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Welcome to the official page for the Merchant Maverick Opportunity Grants Program. At Merchant Maverick, we aim to make small business easy by providing comprehensive, unbiased reviews of the software and services you need to make your business succeed. Each review on our site represents hours of research, fact-checking, and testing by our writers and experts. But we don’t draw the line at simply educating readers. Starting in 2021, we’re also here to help you finance your small business dreams. If you’re looking for information about Merchant Maverick grants or want to apply for one of our Opportunity Grants, you’ve come to the right place.
What Is The Merchant Maverick Opportunity Grants Program?
Since 2009, Merchant Maverick has specialized in the creation of fair, evaluative content. We work hard to equip small businesses with accurate information, create consistently positive outcomes for our readers, and drive positive change in the B2B space. Our content is free and available to all, and our mission is clear: to guide and empower business decision-makers with honest, accurate, and actionable information.
But let’s be totally honest, here. The economic and social landscape of 2021 is very different than anyone could have expected.
After living through the events of 2020, including a devastating pandemic, a global economic crisis, and significant calls for the dismantling of systemic racism in our institutions, we’ve come away with a new resolve around our core values. Honesty. Transparency. Integrity. Trustworthiness. Helpfulness. Fairness.
Merchant Maverick was lucky to have made it through the last twelve months relatively unscathed — at least in economic terms — and many businesses were not so fortunate. We want to acknowledge that privilege and extend it by providing financial opportunities to others. Enter the Merchant Maverick Opportunity Grants Program.
$10K Opportunity Grants For Black Female Entrepreneurs
This year, the Merchant Maverick Opportunity Grants Program will be open to businesses owned by Black women, both cisgender and transgender, and Black individuals who are femme-identified. As our latest data study, The 10 Best States for Black Female Business Owners, highlights in detail, we still have a tremendous amount of systemic racism and inequity to overcome, especially when it comes to this specific demographic.
Women are already extremely underrepresented in business ownership. Despite making up over 58% of the overall working population, women own only about 21% of the total businesses in the United States. That disparity is even more greatly pronounced when we examine the data around Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color. Even further disparate data emerges at the intersections of the Black experience and the experience of women. In fact, according to the 2019 State Of Women-Owned Businesses Report by American Express:
The gap between African American/Black women-owned businesses’ average revenue and all women-owned businesses is the greatest of any minority.
Black women account for 7% of the US population, but run only 0.74% of all employer firms in the country, though the number of firms owned by African-American women has grown by 164% since 2007.
According to the same American Express study, African-American/Black-owned businesses:
- Numbered 2,681,200 or 21% of all women-owned businesses.
- Earned average revenue of $24,000 per firm vs. $142,900 among all women-owned businesses.
- Account for the largest segment of women-owned businesses after non-minority women.
- Have demonstrated the highest rate of growth of any demographic (in the number of firms) between 2014 and 2019 and between 2018 and 2019.
Businesses owned primarily by Black women suffer from unequal access to funding. Women, in general, get a very small piece of the VC pie: according to a study conducted by PitchBook, just 2.7% of venture capital invested in the United States goes to women-owned startups. Of that 2.7%, Black women receive a mere fraction. Deeply entrenched patterns of sexism and racism have made traditional, bank/credit union loans difficult to obtain for this demographic as well, and while online lenders are making baby steps toward progress in lending equity, the landscape remains starkly inequitable.
Black, female entrepreneurs don’t have equal access to the funding resources and aid given to other business owners. Neither do these business owners have equal representation in news, print, and advertising. And Merchant Maverick wants to take a small step in changing that.Â
This year’s Opportunity grants, of $10K each, will be awarded to four businesses owned by Black women. (Black, transgender women and femme-identifying people are included in this demographic for the purposes of this grant and encouraged to apply.) Each business selected will be profiled on our site over the next year, giving the winners a chance to tell their small business story, promote their brand, and raise awareness about who they are and what they do.
The application process is pretty simple. We want to know who you are and what your business does. What do you sell? What services do you provide? Who do you employ? How does your business impact your community? The more detail you can provide, the better. We also want to acknowledge that sometimes an essay doesn’t tell the whole story, so please feel free to share other ways for us to learn about who you are, in addition to your essays.Â
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible for the grants this year?
To be eligible, your business must be for-profit and 51% owned by a Black woman (cisgender or transgender) or a Black femme-identified individual. The following industries are ineligible:
- Sex work of any kind
- Adult bookstores
- Pornography
- Sale of guns or weapons
- Marijuana and CBD sales
If you are interested in applying for a Merchant Maverick Small Business Opportunity Grant, and you aren’t sure if your business is eligible, please contact us so we can be of assistance in determining eligibility to apply.Â
Beyond the requirements listed above, there are no other restrictions on which businesses are eligible. You don’t need to have been in business for any specific amount of time, nor does it matter how many employees you have, or if it’s just you running the whole show. We’ve kept the eligibility requirements to a minimum to open this opportunity up to as many businesses that meet our criteria as possible and because we want this money to be as accessible as possible.
Merchant Maverick also wants to acknowledge that systemic racism has caused systems-impacted experiences that too often unjustly intersect with the Black experience. We want to specifically name that prior convictions or interactions with the criminal justice system are not an automatic factor for exclusion.
What can I use the grant money for?
We’re not placing a lot of restrictions on use for these grants. Women who own businesses traditionally carry many other financial loads as well, including responsibility for housing and childcare. As long as you use the money to keep your business afloat, we will consider that a proper use. Grant money can be used for the following things:
- Rent for business space
- Utilities for a business space or home office
- Payroll for self or employees
- Repayment of business loans
- Equipment for business, such as a computer, printer, oven, car, etc.
- Office supplies
- Childcare for the business owner
- Payment of business taxes
- Business travel expenses
- Renovations to office
- Advertising or marketing for your business
- Business software subscriptions
How and when will funds be distributed?
The grant evaluation and selection period opens on February 1, 2021, and will close on April 1, 2021. Funds will begin to be disbursed on May 1, 2021. Grant funds will be disbursed via checks sent through the US Postal Service.
What are my legal responsibilities if my business receives a grant?
Please note: Merchant Maverick is not a law firm and its employees are not lawyers. The information provided below is solely for educational purposes. If you need legal advice, please consult with a practicing attorney.
Congratulations, you’ve been selected to receive a Merchant Maverick Small Business Opportunity Grant! There’s so much to do now, what with getting the funds into your bank account and then kicking your goals and projects for those funds into high gear, and it’s all terribly exciting. But, you might also be wondering: Now that I have this grant, what are my legal responsibilities? After all, you want to do the right thing and make sure you dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s. So let’s take a look at what the law has to say.Â
The first important thing you should know is that a grant is not a contract. That means a grant is not legally binding. Grants are asked for and given in the hope and anticipation of specific projects being completed and the accompanying goals met. Let’s say that you gave it a go, but for whatever reason, either you weren’t able to carry through with the project or your stated goals weren’t met. While it might make the grantmaker hesitant to work with you in the future, they cannot sue you in civil court for breach of contract. If you make no effort to work on the proposed project, the grantmaker could ask for the funds to be returned to them. Even then, though, they cannot sue you for breach of contract.Â
Because grants are not legally binding, they have more flexibility than contracts do. If you get into your project and find that you need to adjust your scope, budget, or outcomes, let us know what’s going on, and we’ll work with you.
The second important thing to be aware of is the various forms of grant fraud because these are the things that will get you into trouble. Grant fraud typically takes one or more of the following forms:
- Embezzlement/Theft: Keeping the money for yourself instead of for the business.Â
- Bribery: Using the money to get somebody to do a favor for you.
- False Statements: If you deliberately lie about something. (For example, you say in your proposal that you’re a business owner, but you’re not.)
- False Claims: Billing for a service that either you didn’t provide or that you submit to multiple sources for payment (that last part is called double-dipping).
- Mail/Wire Fraud: Mail fraud is using the US Postal Service or a private or commercial interstate carrier (e.g., FedEx or UPS) to commit one of the fraudulent acts listed above. Wire fraud is using electronic transmission methods (via a phone call, fax, email, text, or social media) for the same reason. These are the big ones that can get you into a lot of hot water with the federal government.
What are my tax responsibilities if my business receives a grant?
In general, the IRS considers most grants received for business purposes to be taxable income. To what degree a grant impacts your business at tax time depends on your business’s structure. How you pay taxes as a sole proprietor is not the same as how you pay taxes as an LLC, an S corporation, as a partnership, etc.Â
However, you can use grant funds to purchase tax-deductible business items. This can include office equipment, insurance, advertising and marketing, just to list a few. Bench, a company that provides bookkeeping services to small businesses, created this handy list of small business tax deductions that you can refer to.
Also, be aware that there is still some ambiguity surrounding language in the tax code since it specifies corporations as opposed to other business structures. To be on the safe side, you should consult with a tax attorney and/or an accountant about whether or not your business needs to pay taxes on grant funds as well as what deductions you can take for items purchased with those funds.
What are my personal responsibilities if my business receives a grant?
In addition to complying with all federal, state, and local laws regarding the use of the funds, each Merchant Maverick Opportunity Grant recipient will have one additional requirement: Meet with a writer on a regular basis to share their business journey. With scheduled interviews throughout the year, Merchant Maverick would like to take readers inside of the stories of real small business owners and their experiences — trials and triumphs, seasonal challenges, observations and insights, industry-related issues, and more.
Grant recipients will be required to meet with a writer a minimum of 6 times (start and end of the year and once a quarter) for an interview and will agree to provide photographs of the business/business owner for use on the website.
Additional Grant Content
