Guidance on Establishing Client Grants and Awards (Pitch Events)

Grants for Clients or other Small Business Interests

SCORE cannot provide grants or 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 Awardee's needs).
3. The event organizer may only use local unrestricted funds to pay for the award. SCORE cannot use any SBA Cooperative Agreement Federal funds (including National Allocation) to fund the prize.
4. Any individual award may be at most $5,000. Please see the procedure for requesting checks for awardees below.
5. The award must be open to all event participants (not just SCORE Clients).
6. SCORE must ensure a written and well-defined assessment procedure for selecting awardees, including establishing scoring criteria.
7. SCORE volunteers must refrain from participating in the ultimate award selection process. In all cases, outside/third-party judges should always be used.

Procedure for requesting checks for awardees

1. Choose a Check Delivery Method: SCORE recommends mailing the award checks directly to the recipients. "Winner" Checks" may be delivered to recipients on the announcement day, but this requires additional time to coordinate with the accounting team.
2. Instruct the Awardee to submit a W-9: To protect the awardees' privacy information, please have them complete and submit a W9 through the SCORE Vendor W9 portal, giving them the instructions on the Support Center.
3. Submit Form 14: Please submit Form 14 as a check request for each Awardee with proper approval and an explanation to accounting@score.org. Please confirm the mailing address, as incorrect addresses may cause a delay in payment.

Please remember that it takes up to 10 business days for accounting to cut checks and several weeks for the USPS to deliver them. If timing is critical, please express it in the email. (SCORE can send checks on the second day at a cost of $20 per check.)