MillerCoors Program Celebrates $1.4 Million Awarded in Business Grants

Celebrating 10 years of economic empowerment through its MillerCoors Urban Entrepreneurs Series (MUES), MillerCoors has awarded $1.4 million to emerging minority businesses. Throughout the years, 100 businesses have received grants to either start up or further develop their business.

The MUES program launched in 1999 to stimulate economic growth and development in urban communities. The program continues to grow, providing additional Web-based educational resources including Webinars, blogs and business advice from national judges and past winners.

Continuing its commitment to small business development, MillerCoors announced the winners of its 2009-2010 MUES Business Plan Competition. Rising to the top of a highly competitive field were five dynamic businesses who competed for an opportunity to win a total of $200,000 in business grants. The winners will be honored during a special reception hosted at MillerCoors' new corporate headquarters in Chicago.

To acknowledge the 10th anniversary, the top winner received a grant of $100,000, with four runners-up receiving grants of $25,000 each to contribute to either the start-up or expansion of their business.

This year's competition is set to launch May 1.

For more details, visit www.millercoorsmues.com

Trinity Wall Street Awards Business Grants In Africa and New York City

Trinity Wall Street, via New York's Trinity Church, has awarded more than $500,000 in funding for the first quarter of 2010. The funds are being allocated to many causes, including micro-enterprise development in Burundi (Africa), and small business loan disbursement in New York City.

They have awarded the Province of Burundi with $175,000 to be distributed over two years to train women in micro-enterprise development. The grant will allow for the development of 10 women loan groups that will include training in business planning, financial management and group management.

They also awarded the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union with a $60,000 grant to provide loss reserves for small business loans in the Lower East Side and Central Harlem in order to create new jobs and retain existing jobs.

For more details about the grants, visit:
www.trinitywallstreet.org/action/grants/

Local Businesses Can Benefit From Obama's School Grants

According to the U.S. Department of Education, President Obama has recently announced $900 million in grants as a part of his 2011 budget to help improve student achievement at 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. Most, if not all, of the schools are in urban areas.

The budget includes a $100-million program aimed at increasing college-level, dual-credit and other accelerated courses in schools, allowing students to earn a high-school diploma and an associate's degree simultaneously.

What does this mean for business owners?

This means that local businesses that sell educational services and products can benefit too. The grant money will be allocated in many ways, such as to hire tutors, to buy educational software and materials, to upgrade old technology (computers, etc), to hire local motivational speakers, to hire scholarship experts and college consultants, and more. The grant money may even be used to hire interior decorators and architects to make the schools look more modern.

Do your research, and find out if there are schools in your area that will receive assistance from the grants. If so, find out what the schools' needs are and position yourself to offer relevant services. There will, no doubt, be many contracting and purchasing opportunities in the near future.

Zell Lurie Institute Awards $39,000 In Grants to Business Competition Winners

The Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, a program at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, has recently announced the winners of its 2009-10 Eugene Applebaum Dare to Dream grant program.

The program encourages teams to evaluate and accelerate the development of their unique business ideas. Designed to stimulate students' entrepreneurial spirit, students are required to meet deadlines to produce deliverables that guide them through the business development path that includes shaping opportunities, formulating and assessing potential businesses, and planning and launching these businesses.

It consists of three different grants:

The Business Design Grant is designed for students who have a brand new technology, an idea for a product or service, or have identified a market need but are not sure if a business can be created around it.

The Assessment Grant is geared toward students with a proposed business that sells a unique product or service with a clear market need.

The Integration Grant is for student teams that have a feasibility study that concludes that a proposed business is viable and ready to launch.

This year, the program awarded over $39,000 in grants.

For more information and/or to apply for next year's competition, interested ones should visit www.zli.bus.umich.edu/events_programs/dream_grant.asp.