two years and have 10 or fewer employees. Both 2026 deadlines have passed, and the last winter cycle opened on November 3, 2025, so watch the page in early November.
The federal government will not fund your startup
The SBA says so in one sentence: “SBA does not provide grants for starting and expanding a business.” Its SBIR and STTR awards pay for research and development. The 8(a) program is a federal contracting certification and comes with no check. Grants.gov lists federal grant opportunities, and GrantWatch is a subscription database that states it does not award grants. The Minority Business Development Agency was one of the agencies a March 14, 2025 executive order directed to be cut to the minimum the law requires.
What a grant will not do
The amounts are small, and your odds are poor. When NAACP’s Keep It Local fund gave out 20 grants of $5,000 in 2023, it received more than 7,000 applications: roughly one winner for every 350 applicants. Decisions take about three months. If you need money by a date, work through the seven ways to finance a startup while you wait.
Grant money is also income. The IRS has said that a government grant received by a business “generally is not excluded from the business’s gross income under the Code and therefore is taxable,” and the Fifteen Percent Pledge warns applicants that its awards may be taxable. Set part of any grant aside for the tax bill; the startup tax section has the basics.
Where to go next
Funding without a credit check
Kiva, crowdfunding, grants and other routes that skip the score.
Frequently asked questions
Are there grants for Black-owned startups in 2026?
Yes, a few. Six programs can be confirmed on their sponsors’ sites in October 2026, including the Sephora Beauty Grant ($100,000, open until November 6, 2026), Famous Amos Ingredients for Success and the NAACP Powershift grant. Most require an operating business, not just an idea.
What happened to the Fearless Fund grant?
The Fearless Strivers Grant was closed permanently under a September 11, 2024 settlement, after the Eleventh Circuit ruled the contest likely violated 42 U.S.C. section 1981.
Does New York City give grants to Black entrepreneurs?
No cash grants. Black Entrepreneurs NYC offers mentoring and a free 40-hour course, and the city lends through programs such as the NYC Future Fund. CitizensNYC grants of up to $5,000 are open to small businesses of any background.
Are small business grants taxable?
Generally yes. The IRS treats a grant received by a business as gross income unless a specific exclusion applies.
Want to see what you may qualify for? Send one short request and a funding partner will contact you about options. This is a request for information, not an application, and approval is never guaranteed. We may be paid when you submit a request; see how this site is funded.
General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Grant terms and deadlines change; confirm them with each sponsor before you apply.
