The State of California has launched a new COVID-19 Relief Grant program aimed at supporting local small businesses impacted by COVID-19 health and safety restrictions.
The new relief program provides grants–not loans–from $5,000 to $25,000 to eligible small businesses and nonprofits based on the annual revenue documented in their most recent tax return.
Applications for the first round of awards will open December 30, 2020, at 8am PST and the close date has been extended to 11:59pm on January 13, 2021. Approval notifications will begin January 15, 2021.
To be eligible for the program, businesses must meet the following criteria:
- Have a verifiable physical location in California
- Yearly gross revenue of less than $2.5 million, but at least $1,000
- In operation since at least June 1, 2019
- Currently open or have a clear plan to re-open pending health guidelines
- Impacted by COVID-19 and the health and safety restrictions
- Able to provide documents, including 2018 or 2019 tax returns, in electronic form for upload
- Able to provide acceptable form of government-issued photo ID
Small business owners with multiple business entities are only allowed to apply once, using their eligible entity with the highest revenue.
The LA SBDC is one of the official program partners who can help small business owners apply for the funds.
Lendistry is the technology partner that hosts and manages the portal for the Program’s grant application and will make grant payments to approved applicants. Applicants will receive notifications from Lendistry on the status of their application
The California SBDCs are presenting a series of informational webinars in a variety of languages to provide instructions on how to apply for this grant.. Find all the webinar dates here.
Official website for the CA Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program
- https://careliefgrant.com/
- For technical issues with the application site, please contact Lendistry directly:
- (888) 612-4370
- CAreliefgrant@lendistry.com
Note: If you have applied but need to make updates or upload additional information, you’ll need to wait until January 6th to make those changes.
