Contracting assistance programs

As of November 16, 2020, the 8(a) Mentor-Protégé program and the All Small Mentor-Protégé program have merged into one SBA Mentor-Protégé program (MPP). The implementing regulations can be found in the Federal Register.

Both former programs helped eligible small businesses (protégés) gain capacity and win government contracts through partnerships with more experienced companies (mentors).

Given the programs’ identical purpose and benefits to participating businesses, the merger into one program makes it easier for eligible businesses to navigate, saving both time and resources. It also:

• Removes the need for businesses to choose between two mentor-protégé programs
• Streamlines the new program while keeping the same benefits as the two former programs
• Requires less SBA involvement for joint ventures

Beyond merging the two programs, the final ruling includes changes to:

• Mentor-protégé agreement clarifications of Title 13 Part 125.9 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
• New and updated tools to encourage participation in the MPP
• Changes to the joint venture review and approval process

Protégés can get valuable business development help from their mentors in several areas, including:

• Guidance on internal business management systems, accounting, marketing, manufacturing, and strategic planning
• Financial assistance in the form of equity investments, loans, and bonding
• Assistance navigating federal contract bidding, acquisition, and the federal procurement process
• Education about international trade, strategic planning, and finding markets
• Business development, including strategy and identifying contracting and partnership opportunities
• General and administrative assistance, like human resource sharing or security clearance support

A mentor and its protégé can joint venture as a small business for any small business contract, provided the protégé individually qualifies as small. The joint venture may also pursue any type of set-aside contract for which the protégé qualifies, including contracts set aside for 8(a), service-disabled veteran-owned, women-owned, and HUBZone businesses. Browse our information on the Joint Venture program to learn more.

To qualify as a protégé, your business must:

• Be a small business with industry experience
  • Find out if your business qualifies as small by using the Size Standards Tool, or by referencing SBA’s table of small business size standards
  • Both the tool and the table help you find the small business classification requirements according to individual NAICS codes
• Be organized for profit or as an agricultural cooperative
• Have a proposed mentor prior to applying for the program

To qualify as a mentor, your business must:

• Be organized for profit or as an agricultural cooperative
• Be able to carry out its responsibilities to assist the protégé
• Possess good character
• Not appear on the federal list of debarred or suspended contractors
• Be able to impart value to a protégé firm due to lessons learned, practical experience gained or through its knowledge of general business operations and government contracting

For SBA to approve the Mentor-Protégé Agreement:

• SBA must determine that the mentor-provided assistance will promote real developmental gains for the protégé, not just act as a vehicle to receive federal small business set-asides
• An applicant protégé and its prospective mentor may not be affiliated at the time of application

Businesses are considered “affiliates” when one party has the power to control the other, or a third party or parties controls or has the power to control both. It does not matter whether control is exercised, so long as the potential to control exists. SBA considers factors such as ownership, management, previous relationships with or ties to another concern, and contractual relationships in determining whether affiliation exists.

In determining whether affiliation exists, SBA will consider the totality of the circumstances, and may find affiliation even though no single factor is sufficient to constitute affiliation. More information on affiliation can be found in Title 13 Part 121.103 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

You can view the full eligibility criteria in Title 13 Part 125.9 of the CFR and review the Mentor-Protégé Agreement template on SBA’s website.

Please note that the MPP not a matchmaking program. An applicant protégé must apply with an identified prospective mentor.

You must be approved by SBA to participate in its MPP. Your application must be submitted through Certify. You will need to have a profile in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) before you can use the certification website.

Before you apply:

• Make sure both businesses are registered at SAM.gov
• Decide whether you are applying for an MPA using your primary or secondary NAICS Code
• Both businesses must complete SBA’s online tutorial (save your completion certificates)
• Execute a Mentor-Protégé Agreement (MPA Addendum)

When you are ready to apply, go to Certify and apply to join the MPP using the protégé’s Unique Entity Identifier (UEI).

Read the instructions on Certify carefully to make sure you provide all the necessary information.

Our application processing timeframe is 15 days screening plus 90 days processing (if your application is not withdrawn), totaling 105 days. Please plan ahead to make sure all necessary items are prepared before applying. This will ensure a complete application package. Read the FAQs for more information.

A Mentor-Protégé Agreement may last up to six years from the date of SBA approval. If the initial mentor-protégé agreement is for less than six years, it may be extended by mutual agreement and notification to SBA prior to the expiration date.

A protégé may have two mentors at the same time—as long at those relationships do not conflict or compete with each other. However, a protégé can have no more than two mentors over the life of the business.

You must maintain the mentor-protégé relationship for at least one year after SBA approves your agreement. Annual evaluations are required so SBA can assess how the relationship is working, and document benefits received by the protégé. Failure to complete the annual evaluation or provide the required information may result in a termination of the mentor-protégé relationship.

A protégé may request SBA to intervene on its behalf with the mentor if it believes it is not receiving the assistance promised by the mentor.

There are a number of tools available to the protégé, especially when the relationship changes, such as:

• proposed amendments to the mentor-protégé agreement
• voluntary terminations of the mentor-protégé agreement
• mentor substitutions by the protégé, exchanging the existing mentor for a new one

To remain compliant, please reach out to SBA before using any one of these tools. If you have questions about annual evaluations, contact mppevaluations@sba.gov.

Is your business SBA certified?

Government agencies reserve contracts for small businesses that are certified in SBA’s contracting programs.

Email sbampp@sba.gov.

Joint venture benefits to participants include:

• Collective representation of past performance
• Shared costs and resources
• Leveraging the other partner’s experience and market share

A mentor and its protégé can joint venture as a small business for any small business contract, provided the protégé individually qualifies as small. The joint venture may also pursue any type of set-aside contract for which the protégé qualifies, including contracts set aside for 8(a), service-disabled veteran-owned, women-owned, and HUBZone businesses.

In order for your joint venture to be able to bid on contracts reserved for small businesses, you must follow the requirements for receiving an exclusion of affiliation for contracting purposes.

SBA no longer approves joint venture agreements formed to pursue competitive 8(a) contracts. This includes joint venture agreements formed under the SBA MPP to perform a competitive 8(a) contract. SBA will continue to review and approve all joint venture agreements formed to pursue sole source 8(a) contracts.

Your joint venture agreement must be in writing and follow SBA requirements.

The joint venture must be separately identified with its own name and have both a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and a Commercial And Government Entity (CAGE) code in the federal government’s System for Award Management at SAM.gov. In SAM, designate the entity type as a joint venture, with individual partners listed as the immediate owners.

To receive an exclusion from affiliation the mentor-protégé agreement must be approved before a mentor and its protégé submit an offer for a small business contract as a joint venture.

The certificate should also be emailed to mppjvreporting@sba.gov. The protégé must provide a joint venture compliance certificate to SBA and the contracting officer.

The following rules apply to joint ventures:

Limitations on subcontracting

The following rules apply to joint ventures:

• As the joint venture prime of either a full or partial set-aside contract, the small business concern must agree to the following limitations on subcontractor for the respective contract types
  • Pay no more than 50% of the amount paid by the government to non-similarly situated firms for service contracts
  • Pay no more than 50% of the amount paid by the government to non-similarly situated firms for supplies or products contracts
  • Pay no more than 85% of the amount paid by the government to non-similarly situated firms for construction contracts
  • Pay no more than 75% of the amount paid by the government to non-similarly situated firms for special trade contracts

The protégé must perform at least 40% of the work done by the joint venture. Assuming the joint venture and the protégé perform the minimum work share requirements, the protégé will perform 20% of the contract. However, for purposes of determining the protégé’s size, 40% of the revenues under the contract must be appropriated to the protégé.

Allocation of joint venture receipts

• The joint venture must submit annual evaluation reports, annual performance-of-work statements, and project-end performance-of-work to SBA and the contracting agencies explaining how the work is being performed for each contract. 
• Annual evaluations are due 30 days from the anniversary date on your welcome letter.
• Respective, annual reports and project-end reports are due 45 days after each operating year and 90 days after completion of the contract. Note, the protégé is the responsible party for reporting the evaluation under its DUNS number.

The regulations governing joint ventures formed under SBA MPP are explained in detail in 13 CFR 125.8 and 13 CFR 125.9.

Is your business SBA certified?

Government agencies reserve contracts for small businesses that are certified in SBA’s contracting programs.

If you have questions about joint ventures, contact your local SBA District Office.

SBA uses small business set-asides to help them get a fair share of government property sales and leases.

Set-asides limit bidding on the products exclusively to small businesses first. That way, small businesses get a chance to bid with limited competition before the products are offered to other businesses in the open market.

Sometimes, agencies will divide materials into smaller parcels to make it easier for small businesses to afford.

The SBA also provides counseling and other assistance to small businesses on government sales and leasing.

The program covers five categories of federal resources:

• Timber and related forest products
• Strategic materials
• Royalty oil
• Leases involving rights to minerals, coal, oil, and gas
• Surplus real and personal property

How your small business participates in the program depends on which kind of resources you’re trying to purchase.

Timber and related forest products

SBA and other agencies jointly set aside timber sales for bidding exclusively by small businesses when they wouldn’t otherwise get a fair share under open sales.

Timber and related forest products are sold by the following agencies:

• U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service
• U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management
• Department of Defense
• Department of Energy
• Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service
• Tennessee Valley Authority

The departments of Defense, Energy, the Interior, and the Tennessee Valley Authority work with the Natural Resource Sales Assistance program to create set-asides only on a requested basis.

Strategic materials from the National Stockpile

The General Services Administration (GSA) regulates the procurement and disposal of strategic materials.

When a stockpile requirement is lowered, excess material may be sold. The GSA and the agencies will set aside some sales for bidding exclusively by small businesses. Agencies sometimes agree to divide the materials into smaller parcels.

Royalty oil

Royalties due to the government under leases of federal oil rights for the exploration of oil may be accepted by the Secretary of the Interior in the form of oil or money. If the Secretary accepts oil in lieu of money, the oil is identified as “royalty oil.”

If the Secretary of the Interior determines that sufficient supplies of crude oil aren’t available in the open market to small business refineries, preference is granted to small business refineries for processing royalty oil.

SBA refers qualifying small business refineries to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resource Revenue (ONRR) to assist small businesses obtain royalty oil.

Leases involving rights to minerals, coal, oil, and gas

The government owns extensive mineral, oil, coal, and gas rights. The government normally sells leases to recover these natural resources on a competitive basis.

As with timber and related forest products, leases are set aside for bidding by small businesses when they wouldn’t otherwise get a fair share.

Surplus real and personal property

The government sells property it no longer needs. The property is first made available for donation if there are eligible recipients, such as educational facilities, public health facilities, or state and local governments. The rest is sold.

The two agencies of the government primarily concerned with surplus personal property sales are the Defense Logistics Agency and the General Services Administration. Scheduled sales are widely publicized as competitive bid sales.

You can contact the agency selling the product if you think there should be set-asides for small businesses.

Additionally, you can contact the Industrial Specialist listed below:

Nichole Villanueva
Industrial Specialist – Forestry
U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Government Contracting
Phone: 202-657-9035
Email: nichole.villanueva@sba.gov  

Shawna Monroe
Industrial Specialist – Forestry
U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Government Contracting
Phone: 213-793-7591
Email: shawna.monroe@sba.gov