Sam's Club and Sam's Club Giving have announced grants totaling $8.8 million to organizations working to help small business owners gain access to capital.

Announced in advance of National Small Business Week, the first week of May, the grants will support borrower education initiatives aimed at easing the primary barrier to entry for many small businesses — inadequate access to capital — especially businesses owned by women, minorities, and veterans. Awarded through the company's Small Business Economic Mobility initiative, a five-year effort launched in 2015, the grants include $3.3 million to Accion in support of the microfinance services organization's efforts to streamline its model and counter the ill effects of predatory small business lending; $2 million to Community Reinvestment Fund, USA to help other mission-driven lenders streamline their processes and reduce costs; $1 million to the Small Business Majority Foundation to scale its business operations and expand educational programs for underrepresented entrepreneurs; and $750,000 to Grameen America to fund access to capital for low-income women hoping to scale their micro-businesses.

"When small businesses succeed, economic growth and job creation follow," said Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation, which administers Sam's Club Giving, "which is why Sam's Club and Sam's Club Giving are committed to creating small business prosperity by awarding grants to national nonprofit organizations that help to increase access to capital and better education for underserved business owners across the U.S."