UNITED STATES — The Local Initiatives Support Corporation is offering Rural Relief Small Business Grants as part of their commitment to elevate their impact in rural America. Small business owners in rural areas across the United States can apply by December 6 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time to be considered for one of 900 grants that all together total $18 million.
The grant will support small businesses and enterprises affected by COVID-19 across the country, especially those in underserved communities, including entrepreneurs of color and women- and veteran-owned businesses that often lack access to flexible, affordable capital, the group said.
Applications will be reviewed based on criteria designed to prioritize particularly challenged businesses, and the final grantees will be randomly selected from the top scoring applicants.
Only small businesses located in rural communities, with populations smaller than 50,000, are eligible at this time. A community is defined as the city, town or village where your business address is located. If the business is mobile (a food truck, fishing boat, rideshare driver, etc), please use the address where your vehicle is stored during non-business hours.
Nonprofit organizations are ineligible for the relief funding program at this time, but may be eligible for later rounds of funding.
Applications are being accepted in rounds, and businesses can submit each time but must submit a new application for each round in order to be considered for funding in that round. Below are the dates of upcoming rounds’ application periods:
November 20, 2020 – December 6, 2020
December 29, 2020 – January 5, 2021
January 26 – February 2, 2021
The LISC-Lowe’s Rural Relief Small Business Grants program is funded by Lowe’s, the national hardware chain. All potential applicants are encouraged to review the Frequently Asked Questions and grant information before applying. Visit https://www.lisc.org/covid-19/small-business-assistance/rural-relief-small-business-grants/ for more information and to apply.
