Salem, OR — On Thursday, December 3 at 3pm PST, Business Oregon will be seeking applications from businesses in Oregon’s coastal region to meet geographic distribution targets for the round of $20 million in grant funding it previously announced on Wednesday, November 18th. The grant funding allocated by the Oregon legislature and Governor Kate Brown specified there should be geographic distribution for the funds across the state, and after reviewing initial applications received for eligibility, there is currently room for a small number of businesses from Oregon’s coastal communities.
For the purpose of this program, the eligible coastal region includes Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Curry, Lincoln, and Tillamook Counties. The grants are available to small businesses in these counties that have seen lost revenue due to the pandemic, and that meet a set of requirements.
Business Oregon estimates the program has the financial capacity to fund another 15 to 20 additional small business applicants from the coastal region. There is great need for funding for businesses impacted by the pandemic. However the limited funds available in this program are a finite resource that can only serve a finite number of applicants throughout the entire state. Minutes after the application portal initially went live on November 18, more than 2,100 applications requesting more than $100 million were submitted.
The previous four rounds of funding from this program were all only available to businesses with fewer than 25 employees, to help Oregon’s smallest businesses first. Most previous rounds also targeted businesses that did not already receive assistance through the CARES Act (such as PPP and EIDL). With the newly allocated funding allowing for a fifth round, the program shifted to serve a group of businesses in need that did not have access to the previous four rounds of grants.
Businesses with 26 to 100 employees are eligible regardless of the amount of federal resources they received (up to $1,000,000), if they meet other program requirements. This round will also now consider applications from businesses with 1 to 25 employees that have already received anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million in funding from the federal resources.
Businesses are eligible to receive up to $200,000 in grant funding as detailed in the grant application. To be eligible, a business must show it was prohibited from operations by the Governor’s Executive Order 20-12, or demonstrate a 25% reduction in sales over a 30-day period in 2020 compared to a comparable period in 2019.
The application will be posted on Thursday, December 3 at 3pm, and will be open until 8pm, though applications will be reviewed and processed on a first-come first-served basis. There will be a PDF form to fill out and email back to Business Oregon. The application form and additional details will be found on Business Oregon’s website in multiple languages. Any information received prior to December 3 at 3pm, or submitted on application forms other than those made available at this time, will not be accepted or reviewed. Only applications from businesses headquartered in Oregon with primary operations in the eligible coastal counties listed above will be considered.
Additional resources and information on COVID-19 response can be found on the department’s website, and the Governor’s COVID-19 web page has the latest guidance.
