A grant program designed to support small businesses affected by civil unrest, discrimination and an aging population is accepting applications throughout the state of Minnesota.
Grants given by the Providing Resources and Opportunity and Maximizing Investments in Striving Entrepreneurs (PROMISE) Act can be used for bills, payroll expenses, rent and other business-related expenses, according to the Minnesota Employment and Economic Development website. More than $86 million will be awarded across the state.
Businesses can apply for grants if they have a gross annual revenue of $750,000 or less based on 2021 taxes. The grants range from $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000, according to the website.
Other factors in the application include receiving under $10,000 in previous state grants since 2020 and having primary business operations in Minnesota.
The Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) administers the grant in the metro area. NDC Vice President of Business Services Shahir Ahmed said there will be four rounds of grants awarded to the metro area. The first round of applications ends in June.
Ahmed said the NDC considers how impactful the money will be for a business’s survival as $72 million will be distributed among the 8,600 applications received in the Twin Cities metro.
“We’re looking at how we do more because we know only 25% of those who are eligible are going to receive a grant,” Ahmed added.
For-profit and nonprofit organizations can both apply for this grant program, according to the website. Each organization is on a different timeline but all applications will be open until late spring 2024.
Outside of the metro, six Minnesota initiative foundations operate in the greater Minnesota area. Michelle Ufford, the director of grantmaking at the Northland Foundation, said rural Minnesota is especially impacted by an aging population, making the region need grants like these.
“(The program) really was meant for the smaller businesses who didn’t have a lot of resources at their disposal to recover from the economic downturn back in 2021,” Ufford said.
Elisa Pluhar, chief innovation and strategy officer at NDC, said the vision for this program was to benefit companies in need of economic relief throughout Minnesota.
Ahmed said the grant money can help build back communities suffering from civil unrest post-COVID and George Floyd’s murder.
“As we administer this program, these dollars help to start to change the narrative of those neighborhoods,” Ahmed said.
The Director of Business and Economic Development for the West Central Initiative Foundation Greg Wagner said this funding is important because it helps businesses that suffered at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and were unable to bounce back.
“These are direct dollars that will go to help with basically working capital operating expenses for businesses so they can pay their employees, keep the lights on, and buy inventory or, you know, pay rent and mortgage,” Wagner said. “It’s really kind of just an additional lifeline for the businesses that are continuing to struggle with all the economic factors that they’re facing.”