Congressional Research Service IF12402.4 (The SBA’s Small Business Development Centers Program)
Summary
This Congressional Research Service report by Adam G. Levin, updated July 13, 2026, describes the SBA’s Small Business Development Centers, which provide free counseling, training and resources to small business owners in partnership with state governments and higher education institutions. Congress authorized the program in the Small Business Development Centers Act of 1980, and a 1984 law required centers to match their grant amount from nonfederal sources. The SBA reports 63 recipient organizations or lead centers and more than 900 service centers. The cost to administer the program was approximately $165 million in FY2024, and the CARES Act provided $192 million for SBDCs.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Cite this document
“Congressional Research Service IF12402.4 (The SBA’s Small Business Development Centers Program).”
Original at www.congress.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/congressional-research-service-if12402-4-the-sba-s-small-business-deve-6dd9bee7f1/
, SHA-256 72355ea29329da5e057077b8b8015169641b71ae153b15463469c9b57c1d2f37.Full text
Updated July 13, 2026
The SBA’s Small Business Development Centers Program
Overview improve access to entrepreneurial education and assist with
The Small Business Administration’s (SBA’s) Small business formation and expansion.
Business Development Centers (SBDCs) provide free
counseling, training, and resources to small business
History
owners and entrepreneurs. SBDCs operate in partnership The SBA created the University Business Development
Center pilot program in 1976 to provide counseling and
with state governments and higher education institutions.
training for small businesses at centers within universities.
This flagship technical assistance program evolved from
when the SBA began operating in 1953, when the agency P.L. 96-302, the Small Business Development Center Act
of 1980 (Act), provided statutory authorization to the
directly provided management and training services. The
SBDC program. According to discussions in Senate
provision of these services through third-party partners
began in the 1970s. Congress authorized the SBDC committee hearings, SBDCs were meant to “rely on the
private sector primarily, and the university community, in
program in 1980 in the Small Business Development
partnership with the SBA and its other programs, to fill
Centers Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-302).
gaps in making quality management assistance available to
The services currently offered by SBDCs include the small business owner.” Although most SBDCs have
continued to be affiliated with universities, the act
• One-on-one counseling: SBDCs offer individualized authorized the SBA to provide funding to state governments
counseling sessions with business advisors who have and agencies, and to partnership entities formed by
experience in a range of industries. These advisors help universities and state agencies.
business owners with tasks such as developing a
business plan or finding funding sources and identifying In 1984, the Small Business Development Center
Improvement Act of 1984 (P.L. 98-395), required SBDCs,
growth opportunities. Some SBDCs offer virtual
as a condition of receiving SBA funding, to contribute a
counseling services accessible via phone, email, or
matching amount equal to the grant amount. The match
video conference.
must be provided by nonfederal sources and be comprised
• Training and workshops: SBDCs offer a variety of of not less than 50% cash and not more than 50% of
training programs and workshops to help entrepreneurs indirect costs and in-kind contributions.
and small business owners build their skills and
knowledge. These programs cover topics such as In 2015, the RISE After Disaster Act of 2015 (P.L. 114-88)
marketing, finance, and human resources. expanded the SBDC program’s reach by authorizing
• Access to resources: SBDCs provide access to a range SBDCs to provide assistance outside an SBDC’s state,
without regard to geographical proximity to the SBDC, if a
of resources, including market research data, industry
small business requiring assistance is located in a
reports, and other business tools.
presidentially-declared major disaster area. The law also
To access SBDC services, small business owners can visit authorized the SBA to provide additional financial
the SBA’s website to find their local SBDC and schedule an assistance to SBDCs, on a competitive basis, to assist small
appointment with a business counselor. businesses in a presidentially-declared major disaster area.
According to the SBA’s FY2025 Congressional Budget Federal Funding and Management
Justification, there are “63 recipient organizations” or lead The SBA’s Associate Administrator for Small Business
SBDCs, that receive grant funds from the SBA. There is at Development Centers is responsible for general
least one lead center in each state (with four centers located management and oversight of the SBDC program, through
in Texas and five in California), the District of Columbia, a cooperative agreement with each institution of higher
Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, education or state agency that receives federal funds to
and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. operate an SBDC.
Nineteen lead centers are located at Minority Serving Federal funding is provided in the form of grants to
Institutions (MSIs), including, Historically Black Colleges institutions of higher education or state agencies (“resource
and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving partners”) that operate SBDCs. Grantees receive “initial”
Institutions (HSIs). A lead center is tasked with establishing funding grants that have 24-month project periods, and may
“a network of partner service centers to cover its service renew grants by submitting a “Letter of Intent to Renew” to
area.” There are currently more than 900 service centers. a Program Manager at the SBA’s Office of Small Business
Aside from SBDCs, the SBA also funds technical Development Centers. The SBA typically intends to award
assistance at Women’s Business Centers (WBCs), Veteran continuation funding to SBDCs unless there are
Business Outreach Centers (VBOCs), and SCORE chapters performance issues, such as improperly used funds.
(a mentoring program formerly known as the Service Corps
of Retired Executives). Collectively, these providers seek to
https://crsreports.congress.gov
The SBA’s Small Business Development Centers Program
As codified at 15 U.S.C. §648(a)(4)(C), overall program Outcomes and Performance
funding is allocated on a pro rata basis among the states To measure the effectiveness of SBDC services, the SBA
(including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin has historically tracked and reported client outreach and
Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth levels of service, such as numbers of clients served and
of the Northern Mariana Islands). There is a statutory training events held, as well as the number of new
formula to allocate program dollars, “based on the businesses started and jobs supported as a result of SBDC
percentage of the population of each State, as compared to activities. However, SBA’s FY2026 and FY2027
the population of the United States.” If SBDC funding Congressional Budget Justifications have provided less
exceeds $90 million, the minimum funding level is “the information.
sum of $500,000, plus a percentage of $500,000 equal to
the percentage amount by which the amount made available According to SBA’s FY2026 Congressional Budget
exceeds $90 million.” The Consolidated Appropriations Justification, SBDCs were responsible for 16,653 new
Act, 2026 (P.L. 119-75) provided $150 million for the business starts in FY2024, 4.8% below the SBA’s target
SBDC program. However, the Trump Administration’s that fiscal year. The SBA’s FY2023 performance metrics in
FY2027 budget request proposed no funding for the SBDC its FY2025 Congressional Budget Justification state that
program. SBDCs “helped clients start 20,738 new businesses,
counseled more than 325,773 unique clients, and assisted
Table 1. SBDC Program Appropriations clients in obtaining more than 35,159 capital infusion
FY2019-FY2026 transactions totaling more than $6.8 billion dollars in
capital for their businesses, supporting over one million
Fiscal SBDC Grant Program jobs.”
Year Appropriations
Considerations for Congress
FY2019 $131 million Congress may consider funding levels for the SBDC
FY2020 $327 milliona program, including the Trump Administration’s request for
no funding for the program for FY2027. Congress debated
FY2021 $136 million SBA funding in FY2026, when the Trump Administration
FY2022 $138 million also requested SBA funding cuts, although not for the
SBDC program. Congress ultimately funded the SBDC
FY2023 $140 million program (as well as other SBA programs) at or above
requested levels for FY2026.
FY2024 $140 million
In the past, Congress has expressed interest in the potential
FY2025 $140 million
duplication among various technical assistance programs
FY2026 $150 million and services. As mentioned, in addition to funding SBDCs,
Source: CRS analysis of various appropriations and other acts.
the SBA provides financial support to WBCs, VBOCs, and
the mentoring program SCORE, which also provide
Notes: FY2020 appropriations reflect increases in funding to assist
technical assistance services to small business owners.
small businesses adversely affected by the novel coronavirus
Technical assistance is also associated with other SBA
(COVID-19) pandemic.
initiatives, such as the Program for Investment in
Microentrepreneurs (PRIME).
a. SBDCs were appropriated $135 million by the Consolidated While some stakeholders have argued that merging the
Appropriations Act, 2020, and an additional $192 million by the SBA’s technical assistance programs could improve the
CARES Act. efficiency of services, others have contended that there
should be separate programs tailored to specific subsets of
According to the SBA’s FY2025 Congressional Budget business owners. Some have also advocated for improved
Justification, the cost to administer the SBDC program was coordination among funding recipients and suggested
approximately $165 million in FY2024. These costs greater program oversight.
included direct operations costs, such as contracts,
compensation and benefits, and agency-wide costs, such as As online services gain importance and popularity,
rent and telecommunications. Congress may be interested in how accessible and effective
virtual technical assistance services are for business owners
Following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the and how well virtual services meet small business owner
CARES Act (P.L. 116-136), appropriated an additional needs. The SBA has measured how many business owners
$265 million for the SBA’s training programs in FY2020, are utilizing these services. The SBA primarily offers
with funding remaining available through FY2021, to assist online offerings for small businesses through its Learning
small businesses adversely affected by the pandemic. The Platform.
CARES Act provided $192 million for SBDCs; $48 million
Adam G. Levin, Analyst in Economic Development Policy
for WBCs; and $25 million for a new SBA Resource
Partner Association Grant program to establish a single, IF12402
online centralized hub for COVID-19 information and a
COVID-19-related training program for SBDC, WBC,
SCORE, and VBOC counselors.
https://crsreports.congress.gov
The SBA’s Small Business Development Centers Program
Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to
congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress.
Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has
been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the
United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be
reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include
copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you
wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.
https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF12402 · VERSION 4 · UPDATED
File and source
- File
- IF12402.4.pdf
- Size
- 335,669 bytes
- SHA-256
- 72355ea29329da5e057077b8b8015169641b71ae153b15463469c9b57c1d2f37
- Our copy
- IF12402.4.pdf
- Original
- www.congress.gov