Talent Small Businesses: COVID19 Grant Funding Available

City Makes Available Grant Funding for Small Businesses Impacted by COVID-19

The City of Talent is pleased to announce the availability of $25,000 in grant funding to help alleviate the economic impact to small businesses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent business closures or operating restrictions. Talent has received a $12,500 award from the Oregon Business Development Department (Business Oregon) and will match the award with $12,500 in city funds carried over from the FY 2019-2020 budget.

Because of the limited amount of funding, Talent initially will be awarding grants of $2,500 to qualified small businesses and micro-enterprises with 5 or fewer employees, including sole proprietors. While not a requirement, the City of Talent especially encourages business owners who are members of historically disadvantaged population groups to apply for funding.

Eligible for- and non-profit businesses must meet the following requirements to be receive funds:

• Have been prohibited from operation as directed by Executive Order 20-12; or had sales or revenue decrease by 50 percent or more in the months of March or April 2020 in comparison to sales or revenue from January or February 2020 (for-profits only) or in comparison to the same period in 2019 (non-profits only)(NOTE: in the initial screening, Talent will be focusing on businesses that were unable to operate or had operations restricted (e.g., carry-out business only) prior to Phase 1 re-opening, and will not be asking for sales or revenue data. If funds remain after initial screening, businesses with revenue loss will be considered for awards.);
• Have been unable to receive federal CARES Act funding, including the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance program, or other federal programs for emergency pandemic funding to date;
• Have 25 or fewer employees (although Talent will be focusing first on supporting businesses of 1-5 employees, including sole proprietorships); and
• Have your principal place of business within the Talent city limits (home and virtual businesses as well as brick-and-mortar businesses are eligible).

The application for the State of Oregon COVID-19 Emergency Business Grant program is available in both Spanish and English on the homepage of the city website – www.cityoftalent.org.

The application deadline is Friday, July 10, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. Late applications will not be considered. All applications must be submitted electronically to sspelliscy@cityoftalent.org . Please read the application instructions thoroughly prior to completing. Any questions about the application or process can be e-mailed to sspelliscy@cityoftalent.org with “Emergency Business Grant” in the subject line.