The City of Akron has announced the 2022 Small Business Relief Program to help mitigate the threat of business continuity due to increased supply chain costs and lost revenue associated with COVID-19.
Donor Name: The City of Akron
State: Ohio
City: Akron
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 09/02/2022
Grant Size: $10,000
Details:
The purpose and intent of the grant is to provide assistance to small businesses to keep their doors open, protect local jobs threatened by the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and increase the resiliency of local businesses within the City, particularly in geographic areas where the pandemic resulted in disproportionate economic outcomes.
Funding Information
This relief program is designed to provide a single grant of $10,000 available to companies with two to fifty (2-50) full-time equivalent employees in the City of Akron that have been negatively affected by the pandemic and related ongoing economic hardship. The City of Akron will provide a total of $1 million for grants under this program from the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.
Eligibility Criteria
- The business must operate for profit. Non-profit entities of any type are not eligible. (Business that are for-profit generally file an IRS Form 1040 with a Schedule-C, 1040-SR with a Schedule-C, 1065, 1120 or 1120-S.)
- The business may be a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation (either S or C), professional association, limited liability company, limited partnership, or limited liability partnership. If a corporation, professional association, limited liability company, limited partnership or limited liability partnership, the business must be registered with the Ohio Secretary of State to do business in the State of Ohio.
- The business must have been actively established or committed to ongoing operating expenses on or before January 1, 2020. To the extent there are questions about meeting this requirement, GAC may request additional documentation to resolve those questions. That documentation may include business bank account documentation, business tax documentation, credit accounts, occupancy permits, business operating licenses or other documentation acceptable to the GAC, in its sole discretion, as evidence of operations by the eligibility date. In cases where business transitions, ownership changes or other activities disrupt the ability to provide specific documentation, the Chamber as administrator of the program, may decide on the legitimacy for the business for eligibility based on its review and examination of other evidence as it determines is appropriate and the expressed intent of the program by the City of Akron.
- The business must not be permanently closed and must indicate based on answers in its application that it intends to continue its business operations into the foreseeable future.
- The business must have at least two (2) and equal to or fewer than fifty (50) full-time equivalent employees. A full-time equivalent employee for purposes of this grant is defined at an average of at least 35 hours per week or 1,750 hours per year. Full time equivalent employee numbers are calculated by dividing total estimated annual employee hours for the business by 1,750. For purposes of this criteria, “employee” shall mean an individual who (i) is employed as an employee who regularly works at least 20 hours per week and who is provided an IRS Form W-2 at the end of each calendar year, (ii) is independently contracted with the business, regularly works at least 20 hours per week and who receives an IRS Form 1099 at the end of each calendar year, or (iii) the principal owner(s) of the business, the sole proprietor, or partners, whichever is applicable, provided, however, that the principal owners, sole proprietor or partners need not be included in the number of employees if it would cause the business to exceed fifty individuals employed. To the extent that average hourly commitments of employees defined by the business as “full-time” vary from the estimates above, GAC will have the discretion to modify the calculation to meet the intent of the program.
- The business must attest to having less than $5 million in annual sales in any one of the calendar years of 2020, 2021 and 2022.
- The business must attest to not be in receivership or bankruptcy.
- The business must be current on licenses and permits required to conduct business in the State of Ohio and City of Akron, where applicable.
- The business must attest to the fact that it is current on all federal, state and local income, property and sales taxes or is a party to a valid and current delinquent tax contract or payment plan as of the date of application. Those on payment plans will be deemed current if plan payments are up to date as of the application date. All businesses will be required to provide the businesses’ federal employer identification number, or, if the business does not have a federal employer identification number, the social security number for the primary owner and under which the business operates.
- Applicants may not use grant proceeds for the same specific expenses for multiple grant programs supported by prior COVID-19 relief, including federal, state, local, and private grants. This “double dipping” of reimbursement for the same specific expense from multiple programs is prohibited. (e.g., While June rent and July rent could both be reimbursed from these programs, June rent cannot be reimbursed once from one program and then submitted again to a second program.) Receipt of support from other federal grant programs including the SBA Payment Protection Program, the State of Ohio Business Relief Program and the Summit County COVID-19 Small Business Emergency Relief Grant Program does not affect eligibility for this program.
For more information, visit The City of Akron.
