Rural Business Development Grant Program

From the official announcement

The purpose of the program is to promote economic development and job creation projects through the awarding of grant funds to eligible entities. Applications will compete in two separate categories, business opportunity grants and business enterprise grants, for use in funding various business and community projects that serve rural areas. Rural public entities including, but not limited to: Towns, Communities, State agencies, Authorities, Nonprofit corporations, Institutions of higher education, Federally-recognized tribes, Rural cooperatives (if organized as a private nonprofit corporation).This program is only open to a Public Body/Government Entity, Federally Recognized Indian Tribe or a Nonprofit entity serving rural areas. For profit entities, individuals and individual businesses are not eligible to receive grants under this program. Please note the RBDG notice has two closing dates for different program types. The first closing date is June 15, 2026 and is applicable only to SECD applications. The second closing date is for the remainder of the applications and it is June 30, 2026. Please note, SECD applications also require a specific SECD application in addition to the traditional RBDG application. Complete applications must be submitted in Grants.gov by 4:30 p.m. local time on the due date. Late submissions will not be considered.