New B2B Grants Available
Back to Business Grants to Provide Additional Assistance to Kankakee County Businesses
The application portal is now open for $250M in Back to Business (B2B) Grants. The funding will be awarded to small businesses across Illinois that were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The B2B grant program is meant to build off last year’s Business Interruption Grant (BIG) program and will offer small businesses access to funds that can help offset losses due to COVID-19, bring back workers and rebuild amid the tumultuous pandemic. These funds are in grant form, not loans, and recipients of the grants that will range from $5,000 to $150,000 will not have to pay back these funds.
It should be noted that the B2B grants program is limited to businesses with revenues of $20 million or less in 2019 and priority will be given to businesses that did not previously receive COVID-19 related state funding or federal assistance through programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or Business Interruption Grant (BIG) program.
Funding Information:
- $250 million to small businesses across the state that experienced losses in 2020 due to COVID-19, including the following set-asides.
- $100 million – Businesses located in Disproportionately Impacted Areas (DIAs).
- $30 million – Arts and Entertainment businesses that didn’t receive Shuttered Venue Operators grants
- $25 million – Restaurants and taverns that didn’t receive the Restaurant Revitalization Fund
- $25 million – Hotels
- $25 million – Businesses that didn’t receive a BIG grant due to exhaustion of funds
- Grants will range from $5,000 to $150,000 per business and can be used to cover a wide range of operations/staff/overhead costs
Eligibility requirements:
- Businesses with revenues of $20 million or less in 2019 and a reduction in revenue in 2020 due to COVID-19
- Priority will be given to the following categories:
- Hard-hit industries (see eligibility guidelines for a full list of priority industries and their definitions)
- Hard-hit areas – DIAs comprising of 176 zip codes (see the linked program above)
- Businesses who have yet to qualify for state funding or federal assistance (including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), business Interruption Grant (BIG), Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG), and more)
- Businesses that had less than $5 million in revenue in 2019
Application:
- Application Portal dceo.illinois.gov.
Contact our office for application assistance:
Tim Nugent, tnugent@kankakeecountyed.org
Angela Morrey, amorrey@kankakeecountyed.org
