The City of San Clemente is offering a six week Main Street Digital Grant Program, which will provide training and funding to small brick and mortar retail businesses and non-profit organizations with a mission of supporting local business, culture, and tourism.
Donor Name: City of San Clemente
State: California
City: San Clemente
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 10/09/2022
Size of the Grant: $20,000
Details:
The SBDC created a new virtual training program aimed at assisting brick-and-mortar retail businesses with “Creating a Digital Presence” for their business. Each small business owner will learn how to set-up an online profile through Google, will reach out to customers for a Google review and will learn how to create and send Facebook or Instagram posts. The program will highlight how to use paid and non-paid advertising to generate leads that turn into sales. The program will culminate with business owners receiving their grant funds to put towards advertising that will generate customer traffic. The program will consist of two steps: Step 1 will focus on building a digital presence over four (4) weeks; and Step 2 will uncover the unique paid and non-paid advertising channels and what is the right path for each business owner. All sessions will take place in a group format and will be coupled with individual one-on-one consulting with SBDC consultants.
Funding Information
- The City is allocating $20,000 from its American Rescue Plan Act allocation to support their local organizations
- This program will include a free 6-week digital marketing training program, hosted by the Orange County Small Business Development Center (SBDC) via Zoom
- Participants will learn about marketing across a variety of platforms — from Google to TikTok
- Then, they will get to spend their $1000 grant award on implementing their custom digital marketing plan
Eligible Activities
The funds must be used to develop a paid advertising campaign for the purpose of increasing revenue to offset lost revenue due to COVID-19 impacts. Each applicant will need to sign and verify that the use of funds will be spent on a paid advertising campaign, such as expressed above. Any use of funding other than for paid advertising is strictly prohibited. If there is a remaining balance after December 31, 2022, the business will be required to return the funds to the City by January 31, 2023.
Eligibility Criteria
- The applicant must be a for-profit commercially-zoned brick and mortar retail business or a non-profit that supports business/culture/tourism and is physically located in the City of San Clemente;
- Cannabis-related businesses, gambling facilities, adult entertainment businesses, massage parlors, largely cash-based businesses and home-based businesses are not eligible;
- Residential or real estate projects including short-term rental operators are also not eligible;
- The applicant must have an active city business license since January 1, 2022;
- As of September 1, 2022, the applicant must have at least two employees and no more than twenty-five (25) full-time equivalent employees (two part-time employees equal one full-time employee);
- Please review the Grant Guidelines for additional detail.
For more information, visit City of San Clemente.
