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Grants Lend Helping Hand to Struggling Businesses

The grants are available from private companies that range from Facebook to Salesforce. Promo firms struggling from COVID-19 impacts can potentially take advantage of them.

Promotional products companies struggling to survive the economic maelstrom brought on by COVID-19 have more options for financial assistance than they may realize.

Givinh A Hand

Beyond government relief, private industry companies are offering grants to small businesses. Here are a few to consider:

Salesforce Care Small Business Grants
Salesforce, the cloud-based CRM software solution company, has partnered with Ureeka, a community of peers, mentors and coaches that know how to grow a strong business, to offer $10,000 grants to small businesses. Apply here.

Depending on which U.S. state you’re in, the application process opens either April 24 or April 27. To qualify, you must be a for-profit company, have between two and 50 employees, have been in business for two full years as of March 2020, have an annual revenue of between $250,000 and $2 million, and have suffered negative business impacts from the novel coronavirus.

Facebook Small Business Grant Program
The social media platform is offering $100 million in grants and ad credits. Facebook says the assistance will aid up to 30,000 eligible small businesses in more than 30 countries where the company has a presence. To be eligible, you must be a for-profit company, employ between two and 50 people, have been in business for more than one year, experienced challenges because of the virus’ economic impacts, and be in or near a location where Facebook operates.

The assistance aims to help small businesses do things like keep their workforces going strong, pay rent, cover operational costs and connect with more customers. The application process for the grants is currently underway in the New York, Seattle and San Francisco areas. Applications for other eligible U.S. cities were to open on April 22. Like Salesforce, Facebook partnered with Ureeka on the program. Apply here.

COVID-19 Business For All Emergency Grant
Hello Alice, an AI start-up focused on small businesses, has teamed up with Verizon, Silicon Valley Bank, eBay and others to offer immediate emergency grants to hard-hit businesses. In addition to providing the $10,000 grants, the Hello Alice community is also delivering ongoing support to grant recipients. You can apply at Hello Alice’s COVID-19 Business Resource Center, which also provides information to help business owners adapt to the coronavirus disruption.

Verizon and LISC Small Business Recovery Fund
Telecommunications conglomerate Verizon donated $2.5 million to Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a national nonprofit that has invested $20 billion to fuel economic opportunity for people and communities across the United States. LISC is using the Verizon money to provide $10,000 grants to businesses facing financial pressure from COVID-19. In particular, LISC is focusing on distributing the grants to entrepreneurs of color, women-owned businesses and other enterprises that lack access to flexible, affordable capital in underserved communities.

LISC says the grants are designed to help fill urgent financial gaps – from paying rent to meeting payroll – until normal operations resume or until other financing becomes available. A first round of funding has been completed, but you can register here to be part of a second round of funding.

On April 20, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with support from corporations that included Vistaprint, a subsidiary of Top 40 distributor Cimpress (asi/162149), launched the Save the Small Business Fund. It was to make $5,000 grants available to small businesses. As of this writing, the application process was closed, due to overwhelming response.

Meanwhile, more government aid could soon be available for small businesses. While the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program has already been depleted, the Senate on April 21 passed a bill that would make $484 billion more in funding available to small businesses. The House of Representatives was slated to vote on the bill on April 23.