The Business Builder subaward program is focused on supporting farm and food businesses producing in, sourcing from, and focused on local and regional markets across our six state region (CO, MT, WY, ID, WA, and WY). The funding is being distributed through competitive and non-competitive awards on a rolling basis from 2024 to 2027 through three pools of funding, each designed to address distinct regional needs and increase regional impact.

 

Focus on Place grant programs are developed in partnership with the center's state teams (Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming) and Tahoma Peak Solutions. Focus on Place grants will include competitive and non-competitive grants. A new Request for Applications will be released for each place-specific competitive grant program.

 

Focus on Topic awards align with the center’s four goals- building meat supply chain capacity; creating diverse markets for climate resilient agriculture; connecting and scaling food entrepreneurs; supporting right-size investing and infrastructure. These awards will be offered competitively and non-competitively.

Regional-Scale Projects focus on benefiting individual food and farm businesses across the region, including underinvested businesses and geographic areas across at least three of the Center’s six states. 

 

We are now accepting applications for the first Focus on Place funding pool in Colorado. The center has $200,000 available in Business Builder grants for farms and food businesses located in Colorado and expects to make between 20 and 60 awards. The Request for Applications is open through January 10, 2025. The next Request for Applications will focus on Idaho and be released in November. Additional pools of funding will be announced as they become available.

 

The center will not be offering individualized technical assistance support with the grant applications to assure impartiality in the review process. Inquiries and questions may be submitted via this form. 

 

We will be hosting a series of information sessions and office hours to answer folks' questions:

·        Colorado BizBuilder Small Grant General Information Session 2 – Wednesday November 6th, 6pm – 7pm REGISTER HERE

·        Colorado BizBuilder Small Grants Office Hours Session 1 – Monday December 2nd, 6pm – 7pm REGISTER HERE

·        Colorado BizBuilder Small Grants Office Hours Session 2 – Thursday, December 5th, 8am – 9am REGISTER HERE

·        Colorado Small Business Builder Final Session – Monday, January 6th, 5pm – 6pm REGISTER HERE

To learn more about the Colorado or other upcoming grant pools, visit our website and sign up for our newsletter to get the latest information as we have it.