Assistance program
DoD Mentor-Protege Program
$51.4 Million committed in FY2023–FY2026
- Agency
- Immediate Office of the Secretary of Defense, Dept of Defense
- Assistance
- Not Applicable
- CFDA number
- 12.022
- What it does
- The Department of Defense (DoD), Mentor Protege Program was established in October 1991 to expand and enhance small business participation in DoD contracting opportunities and expand the technical capabilities, capacity and overall growth of socio-economic small businesses. The focus of this program is to also develop participants to expand, improve, diversify and innovate the Department's Supply chain. Focused on assisting small businesses to perform on both prime and subcontracts towards being competitive, best in class partners in the defense industrial base in obtaining and performing on DoD subcontracts and serving as suppliers on DoD contracts. This assistance listing seeks to expand participation in the program, provide developmental assistance that will strengthen and build the Department's supply chain, national security and partners in the DIB. Awards fund the mentor's labor costs, assistance in mentoring received by Historically Black Colleges and Universities, MInority Serving Institutions, Apex Accelerators (formerly Procurement Technical Assistance Centers), Manufacturing Innovative Institutions and other direct costs (on a case by case basis, example travel).
- Who benefits
- Not Applicable
- Who applies
- Eligibility criteria for this assistance: 1. Small Disadvantaged Businesses (owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals) 2. Women-Owned Small Businesses 3. Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses 4. Historically Underutilized Business Zone Businesses 5. Native Hawaiian Organization, Native American Tribe 6. A small business concern that is a non traditional defense contractor or currently provides goods or services in the private sector that are critical to enhancing the capabilities of the defense supplier base and fulfilling key Department of Defense needs 7. DoD approved Mentor Companies
- Authorized by
- 10 U.S.C. § 387 Sub Chapter 1
- Program site
- http://www.Business.Defense.gov ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments