U.S. Small Business Administration/Office of Women's Business Ownership Federal Assistance to Conduct Women's Business Centers (WBC) to Provie Financial Counseling and other Management and Technical Assistance Services

The summary for the U.S. Small Business Administration/Office of Women's Business Ownership Federal Assistance to Conduct Women's Business Centers (WBC) to Provie Financial Counseling and other Management and Technical Assistance Services grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Small Business Administration, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

U.S. Small Business Administration/Office of Women's Business Ownership Federal Assistance to Conduct Women's Business Centers (WBC) to Provie Financial Counseling and other Management and Technical Assistance Services: The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) plans to issue Program Announcement No. OWBO-2003-019 to invite applications from eligible nonprofit organizations to conduct Women's Business Center (WBC) projects. The successful applicant will receive a cooperative agreement award to provide counseling, training and other technical assistance to women and others who want to start or expand businesses. The authorizing legislation is the Small business Act, sub-section 2(h) and 29, 15 U.W.C. sub-section 631 (h) and 656. A Women's Business Center is a 5-year community-based project that is funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration through a grant that requires matching funds. The project is a planned scope of activities that provide business skills services targeted to women and others. The project must operate as a distinct unit of the recipient's organization having its own budget for staff, facilites, equipment and resources to carry out project activities. The WBC services must include lon-term training and counseling pertaining to financial, management and markeing assistance to benefit small business concerns owned and controlled by women and others. The application period will be from February 19, 2003 to March 26, 2003. SBA Headquarters must receive application/proposals by 4:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, on the application closing date of March 26, 2003. SBA will determine the successful applicant using a competitive technical evaluation process. Applicants from state and territories without an SBA-funded Women's Business Center will receive special consideration. States and U.S. territories without an SBA-funded center are Delaware and Guam. Service areas must include financial, management, marketing, loan, eCommerce and government procurement/certification assistance. Applicants must plan to include woman and others who are socially and economically disadvantaged in the target group. The applicant may focus on specialized business categories to assist women and others who are veterans, have disabilites, are in agribusiness, in home-based businesses and those living in Empowerment Zones, rural and urban areas. SBA will require award recipients to provide content and support to the SBA-funded Online Women's Business Center (www.onlinewbc.gov) and provide training on the business uses of the Internet. Each applicant must submit a five-year plan that describes proposed fund-raising, training and technical assistance activites. A center may receive financial assistance through a five-year term without re-competition with satisfactory performance. However, the awar will be issued annually for each 12 month budget period. Award recipients must provide non-Federal matching funds as follows: one non-Federal dollar for each two Federal dollars in years 1 and 2; and one non-Federal dollar for each Federal dollar in years 3,4, and 5. Up to one-half of the non-Federal match funds may be in the form of in-kind contributions (i.e., 50% of match must be in cash). Interested parties may access Program Announcement No. OWBO-2003-019 and application material on the application opening date of February 19, 2003 at http://www.onlinewbc.gov/grants.html. Questions about this program announcement should be directed to Sally Murrell, WBC Program Manager at (202) 205-6673. Questions about budget or funding matters should be directed to Mina Bookhard, Grant Officer at (202) 205-7080.