Small Business Grant Application Checklist
Three documents and three sheets, built so the eligibility screen runs before any drafting and returns a criterion rather than a fit score.
Free download · No account needed
The expensive mistake in small-business grant work is not writing badly. It is writing at all, for a programme that was never eligible. Every checklist on this subject is a list of programmes, and a list of programmes guarantees that mistake. It sorts by how much money is on offer and says nothing at all about who is allowed to ask for it, which is the only question that decides where the next hundred hours should go.
Ridgemount Instruments is an invented instrument maker with eleven programmes on its list after a week of searching. Six were ineligible on a criterion published in the programmes own materials. A Phase II needing a Phase I first. An STTR with no research partner. A grant requiring 25 net new jobs against a plan for nine. A rural programme against two metropolitan sites. A foundation grant wanting charitable status. And a federal programme where one fund holds 54 percent.
Screening those out first avoided 615 hours of drafting and removed 2,515,000 of headline award value, which is 81.6 percent of the list. Then the five survivors get ranked by expected net per hour rather than by award size, and the order reverses. The largest surviving award ranks third of five at 268 an hour. The second largest is negative, because its one-to-one cash match is a spending obligation conditional on winning rather than a discount on the award.
What's in the pack
Programme Register
Every programme with its gate result, the criterion quoted from the programme's own rules, the deadline, and the ranking. Ruled-out rows stay in, because the criterion is what tells you which one becomes live when a site moves.
Requirement Checklist
Sorted by lead time rather than due date, with the party who controls each clock named. Separates items that are documents from items that are decisions, which cost no time and block everything downstream.
Reporting Obligation Note
What each award commits you to after the money arrives, the thresholds that switch new obligations on without anybody deciding anything, and the ongoing compliance cost in hours so it lands in the expected net.
Eligibility Assessment
The screen written up with a gate type beside each criterion: sequence, structure, geography, entity type, ownership, outcome commitment. Sequence gates mean later. Geography gates usually mean never.
Budget Justification
Fills in the indirect cost line first-time applicants leave blank, with modified total direct costs computed correctly, and the per-line derivation reviewers score for reasonableness.
Application Narrative
Structured on the programme's published evaluation criteria with sections sized to their weights, because three reviewers score independently through that list rather than reading a story.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Take the blank Word and CSV files with no account, or install the pack in River and give it your programme list, entity type, ownership percentages and site locations.
- 2
Screen against the current rules, not a summary
Test only the binary criteria and record the sentence that failed each one. Read to the end of any ownership paragraph, because the exception frequently contains a further test.
- 3
Rank the survivors by expected net per hour
Write the basis beside every probability, treat a cash match as a spending obligation, and print both orderings so the disagreement with award size is visible.
- 4
Work the deadline backwards from the longest lead time
Federal registration takes weeks and must be active before submission. Subtract it from the window and say whether the date is reachable before anybody starts drafting.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Three documents and three sheets download as Word and CSV files with no signup and no credit card. Edit with AI is the optional path where the agent screens your own list against each programme's current rules. Everything else sits in the template index.
What format are the downloaded files?
Word documents (.docx) for the Eligibility Assessment, Application Narrative and Budget Justification, and CSV (.csv) for the Programme Register, Requirement Checklist and Reporting Obligation Note. They open natively in Word, Pages, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers and Sheets.
Why does venture funding disqualify us from some programmes?
Federal small-business programmes require a concern to be more than half owned and controlled by individuals. Some agencies may elect an authority permitting majority ownership by investment firms, but inside that election no single such firm may own more than half. One fund at 54 percent fails while the summary reads as eligible.
What is the indirect cost line worth?
An applicant with no negotiated federal rate may elect a de minimis rate of up to 15 percent of modified total direct costs, with no documentation required. In the worked example that is 38,514, or 12.7 percent of the direct budget, left behind by a blank cell.
Does taking federal money create an audit obligation?
Above a threshold, yes, and it is cumulative rather than per-award. Spending 1,000,000 or more of federal awards in one fiscal year triggers a single audit for that year. It is a property of the portfolio, so nobody watches it unless a sheet does.
Does this write the application for me?
It structures one, for a programme that passed the screen. It will not draft a narrative for a programme with no gate result, which is the whole point. It also gives no legal, tax or accounting advice and makes no representation that you are eligible or that a cost is allowable.
How does this relate to raising equity?
Non-dilutive money buys time rather than replacing a round, and the ownership screen depends on a cap table you trust, which comes from the startup cap table template. If the alternative is a bridge, price both before choosing.
Screen the list before you write anything
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open it in River and have it test each programme against its own current rules.
Edit with AI