If you searched for a grant made specifically for women over 40, or women over 50, here’s the direct answer: it doesn’t exist. Not from the SBA, not from a major foundation, not from any of the well-known women’s business grants active in 2026.
What you may be remembering is the Girlboss Foundation — the grant program tied to Sophia Amoruso’s Girlboss brand, which awarded $15,000 twice a year to women entrepreneurs in design, fashion, music, and the arts. It ran from around 2014 to 2019. It isn’t issuing grants anymore, and there’s no indication it’s coming back. If that’s what you were looking for, it’s a dead end — but not a discouraging one, because the real picture is better than the search result you were hoping to find.
Here’s the part that should change how you’re thinking about this: none of the major grants active right now put an age ceiling on who can apply. You’re not locked out of the Amber Grant, the Hey Helen Grant, or the Tory Burch Foundation Fellows because you’re 45 or 58. The only real question is whether your business meets each program’s actual requirements — revenue, time in operation, location — which have nothing to do with your age.
The data says starting later works in your favor
This isn’t a consolation. It’s a research finding.
MIT professor Pierre Azoulay and his co-authors studied 2.7 million U.S. business founders using Census Bureau and IRS data and found that the average age of founders behind the fastest-growing 0.1% of startups is 45. Among founders whose companies went on to hire at least one employee — a meaningful marker of real traction — the average age was 42. The “20-something founder” story that dominates startup media is a statistical outlier, not the norm.
AARP’s most recent workforce research found that among people 50 and older who were planning a job change in 2025, 16% said they planned to start their own business — nearly double the 9% who said the same in 2024. And Forbes reported in early 2026 that women now own more than 40% of U.S. businesses, a share that grew 12% between 2022 and 2025 — nearly double the growth rate of businesses owned by men.
None of this erases the real friction of starting later — mortgages, dependents, less runway for a business to find its footing. But it does mean the fear that funders see age as a liability isn’t backed by how the money actually moves.
The grants worth applying to in 2026
These are open to any eligible woman-owned business, regardless of age. The ones that fit a second-act founder especially well are the ones that reward exactly what years of work experience gives you: a track record, industry knowledge, and often a revenue base that a 23-year-old founder simply hasn’t had time to build yet.
Amber Grant — WomensNet. Three $10,000 grants awarded every month, plus a $50,000 year-end grant pulled from that year’s monthly winners. No age requirement, no revenue floor — it explicitly accepts pre-revenue and idea-stage businesses. $15 application fee, with a waiver available if you can’t cover it. This is the lowest-friction grant on this list and worth applying to on a rolling basis.
Hey Helen Grant. A newer program from Visionaries: $10,000 in unrestricted cash for U.S.-based, women-owned businesses under $1 million in annual revenue. The next 2026 deadline is August 30, after which awards move to a monthly cycle. Nonbinary applicants are also welcome; nonprofits are not eligible.
Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant. $5,000 for U.S.-based women entrepreneurs who are at least 18 and have been operating their business for at least a year. The 2026 deadline is September 18. That one-year-in-business requirement is a bar many second-act founders — who often self-fund the first year rather than launch cold — clear more easily than an earlier-stage applicant would.
Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program. $5,000, plus an interest-free Kiva loan and a year of structured mentorship, workshops, and a peer network. The catch — and the point — is the $75,000+ annual revenue requirement. That’s a real bar, but it’s also one that rewards an established, credible business over a pitch deck. If you’ve spent a decade in your industry before starting this business, you are exactly the applicant this program is built for.
IFundWomen Universal Application. Free, rolling, and open to businesses at any stage. Submit one application and IFundWomen matches you to active grants from corporate partners like Visa, American Express, and adidas as they become available — no age question anywhere in the form.
What to lean on that a younger founder doesn’t have
Grant reviewers are reading hundreds of applications that all say some version of “passionate first-time founder.” What you’re bringing instead:
A specific track record. Twenty years in operations, sales, healthcare, education, or whatever your career was — that’s not background noise, it’s the reason your business plan should be more credible than a founder with zero industry experience. Say so directly in your application, with numbers.
A network you’ve already built. Former colleagues, industry contacts, and clients from your prior career are a faster path to your first customers than a cold-start founder has. If a grant application asks about your go-to-market plan, this is your real answer.
The option to self-fund the early stretch. Not every second-act founder has savings to draw on, but many do — and if you can cover the pre-revenue period yourself, you clear the “in business for one year” requirements that gate some of the higher-value grants, like the Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant, faster than someone starting from zero.
Where to start this month
Apply to the Amber Grant now — it’s free of any real barrier to entry and resets monthly, so there’s no reason to wait for a “perfect” month to submit. Put the Hey Helen (August 30) and Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant (September 18) deadlines directly in your calendar. If your business already clears $75,000 in revenue, add the Tory Burch Foundation Fellows application window to your fall to-do list.
Pair every application with a free SCORE mentor — the nonprofit, SBA-affiliated mentoring network has no age requirement and no cost, and a second pair of eyes on your application from someone with grant-review experience often makes the difference. If you need capital beyond what grants provide, an SBA microloan (up to $50,000, issued through community-based nonprofit lenders) is typically more accessible than a bank loan for a newer business.
The grant you were searching for by age doesn’t exist. The ones that don’t care about your age, and that reward exactly what a longer career gives you, do. Apply to those.
For the full landscape of grants available to women-owned businesses at any stage, see our complete guide to grants for women-owned businesses in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a grant specifically for women over 40 or 50?
Not from a major, currently active program. Search interest in this phrase likely traces back to the Girlboss Foundation, which awarded $15,000 grants to women entrepreneurs from around 2014 to 2019 and became associated with the broader “girlboss” search term — but it stopped issuing grants years ago and is not a live application option in 2026. The upside: while no program is built exclusively for this age group, none of the major grants (Amber Grant, Hey Helen, Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant, Tory Burch Foundation Fellows, IFundWomen) impose an upper age limit either. Your age is not a disqualifier on any of them.
Is it harder to get startup funding as an older founder?
The data doesn’t support that fear. Research from MIT and the U.S. Census Bureau found the average age of founders behind the fastest-growing 0.1% of U.S. startups is 45, and the average age of founders who go on to hire employees is 42. AARP reports that among 50-plus workers planning a job change in 2025, 16% were planning to start their own business, up from 9% in 2024. Grant reviewers and lenders weigh your business plan, your numbers, and your relevant experience — not your birth year.
What grants can women over 40 or 50 actually apply for in 2026?
The Amber Grant from WomensNet (three $10,000 awards monthly, no age or revenue requirement, $15 application fee), the Hey Helen Grant ($10,000, deadline August 30, 2026, businesses under $1M in revenue), the Her Agenda Breakthrough Grant ($5,000, deadline September 18, 2026, requires at least one year in business — a bar many second-act founders already clear), the Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program ($5,000 plus a year of mentorship, requires $75,000+ in annual revenue), and IFundWomen’s free Universal Application, which matches you to corporate-partner grants on a rolling basis.
What funding options exist besides grants for women starting a business later in life?
SCORE, a nonprofit partner of the Small Business Administration, offers free one-on-one mentoring from experienced business volunteers — no age restriction, no cost. The SBA microloan program provides up to $50,000 in financing through community-based nonprofit lenders, often with more flexible underwriting than a traditional bank loan. Both are worth pairing with grant applications rather than treating as a fallback.