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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.

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What you get

Pack of 6 files: 3 documents, 3 spreadsheets

Small Business Grant Application Checklist
  • Eligibility AssessmentDocument
  • Application NarrativeDocument
  • Budget JustificationDocument
  • Programme RegisterSpreadsheet
  • Requirement ChecklistSpreadsheet
  • Reporting Obligation NoteSpreadsheet

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.

Eleven programmes in, five out, ranked in a different order

What each ruled-out programme failed on, how the survivors reorder once effort is priced, and which lead time actually sets the deadline.

Small Business Grant Application Checklist
RiverThe Screen

Eligibility Assessment

Ridgemount Instruments, Inc. Eleven programmes found in a week of searching. The screen tests only binary criteria and its output is the sentence from the programme's own rules, never a fit score.

ProgrammeAwardHoursGateThe criterion that decided it
Federal SBIR Phase II, agency A1,250,000180SequenceRequires a completed Phase I award. Not eligible until Phase I lands
Economic development job-creation grant420,00095Outcome commitmentRequires 25 net new full-time jobs within 24 months. The plan supports 9
Federal STTR Phase I, agency B295,000130StructureRequires a research partner performing at least 30 percent of the work. No partner exists
Federal SBIR Phase I, agency C275,000115OwnershipThe agency elected the majority-investor authority, but the single-investor test survives it and one fund holds 54 percent
Federal rural business development grant200,00055GeographyFacility must be in an eligible rural area. Both sites are inside a metropolitan statistical area
Foundation programme grant75,00040Entity typeApplicant must be a 501(c)(3) or hold a fiscal sponsor. Ridgemount is a C corporation
What the screen was worthValue
Programmes on the list11
Ruled out on a named criterion6
Hours of drafting avoided615
At a loaded blended rate of 88 an hour54,120
Headline award value ruled out2,515,000
As a share of everything on the list81.6%

The ownership row is the shape of the mistake worth preventing. Federal small-business programmes require majority ownership and control by individuals, some agencies may elect an authority permitting majority ownership by investment firms, and inside that election a further test caps any single firm at half. Reading a summary gets you to eligible. Reading the rules gets you to ineligible in ten minutes. A fit score would have left all six of these on the list to be reconsidered by whoever had capacity that week.

RiverProgramme Register

Programme Register, ranked

The five survivors, sorted by expected net per hour of application effort. Probability carries its basis in the cell beside it, including where the basis is that there is none.

ProgrammeAwardHourspCash matchExpected netPer hour
Utility energy efficiency rebate38,000690%033,6725,612
State export development voucher25,000955%12,5006,083676
Federal SBIR Phase I, agency A305,00012014%032,140268
Accelerator non-dilutive prize50,000226%01,06448
State manufacturing modernisation grant150,0003435%150,000-2,992-88
The two orderings, which disagreeSequence
By headline award sizeSBIR I, state manufacturing, prize, utility, voucher
By expected net per hourutility, voucher, SBIR I, prize, state manufacturing
Largest surviving award305,000, which ranks third of five at 268 an hour
Best on the ranking38,000, at 5,612 an hour
Ratio between them21 times

The 150,000 state grant is the second largest award that survived the screen and its net value is negative, because a one-to-one cash match is a spending obligation conditional on winning rather than a discount on the award. It stays on the register with its number so the decision to skip it is recorded rather than re-taken next cycle. Note also that the top four maximise total expected net at 72,959 while the top three maximise the rate at 533 an hour, and neither answer is the biggest cheque.

RiverLead Times

Requirement Checklist, sorted by lead time

A deadline is not the date on the notice. It is that date minus the longest lead time on the list, and the longest one is almost never controlled by the applicant.

RequirementLead timeControlled byStatus
Federal registration and unique entity identifier4 to 8 weeksThe governmentNot started
Reviewed financial statements, two years3 weeksThe accountantPartial
Letters of support2 to 4 weeksThird partiesIn progress
Utility vendor registration and W-91 weekThe utilityNot started
Certificate of good standing2 to 5 daysThe stateDone, check the date
Indirect cost rate electionSame dayA decision, not a documentNot decided
The sequencing testAnswer for Ridgemount
Longest lead time on the listFederal registration, 4 to 8 weeks
Weeks until the next federal window closes7
ReachableOnly at the fast end of the range. Start today or target the next window and say so out loud
Items whose clock belongs to somebody else5 of 12
The blank line on the budgetModified total direct costs of 256,760, so a de minimis election at 15 percent is worth 38,514
The threshold nobody watchesA Phase I of 305,000 plus the first year of a Phase II is 930,000, which is 70,000 under. One more 200,000 federal grant that year is 130,000 over

The two numbers at the bottom are the ones that get left blank in opposite directions. Ridgemount asked for no indirect recovery, which forgoes 38,514, or 12.7 percent of the direct budget, and equals 438 hours of the same engineering labour the budget is built from. And nobody was tracking the cumulative federal total, because it is a property of the portfolio rather than of any single application, so it has no owner until a sheet becomes the owner.

Edit with AI

What's in the pack

01

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.

02

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.

03

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.

04

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.

05

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.

06

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Sources

  1. eCFR13 CFR 121.702 — What size and eligibility standards are applicable to the SBIR and STTR programs? (opens in a new tab)
  2. eCFR2 CFR 200.414 — Indirect costs (opens in a new tab)
  3. eCFR2 CFR 200.501 (opens in a new tab)

Written by

Chandler Supple

Co-founder & CEO, River

Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.

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Reviewed by

Brian Joseff, Co-founder, River

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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