Grant Spotlight: USDA Rural Business Development Grant

Occasionally on Rural Resurrection, we spotlight a few grants that are available to rural communities throughout the Midwest. Usually, we are talking about a specific project and mention how a grant has helped that project become a reality. But sometimes the grants themselves need attention.

Rural Resurrection has highlighted a number of USDA programs over the years? That’s not so much due to my previous ties to USDA Rural Development, but moreso how helpful the grants, programs, and information can be to rural communities.

So let’s heap another post about one of their grants onto the pile of other posts about USDA-RD on this website. Let’s talk about the Rural Business Development Grant.

What is the Rural Business Development Grant?

The purpose of the Rural Business Development Grant program is to help promote economic development and job creation in rural areas through the awarding of grant funds to eligible entities for use in business development projects. The grant program has two separate categories that funds can be awarded, business enterprise grants and business opportunity grants.

Here’s a listing from the USDA website of the different ways the grant funds can be used.

• Training and technical assistance, such as project planning, business counseling and training, market research, feasibility studies, professional or/technical reports, or producer service improvements.
• Acquisition or development of land, easements, or rights of way; construction, conversion, renovation of buildings; plants, machinery, equipment, access for streets and roads; parking areas and utilities.
• Pollution control and abatement.
• The capitalization of revolving loan funds, including funds that will make loans for start-ups and working capital.
• Rural distance learning for job training and advancement for adult students.
• Rural transportation improvement.
• Community economic development.
• Technology-based economic development.
• Feasibility studies and business plans.
• Leadership and entrepreneur training.
• Rural business incubators.
• Long-term business strategic planning.

• Community economic development.
• Technology-based economic development.
• Feasibility studies and business plans.
• Leadership and entrepreneur training.
• Rural business incubators.
• Long-term business strategic planning.

Application window is now open for @usdaRD Rural Business Development Grants. Applications are due by 4:30 pm local time on February 28, 2024. More info https://t.co/w2WnntyBPF pic.twitter.com/eTz1TFgHcm

— Rural Development Iowa (@RD_Iowa) December 5, 2023

Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants for this grant are not the businesses themselves. It actually needs to be a public body/government entity, an Indian tribe, or a nonprofit entity primarily serving rural areas. Of course, as with most USDA-RD funding opportunities, the benefitting communities are limited to rural areas or towns outside the urbanized periphery of any city with a population of 50,000 or more.

Applying

First, check out USDA’s page on the Rural Business Development Grant program. As with any grant program, there are a number of requirements your project must meet and a number of different aspects about the program your community should know about before considering applying for funding.

Then reach out to your local USDA Rural Development office to talk about your potential project. Local USDA-RD representatives are the best resources to find your way through the funding process through USDA. If you don’t know where your local office is located, check out the State Offices page on their website. From there you can drill down to your state office’s page and find the local office for your community from there.

Grants featured in Grant Spotlight posts are also on the Rural Resurrection Tool Kit page. For more grant opportunities, check out the Tool Kit page.