Guidance on Establishing Client Grants and Awards

Grants for Clients or other Small Business Interests

SCORE cannot provide grants or any form of financial assistance to SCORE clients. SCORE is not registered as a grant making agency and it is not within the scope of SCORE's mission to grant any funds, including restricted and unrestricted funds, to individual clients or other small business interests.

Awards for Educational Events

SCORE may establish awards to incentivize participation in educational events. For example, establishing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards for a business-pitch competition where participants learn how to create the ideal business pitch for their business. However, any established award MUST meet the following requirements:

1. The award must be associated with an educational event (see example above).
2. The award must be for a predetermined and fixed amount (SCORE cannot provide an award based on the need of the awardee).
3. The award must be paid with unrestricted funds. SCORE cannot use any SBA Cooperative Agreement Federal funds (including National Allocation) to fund the award.
4. Any individual award may be no larger than $5,000.
5. The award must be open to all event participants (not just SCORE Clients).
6. SCORE must ensure that there is a written and well-defined assessment procedure for selecting awardees including establishing scoring criteria.
7. SCORE volunteers must avoid being part of the ultimate award selection process. In all cases, outside/third-party judges should always be used.