By: Katie WolpertMarch 24, 2026

Spring Forward: Small Business Grant Opportunity

As we step into Spring, Woodlands Community Lenders is offering a $500 reimbursable grant to small businesses in our service area (see county list below) to help you prepare for the growth this next season brings. Whether it’s elevating your marketing efforts to reach new or encourage repeat customers, purchasing that piece of equipment that will help you increase efficiency, or training your team to improve performance, we’ve got you covered! 

Deadline to apply: 9:00am, April 1, 2026

Click Here to Apply

No match required. This is a quick turnaround small grant opportunity. Awards will be announced on April 3rd, 2026.

Examples of eligible uses include marketing expenses (sandwich boards, newspaper or social media advertising, brand merchandise i.e. hats, t-shirts, mouse pads, etc.), capital purchases, staff training, hiring sign-on bonus, inventory, contractors, technology upgrades, market materials (tents, tables, display fixtures), and more.

Ineligible expenses include general ongoing business costs (rent, payroll, utilities, etc.), staff parties, alcohol, lobbying or personal items. If you have a question about whether your idea is eligible, please contact mjefferson@woodlandswv.org.

An eligible idea must also meet each of the following criteria:

To be eligible your business must:

  1. Be located within a WCL Service Area County (see below)

  2. Submit a complete application by 9am on April 1, 2026.

To receive awarded funding you must:

  1. Sign a grant contract stipulating conditions of the award

  2. Spend all awarded funds by April 22, 2026

  3. Submit dated receipts for all reimbursable funds by 5pm on April 24th, 2026.

 

Click Here to Apply

*WCL Service Area
Barbour

Grant

Greenbrier

Nicholas

Pendleton

Pocahontas

Preston

Randolph

Tucker

Upshur

Webster

This grant opportunity is brought to you by Woodlands Community Lenders in partnership with Appalachian Community Capital and made possible by the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Initiatives Grant.

News

Mon Forest Towns Initiative Awarded $1.89 ARC POWER Grant

Elkins, West Virginia, October 16, 2024 — Woodlands Community Lender, on behalf of the Mon Forest Towns Partnership, has been awarded $1,897,136 by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to ...

Read More
Stories

The Slow Rescue of the Opera-less Opera House of Thomas, WV

feature image courtesy Alpine Heritage Preservation Imagine you are an enterprising settler in the highest and wildest part of the WV wilderness in the early 1890s. The booming coal ...

Read More
News

Firefly Commons Apartments Completed

Our new Firefly Commons project in Elkins is complete and fully leased. The 16-unit development is made up of six duplexes and a 4-unit townhome. After many years of ...

Read More