As of October 12, 2026, this review confirms one named grant opportunity with continuous applications: the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) Growth Grant, which reviews completed applications quarterly and has membership requirements. FedEx’s Small Business Grants Program is retired, Lenovo Evolve Small’s 2025 contest is closed, and other named opportunities should not be described as open without a current official application page.
That distinction matters. A program can still exist after its application cycle closes, and a notification form is not an application. This is a dated status review, not a complete grant directory or a promise that any applicant qualifies. Confirm status, fit, and submission instructions on the provider’s official page before spending time on an application or sharing financial information.
The practical goal is simple: separate opportunities you can act on now from programs you should prepare for, monitor, or remove from your shortlist.
How to tell whether a grant listing is current
Use five labels when reviewing grants for Black-owned businesses:
- Open: An official page identifies a current application cycle and provides a working application action.
- Rolling: The provider accepts submissions continuously or on an ongoing basis, even if reviews occur on set dates.
- Closed cycle: A specific application period has ended. A future cycle may or may not be announced.
- Retired: The provider says the program is no longer active.
- Status unconfirmed: Available official information does not establish a current cycle or working application path.
A roundup is a snapshot, not a live funding directory. Check the official page for the cycle year, eligibility rules, deadline or rolling status, and application action. A homepage redirect, old winner announcement, or sign-up form for future notifications does not establish an open application.
A grant name is not proof of an open grant. Require a current cycle, explicit eligibility, and a working application action before calling an opportunity open.
A current-status snapshot
The table below routes each example to a useful next step. “Next action” reflects the provider information available on October 12, 2026, not a prediction about future funding.
| Opportunity | Verified status | Who it is for | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|
| NASE Growth Grant | Rolling submissions with quarterly review | Eligible NASE members; not exclusive to Black-owned businesses | Check membership type and timing, then prepare the listed materials. |
| FedEx Small Business Grants Program | Retired after 2024 | Historical contest applicants | Remove it from an active shortlist. Do not rely on past prize terms. |
| Lenovo Evolve Small | 2025 contest closed; future-period notification option available | Businesses meeting that cycle’s location and business criteria | Use the notification option if useful, but do not treat 2025 rules as current. |
| Farm Aid grants | 2025 grantee information; no general direct application established by this page | Organizations serving family farms, including work supporting Black and BIPOC farmers | Check current instructions and confirm the intended applicant type. |
| SCORE | Ongoing mentoring and resources, not a grant | Aspiring and established U.S.-based business owners | Request mentoring or use resources. Do not count it as cash funding. |
| SheaMoisture grant references | Status unconfirmed; the named grant link did not lead to a verified current application | Historically supported entrepreneurs; current criteria not confirmed | Monitor official announcements and do not rely on historical deadlines. |
FedEx states that its Small Business Grants Program operated from 2012 through 2024 and is retired. Historical materials described cash prizes, mentoring, and print credit, but those terms are not currently available.
Lenovo’s official page describes a closed 2025 contest and offers a way to receive notice of a future application period. That contest included specified metropolitan areas, annual revenue below $7.5 million, 75 or fewer employees, and Microsoft 365 as the primary operating system. Those are historical cycle details, not current eligibility for an open application. The listed 2025 locations included Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, Houston, Washington, D.C., Toronto, and Vancouver.
SheaMoisture’s grant-program URL redirects to its U.S. homepage. Its impact material describes broader investment in underserved entrepreneurs and Black business owners, but it does not verify current availability, award amounts, or terms for the named grant programs.
Check fit before spending time on an application
Ownership identity alone rarely answers whether a business qualifies. A program may also limit location, industry, legal structure, business age, revenue, employee count, membership, or applicant type.
Start by asking who receives the money. The direct recipient may be an individual business, a nonprofit, a service organization, or a community group. Then compare the applicant’s facts with every stated requirement, confirm the current cycle, and verify the submission mechanism.
Lenovo’s 2025 contest illustrates layered eligibility. A business could meet the revenue limit but still fall outside the listed locations, exceed the employee limit, or fail the Microsoft 365 condition. Farm Aid illustrates a different distinction: its 2025 grantee information documents grants to organizations serving family farms, including organizations working with Black and BIPOC farmers. It does not establish that an individual farm can directly apply for every grant described there.
If ownership documentation, nonprofit status, or demographic eligibility is unclear, do not infer qualification. Record the unresolved question and ask the provider or assign a human reviewer before marking the applicant eligible.
Treat recipient type as a separate field from ownership identity. A Black-owned farm, a nonprofit serving Black farmers, and a community organization may all support the same population but have different application rights.
NASE Growth Grant: a concrete readiness example
NASE describes its Growth Grant as an award of up to $4,000 for eligible members. It is not exclusive to Black-owned businesses. Applications may be submitted at any time, and completed submissions are reviewed quarterly.
Annual, veteran, and gold members may apply immediately. Monthly members generally need 90 days of membership before their applications are considered. A monthly member enrolled for 75 days should resolve the timing issue before assembling an application rather than assume an exception.
The official page lists uses including marketing, equipment, software, websites, training, conferences, office repairs, and part-time hires. It excludes existing debt and rent or mortgage payments. The listed materials are a grant-use statement, business plan, recent tax return or profit-and-loss statement, and business photo. Do not transfer these requirements to another grantmaker.
NASE says selection considers business need, planned use of funds, likely impact on growth, and supporting information. An award is not guaranteed and may be less than requested. NASE also notes that awards may be taxable. Ask a qualified tax professional how that may apply to your circumstances.
Readiness sequence: confirm membership category and duration; map the proposed expense to a permitted use; assemble the four listed materials; then submit through NASE’s official process. If the membership waiting period is not met, keep the application in a not-ready state and confirm timing with NASE.
A repeatable method for checking grant listings
A manual review can establish a useful record even when no provider API, export, webhook, or automated application-cycle feed has been verified. Keep a private tracker if it contains applicant details. ClickUp consulting is optional workflow support for designing an internal recordkeeping process, not a grant-provider integration.
Separate three records:
- Program: the provider’s named opportunity.
- Cycle: one application period, such as Lenovo’s 2025 contest.
- Observation: what an official page said at a particular retrieval time.
One observation should represent one check of one source page. Do not combine program history, applicant data, and summary statistics in one row. Preserve prior observations when a page changes.
The following is an illustrative observation record, not data retrieved from a live provider page:
{
"program_id": "lenovo_evolve_small",
"cycle_id": "lenovo_evolve_small_2025",
"observation_id": "lenovo_evolve_small_2025_2026-10-12T10:00:00Z_hash123",
"observed_at": "2026-10-12T10:00:00Z",
"source_url": "https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/evolvesmall/",
"status_candidate": "closed_cycle",
"cycle_year": 2025,
"application_action_candidate": "future_cycle_notification",
"review_status": "human_confirmation_required"
}The proposed observation key includes the program, cycle, retrieval time, source URL, and content hash so that repeated checks and changed page versions remain distinct. This is an illustrative data model, not a provider schema. If several reviewers or processes can write concurrently, enforce uniqueness in the database or use a transactional upsert. A read-then-insert check alone is not race-safe.
Use simple rules for fixed questions: whether a date is in the future, revenue is below a stated threshold, or a location appears on a published list. AI can help locate candidate wording, but a human must interpret ambiguous eligibility language. Keep tax returns and other sensitive applicant documents out of public editorial workflows.
Funding is not the only useful support
SCORE offers free, confidential mentoring for aspiring and established U.S.-based business owners, with virtual and in-person options. SCORE does not provide grants or loans. It also offers workshops, webinars, courses, articles, guides, templates, and mentor matching. Fees may apply to some educational programs, so check the terms of the specific activity.
Black business owners can also use the SCORE and U.S. Black Chambers mentoring pathway to request mentor matching. Treat this as mentoring, not funding. For agriculture-related work, review Farm Aid’s current instructions and recipient type before pursuing a grant. A farmer served by a grantee organization is not automatically the direct grant applicant.
A short pre-application checklist
Submit only when the official-source, current-cycle, applicant-fit, permitted-use, and application-path checks pass. If one remains unclear, pause, contact the provider, or keep the listing in monitor-only status.
- The provider page is official, and the cycle year and deadline or rolling status are clear.
- The named applicant and intended recipient match the program’s rules.
- Every mandatory condition has been checked, including location, business type, ownership, membership, revenue, and employee limits that apply.
- The proposed expense is permitted, and the award form and required documents are clear.
- The application action works. A redirect, past-cycle page, or notification form is not being mistaken for an application.
- You have saved the rules and submission confirmation, and independently checked any unexpected request for sensitive information or payment.
Bottom line: NASE is the confirmed rolling application in this review, subject to its membership and application requirements. FedEx is retired, Lenovo’s 2025 cycle is closed, Farm Aid’s documented grants are organization-focused, and uncertain listings should remain unconfirmed until an official current application page establishes otherwise.