How to Find Government Grants and Tenders for Your Business

The fastest way to find government grants is to search the official portal of the body that funds you: Grants.gov for US federal grants, your state’s economic development site for state money, and the EU Funding & Tenders Portal if you operate in Europe. Then filter by eligibility before you read anything else. For contracts, which are a different thing, you search tender portals such as SAM.gov in the US and TED in the EU. This guide shows where each one sits, how to tell a grant from a tender, and how to avoid wasting weeks on opportunities you cannot win.

TL;DR

• Grants give money for a project you propose; tenders (also called solicitations or RFPs) pay you to deliver something the buyer specified. Search for them in different places.
• Start with official portals: Grants.gov and SAM.gov in the US, the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and TED in Europe. Never pay a fee just to learn whether you qualify.
• In the US, federal grants for starting or expanding an ordinary business are rare. Look at R&D programs, state and local programs, and contracts instead.
• Check eligibility first, deadline second, effort third. Most wasted bids die on a rule you could have read in five minutes.
• Keep one searchable list of opportunities with a go/no-go score, so you stop re-reading the same notices.

Table of Contents

• Grant or tender: pick the right process first
• Be realistic about US federal grants for businesses
• Where to find grants: a step-by-step search
• Where to find tenders and contracts
• Finding grants in Europe
• Check eligibility before you read the whole notice
• What to prepare before you apply
• Perspective: why searching is the easy part
• When a platform makes sense
• Avoid common mistakes
• FAQ
• Sources

Grant or tender: pick the right process first

Most small business owners type “government grants” when what they need is money. Sometimes that money is a grant. Often it is a contract.

A quick test: if you would be doing something the agency wants done and invoicing for it, it is a tender. If you are asking the public body to co-fund something you want to build, test or launch, it is a grant.

The distinction matters for effort too. A grant application is a proposal about your idea and your capacity. A tender response is a compliance exercise: price, references, certificates, forms, and strict adherence to the buyer’s documents.

Be realistic about US federal grants for businesses

Before you spend hours searching, know what exists. The Small Business Administration states plainly that it does not provide grants for starting and expanding a business. Its grants go to nonprofits, resource partners and educational organizations that run counseling and training. For companies themselves, SBA points to a limited set of areas: scientific research and development (the SBIR and STTR programs), manufacturing-related programs, and export support delivered through state governments.

The Library of Congress small business financing guide adds a warning worth taping to your monitor: research who is actually providing the money, and you should not have to pay to find out whether you are eligible. Any site that charges for “secret” government grants is not offering what the official portals give away.

Congressional Research Service material also makes the point that federal grants are not entitlements for individuals. Funds are limited and competitive, so small businesses may also consider loans or SBA advisory and technical assistance.

That does not mean there is no money. It means your search should be wider than “federal business grants”:

• R&D and innovation grants, if you build technology or run research.
• State and local programs: economic development agencies, workforce training funds, energy-efficiency incentives, downtown or neighborhood programs. These vary hugely by place, which is why your own state’s site often beats national searches.
• Government contracts, which for many service, construction and manufacturing firms are the larger prize.
• Grants that flow through a prime recipient, where a state or nonprofit gets the money and passes it to businesses.

Where to find grants: a step-by-step search

1. Define your project in one sentence. “Purchase an energy-efficient kiln,” “hire and train five apprentices,” “develop a prototype sensor.” Grant databases respond to purpose, not to business type.
2. Search the federal portal by keyword and filter by eligibility. Grants.gov lets you search by keyword and by funding opportunity number, and eligibility filters show you quickly whether “small businesses” or “for-profit organizations” are allowed applicants. Many federal listings are limited to states, universities or nonprofits.
3. Move to your state and city. Search your state’s commerce or economic development department, then the city or county. Local programs often have smaller pots and fewer applicants.
4. Check industry and trade bodies. Associations in manufacturing, construction, agriculture or technology often publish program lists, and sometimes administer funds.
5. Read the notice, not the headline. Eligible applicants, match requirements, allowed costs, deadline and reporting duties are all in the notice. If you cannot satisfy one of them, close the tab.
6. Log what survives. Record the program, deadline, amount, eligibility result and the person to contact.

An important habit: write down why you rejected an opportunity. Next quarter, when the same program reappears with a new number, you will know in thirty seconds whether anything has changed.

Where to find tenders and contracts

In the US, federal contract opportunities are posted on SAM.gov, and your business generally needs to be registered there to be awarded federal contracts. States, counties, cities, school districts and transit agencies run their own procurement portals, and many of the easiest first wins for a small firm are local: smaller dollar values, simpler paperwork, buyers who want local suppliers.

In Europe the structure is similar. According to the European Union’s Your Europe service, EU public procurement notices are published on TED, the online version of the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU, where higher-value tenders appear. Lower-value tenders are usually published on national public procurement portals instead. The same page explains that you can search TED by subject, country or purchaser, use CPV classifications to find relevant notices, and must follow the tender documents closely, because errors or omissions can lead to rejection.

If CPV codes, RFx and similar terms are unfamiliar, our guide to procurement acronyms and CPV codes decodes them. For the UK’s newer procurement rules, see our explainer on dynamic purchasing systems.

Search by code, not by company description

Buyers classify what they buy. In Europe that is the CPV code; in the US it is NAICS and product service codes. Identify the two or three codes that describe what you sell, then set saved searches on them. Keyword searches on your marketing language (“solutions,” “platform”) return noise. Codes return what the buyer actually asked for.

Finding grants in Europe

If you sell or operate in the EU, or you are a US firm with a European partner, the central tool is the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. It lets you search EU calls for proposals by topic, find partners, and find calls for tenders managed by EU institutions, bodies and agencies. Each call links to programme information, eligibility criteria and guidelines for participants.

Much EU money never reaches the portal in that form. Under shared management, the European Commission and national authorities jointly manage funding, while national, regional and local administrations choose projects and manage them day to day. So for regional development or social funds, you search your national or regional managing authority, not Brussels.

Collaborative calls often need consortium partners from several countries, and sector context helps you judge which calls fit. As one example of how a technical field approaches this, see this overview of defence R&D partnerships in Europe, which is useful for understanding how calls and partnerships are framed in that area.

Check eligibility before you read the whole notice

Whatever the country, eligibility questions repeat. Public guidance from Queensland, Australia, for instance, lists business status, location and industry as typical filters, including trading history and whether the business sits in a designated area. The same logic applies in the US and EU. Run each opportunity through this list:

• Legal entity and size. Does the program define “small business” the way you meet it (employees, revenue, ownership)?
• Location. Some funds apply to a state, county, opportunity zone or region.
• Industry. Eligible sectors or codes are often named.
• Track record. Minimum years in business, past performance, prior awards.
• Registrations. Federal awards and contracts usually require registrations with an identifier; EU calls require organization registration on the portal.
• Match funding. Many grants pay a share of costs, so you must fund the rest.
• Reporting. Funds usually come with audits, claims and progress reports that cost staff time.

If you fail any single item that cannot be fixed before the deadline, stop. A useful second filter is a bid/no-bid scorecard: our bid/no-bid criteria guide gives small businesses a way to score fit, effort and odds before committing.

What to prepare before you apply

The European Commission’s guidance on the application process tells applicants to check eligibility and the chosen call’s guidelines, prepare the listed documents and templates, start well in advance and submit a complete proposal on time. The same advice works for US grants and tenders. Build a standing folder:

• Company registration documents and tax identifiers
• Registrations and identifiers required by the portal
• Financial statements and proof of insurance
• Three to five relevant references or case descriptions
• Short and long company descriptions, and CVs of key staff
• Certifications (quality, security, small business or diversity status where applicable)
• Standard answers on safety, sustainability and data handling

Then start every application earlier than feels necessary. Portal accounts, registrations and signatures take longer than writing. Public funding also comes with rules designed to ensure funds are spent transparently and correctly, so expect more forms than a private customer would ever ask for.

Perspective: why searching is the easy part

We built Better Presence after watching the same pattern in small companies. Finding an opportunity takes an afternoon. Deciding whether you can win it, assembling the documents, writing to the criteria and filing before the deadline takes weeks, and nobody on a ten-person team has those weeks. Alerts and databases tell you something exists. They do not tell you whether you qualify, and they do not do the work.

Our view is that the real bottleneck for small firms is not information but capacity. That is why we focus on eligibility checks, application preparation and filing, all under the owner’s control, with post-win reporting and claims handled afterward. And we charge a flat subscription, not a commission, so what you win stays with you.

If you are searching manually, our advice is simple: pick fewer opportunities, score them honestly, and say no often. A small number of well-prepared applications beats a long list of rushed ones.

— Matevz

When a platform makes sense

Manual searching works if you have a few hours a week and one or two target programs. It breaks down when you want to track grants, tenders, supplier registers and directories across several countries and languages.

Better Presence is an AI platform for SMEs without in-house bid or grants teams. It finds opportunities, scores your chances, assembles documents and prepares applications, then submits them under your control. Plans on the Better Presence pricing page are billed monthly or yearly:

There are no success fees. Our service is built for European markets, so US-only searches for domestic federal grants remain best served by the official portals above.

Avoid common mistakes

• Paying for access. Official grant and tender notices are public. Be wary of anyone charging to reveal eligibility.
• Applying for everything. Low-fit applications drain the same hours your best opportunities need.
• Ignoring post-award duties. Reporting, audits and claims are part of the real cost of a grant.
• Reading deadlines late. Check the portal’s time zone and submission method.
• Treating grants as the plan. Public funding is competitive and not guaranteed, so keep loans, customers and contracts in your financing mix.

FAQ

Where can I find government grants for my small business?

Start with Grants.gov for federal opportunities, then your state and city economic development sites. In Europe, use the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and national or regional managing authorities. Filter every result by eligibility first.

Does the government give grants to start a business?

Usually not in the US. The SBA says it does not provide grants for starting and expanding a business, though it supports research programs such as SBIR and STTR. Loans, state programs and contracts are more realistic routes.

Where do I find government tenders?

In the US, use SAM.gov for federal contracts and the procurement portals of your state, county or city. In the EU, higher-value tenders are on TED, and lower-value ones are usually on national procurement portals.

How do I know if I am eligible?

Read the notice for eligible applicants, location, industry, size and registration requirements. If any requirement is a hard no, move on. Never pay a third party just to tell you whether you qualify.

Sources

• Grants - Small Business Administration
• Grants - Small Business Financing: A Resource Guide, Library of Congress
• Resources for Grantseekers, Congress.gov
• Search and bid for a public contract, Your Europe
• EU Funding & Tenders Portal
• Funding, grants, subsidies, European Union
• Finding grants and business support, Business Queensland
• The application process, European Commission

Recommended

• Bid/No-Bid Criteria: A Scorecard for Small Business
• Procurement Acronyms: Decode RFx, CPV Codes, and SME Registrations
• Procurement Act 2026: Dynamic Purchasing Systems for UK Buyers & SMEs
• Ready to Use One Page Capture Plan Template for SMEs and BD Teams with AI Automation