SBA Announces Funding Competition to Organizations Providing Federal Procurement Training To Veteran Entrepreneurs

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2017  The U.S. Small Business Administration today announced the Veteran Federal Procurement Entrepreneurship Training Program (VFPETP-2017-01) funding opportunity competition.  The funding will be given to a U.S.-based organization to expand an existing program providing federal procurement entrepreneurship training to veteran-owned small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, while building the capacity of VOSBs and SDVOSBs to compete for and win federal contracts.

The funding opportunity, offered by SBA's Office of Veterans Business Development, will enable one awardee to deliver, and scale as required, an existing veteran federal procurement entrepreneurial training program to VOSBs and SDVOSBs who intend to pursue, or are already engaged in federal procurement.

SBA anticipates awarding one cooperative agreement from this announcement. A maximum of $500,000 in funding is available annually for up to four years. The period of performance consists of a base period of 12 months and three option periods of 12 months each.

The VFPETP funding competition is open to eligible nonprofit or private sector organizations with a demonstrated history of providing quality entrepreneurship and/or business management training for VOSBs and SDVOSBs.  Other criteria to be evaluated will include performance metrics, outcomes of the existing program and the ability to scale operations of the existing program to serve SDVOSBs and VOSBs from all U.S. states and territories.

"Federal agencies are expected to conduct at least three percent of their procurement actions with SDVOSBs. This three percent goal is our floor, not our ceiling," said Barbara Carson, Associate Administrator for SBA's Office of Veterans Business Development.  "Fortunately, we've surpassed this three percent minimum over the past four fiscal years, and I look forward to working with the successful awardee to ensure we continue this progress."

OVBD will host a webinar on Wednesday, May 24 at 2 p.m. EDT to provide additional information and address any questions related to the VFPETP grant announcement. To ensure your questions are addressed during the webinar, please submit them to Jerry Godwin at [email protected] no later than Friday, May 19, by 4 p.m. EDT. 

The webinar link, call-in number, and access code are listed below:

USA Toll-Free: (888) 958-2144 or (646) 746-3008
Access Code: 1183010
Web Conference URL: https://www.connectmeeting.att.com

Information, including a transcript of the webinar once it's available, will be posted on grants.gov and www.sba.gov/ovbd. 

Eligible, interested parties should submit their application for funding opportunityVFPETP-2017-01 through the grants.gov web portal at www.grants.gov. Applications submitted via other media or sites will be rejected and will not be evaluated.

Applications must be submitted via grants.gov no later than Friday, June 8 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. 

About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 and since January 13, 2012, has served as a Cabinet-level agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation.  The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses.  Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, the SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. Visit the website at www.sba.gov.

Contact: Carol Chastang (202) 205-6987 
Internet Address: http://www.sba.gov/news  
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Release Number: 17-33

SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration

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