BUSINESS GRANTS
SMALL BUSINESS GRANTS IN MINNESOTA The number of companies and outright scams—all selling information about “government grants” or guides to government grants—is growing through Internet spam and telemarketing. All of these offers are built on the false idea that individuals are eligible to receive thousands of “unclaimed” dollars from the government—money that can be used for almost anything, including personal expenses or starting a business. Television ads and Internet sites use the word “grant” to describe any kind of payment from the government. Most of the “hidden government money” comes from public assistance for low- income families, the elderly or the disabled. These are largely entitlement programs—not competitive grants. For individual benefit programs, the federal government provides comprehensive information at USA.gov-Government benefits , Grants.gov, and GovLoans.gov. In reality, both federal and state governments make their investments primarily through direct loans—not grants—to individual businesses or through grants to third-party organizations that use the funds for loan programs for end-user businesses. There are, however, a few grant programs of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development that make grants directly to businesses: the Minnesota Job Creation Fund; Launch Minnesota Program; Export Financing Programs; the State Trade and Export Promotion Program; as well as the Dairy Business Planning Grants and Specialty Crop Grants of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture; and the Environmental Assistance Grants of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Information on these appears in this publication in the section on “Financing / Tax Credits, State Sources”.
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