StartUP Grant

Get Ready to Apply

The 2026 StartUP Grant application opens September 1, 2026. While the application is not yet available, there are several things you can do now to prepare:

• Review the eligibility requirements to determine if your business may qualify.
• Gather your business formation and ownership documents and review the list of acceptable documents.
• Check that your business records are up to date and are in good standing with the state.
• Review the sample application to become familiar with similar grant questions and information requested.
• Review sample grant applications and project examples.
• Watch the grant application and FAQ videos.
• Begin planning the specific project you would fund with the $5,000 grant.
• Gather quotes, estimates, preliminary invoices, or other documentation for your proposed expenses.
• Begin drafting your Company Background and Project Narrative responses.

The online grant application will be available beginning September 1, 2026. Final 2026 grant guidelines and application requirements will be posted when the grant opens.

Read about our latest StartUP Grant winners

Update to video: Business must be formed as a legal entity.

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Looking for help to get your startup off the ground and the resources to succeed?

The CWE’s StartUP Grant Program supports startups in launching new initiatives and driving early-stage growth through innovative projects.

• Learn more in our Grant Guidelines and FAQ

Please review the application process below & prepare the company background/project information/quotes in a pdf before applying.

Application process

• There’s no rush to submit your application as soon as the grant opens. You can revisit and update your application as often as needed before submission. However, once submitted, no further revisions are allowed. Applications close automatically at 5:00:00 p.m. on Friday, September 26, 2025. If you haven’t completed your application you won’t be able to submit it.
• We require legal entity formation documentation that clearly shows business ownership and control, and that the business was formed after 9/25/2020.
  We will only accept one or more of the following:
• LLC or LLP Partnerships – Every page of your Certificate of Formation shows the company’s managers. If more than one person, you must also send your articles of incorporation, partnership agreement, or other agreement showing the percentages you each own, which must be signed and dated and sent with the LLC/LLP formation document.
• Corporation Documents – Articles of Incorporation and bylaws showing shareholders/owners
• Assumed Name Certificate (DBA) – Filed with your local county clerk – if just you, nothing else needs to be submitted with it.
• All required information and documentation must be uploaded including proposals from a vendor, quotes or estimates, preliminary invoices, etc. of what the grant will fund. Incomplete applications will be automatically rejected.
• You MUST have every question from the Company background & Project information answered. Please copy and paste the form found in the guidelines into your application. If the answers to these questions are buried in a proposal and the judges can’t find them your application will be rejected.
• Learn how to combine multiple documents into one pdf.

Page last updated 9:25 AM, August 12, 2026