By: Micki Vandeloo, President, Lakeview Consulting With a national focus on clean energy and zero emission initiatives, it is not surprising that the number of sources of grants for renewable energy and energy efficiency grants has dramatically increased at the state and federal level.  However, there are also some long-standing programs to help fund manufacturing renewable

By: Micki Vandeloo, President, Lakeview Consulting Training grants have long been offered by state economic development organizations and by Workforce Opportunity Innovation Act (WIOA) Centers (or Job Centers as they are called in some states.  They are also the most well-known source of funding in the manufacturing community. But today’s training grants have evolved and changed

By: Micki Vandeloo, President, Lakeview Consulting One of the longest standing funding programs for for-profit companies has been the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.  This program provides grant funding for ground-breaking research that meets two criteria: Intellectual Merit – The innovation must be ground in science. Broad Societal Benefit – The innovation must not result

By: Micki Vandeloo, President, Lakeview Consulting Ahhh, sunny California! The state with renowned wineries, sun, sand, surf and palm trees has another positive attribute – an expansive choice of grant programs for the manufacturing community! The primary activities funded in the state are recycling and clean energy manufacturing, largely due to California’s aggressive push for 90%

By: Micki Vandeloo, President, Lakeview Consulting If you are interested in exporting to diversify your markets and your revenues, there is an unknown source of state funding that you should look into – State Trade Expansion Grants (STEP) or export grants. What are STEP/Export Grants?  The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers a funding opportunity to