Grants for small towns and cities
What grants are available for small towns?
Small towns draw on five main sources. USDA Rural Development funds community facilities, water systems and economic development in rural places. States pass federal Community Development Block Grant money to smaller communities through their own competitions. State revolving funds pay for water and sewer projects. State agencies run grants for roads, parks, public safety and downtowns. Community foundations fund local projects inside their own region.
Last reviewed October 13, 2026.
Where the money sits
- USDA Rural Development
- The Community Facilities program funds buildings and equipment such as fire trucks, clinics, libraries and town halls in rural areas of 20,000 people or fewer. It offers grants, direct loans and loan guarantees. The smallest and lowest-income towns get the largest grant share. Water and Waste Disposal programs fund drinking water, sewer and storm drainage.
- State-run Community Development Block Grants
- Larger cities get CDBG money from HUD directly. Smaller towns apply to their state, which runs its own competition for infrastructure, housing and economic development projects. Each state publishes its own method and deadlines. Many states post their method of distribution early in the year with the scoring rules a small town needs to plan its application around.
- Water and sewer revolving funds
- Every state runs a Clean Water and a Drinking Water State Revolving Fund with EPA money. Most of the help comes as low-interest loans. Many states forgive part of the principal for small or disadvantaged communities.
- State agencies
- Transportation, parks, public safety, tourism and economic development departments each run grant cycles of their own. They are often smaller than federal programs and less crowded.
- Community and corporate foundations
- A community foundation funds projects inside its region, such as parks, libraries and youth programs. Local utilities and large employers often have foundations that give in the towns where they operate.
Find them without a grants office
Most small towns run grants from the clerk's or manager's office, alongside everything else on the desk. Quillify searches 4,400+ open grants across federal, state and private funders and shows which ones a town your size can apply for. It reads each announcement and tells you where you stand before anyone starts writing. A town clerk who also handles payroll and council minutes can see every program open to a town that size in one list without checking a dozen state agency websites.
Pick a program and Quillify drafts the application from your town's own documents, such as plans, budgets and past applications. It scores the draft against the announcement before you submit. Quillify for cities and towns.
Where to go from here
The landscape above is the same whoever you are. What Quillify does about it is not.
Related fields
- Grants for rural developmentWhat grants are available for rural communities and rural development?
- Grants for housing and homelessness workWhat funding is available for housing and homelessness programs?
All fields, or the guides.
See who would actually fund your work.
Browsing and keyword search are free, and there is no card required.