Assistance program
Microloan Program
$353.8 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Small Business Administration, Small Business Administration
- Assistance
- Formula Grants;Direct Loans
- CFDA number
- 59.046
- What it does
- To assist women, low-income, and minority entrepreneurs, business owners, and other individuals possessing the capability to operate successful business concerns and to assist small business concerns in those areas suffering from a lack of credit due to economic downturns. Under the Program, the Small Business Administration (SBA) makes loans or provide guaranties to private, non-profit, and quasi-governmental organizations (intermediary lenders) that utilizes the loan funds to make short-term, fixed interest rate microloans in amounts up to $50,000 to start-up, newly established, and growing small business concerns. The Microloan Program is to be used exclusively for working capital, inventory, supplies, furniture, fixtures, machinery, and/or equipment. In addition, the SBA will make grants to participating intermediary lenders to provide marketing, management, and technical assistance to prospective borrowers and borrowers receiving microloans. Under the Program, SBA will also provide training for intermediary lenders participating in the Microloan Program.
- Who benefits
- Small businesses, minority entrepreneurs, nonprofit entities, business owners, women and low-income, and other individuals possessing the capability to operate successful business concerns.
- Who applies
- An applicant is considered eligible to apply if it meets the definition of an intermediary lender as published in program materials, 13 CFR, and PL 102-140, and meets published minimum experience and capability requirements.
- Authorized by
- Small Business Act, Section 7(m) (15 U.S.C. 636(m))
- Program site
- http://www.sba.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.
How the money flows
Committed dollars by how this program's money is paid out.
Grants
$321.1M
91%
Loans
$32.6M
9%
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