New Greater Grays Harbor Small Business Relief Grant Aims to Help Grays Harbor County Community Organizations and Small Businesses

Applications Are Now Open

Greater Grays Harbor, Inc. (GGHI) is accepting applications for their Small Business Relief Grant of up to $10,000 each for Grays Harbor businesses and organizations with up to 20 employees. Grant money can be used to assist with a variety of expenses related to the impact from COVID-19.

The window to submit applications opened on Thursday, September 10th, 2020 and has been extended to now close on Friday, October 2nd, 2020 at 8pm.

A pool of $151,227 is available to businesses and economic development organizations to include local chambers, business associations, direct marketing organizations and tourism organizations in Grays Harbor County until funds are exhausted.

To Apply, Visit:

GGHI Small Business Relief Grant Application: www.surveymonkey.com/r/GGHIBRG

**To preview the GGHI Small Business Relief Grant application in advance, click here. Please do not use for application submission.

GGHI Economic Development Stakeholder Partner Relief Grant Application: www.surveymonkey.com/r/EconDevPartner

Requirements

Grant Awards

The Greater Grays Harbor, Inc Business Relief Grants will not exceed $10,000 per awardee.

Eligible Expenses

You will be asked to affirm the documented expenses meet the following requirements:
- The expense is connected to the COVID-19 emergency.
- The expense is “necessary” to continue business operations.
- The expense is not filling a short fall in government revenues. (i.e. taxes, licenses, state, county, federal and/or city fees)

Eligible Businesses

Must have been in business for at least one year prior to 3/1/2020.
Eligible businesses must have 20 or fewer employees as of September 1, 2020 (total including full and part-time).
Your business UBI Number is required. This is a nine-digit number that begins with a #6. All applicants that make more than $12,000 annually must have a UBI Number. You can look up your UBI at this site.
Your Business Labor & Industry (L&I) must be current. You can verify your status here.
Eligible businesses must not be debarred by the federal government and are eligible to receive federal contracts. For more information visit this site.
Businesses that have received Working Washington Small Business Emergency Grant (WWSBEG) funds in the amounts greater than $5,000 are not eligible for this funding. Businesses that received $5,000 or less from this funding are eligible for the Greater Grays Harbor, Inc, Business Emergency Grant.
The Greater Grays Harbor, Inc (GGHI) Business Relief Grant is sourced from Federal CARES Act Funding. Federal regulations do not allow funding from federal programs to be used for duplicate purposes. Greater Grays Harbor, Inc must comply with this requirement.

Application Overview

A completed application for the GGHI Business Relief Grant is required to be considered for grant funding.
Complete applications must be submitted no later than 8:00 pm, September 23, 2020.
The applying business will self–attest that the expense is not funded by any other funding source whether private, State or Federal.
The applying business will self–attest that the business would not be requesting assistance with expenses if they had not been impacted COVID-19.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are non-profits eligible?

- Chambers of Commerce, Business Associations, Direct Marketing Organizations and Tourism Bureaus are eligible for the GGHI Economic Development Stakeholder Partner Relief Grant. More information on that grant can be found here.
- Only Grays Harbor County businesses are eligible for the Greater Grays Harbor, Inc. Business Relief Grant.

Are there restrictions on “types” of businesses that may quality?

- - There are no industry sector requirements, every type of business can apply if they are for-profit.

What happens after the applications close on Sept 23, 2020?

- - The GGHI staff will handle administrative needs (such as confirming valid applications) and will then reach out to awardees to notify them. Recipients by way of their application will be affirming their eligibility to the requirements of the grant.

Are there any conflicts with other Federal funding?

- Since these grants are created with Federal funds, you cannot use other Federal funding for the same purpose, at the same time (double dipping). For example, if your business received funding to cover its rent expense for September 2020, you could not use funds from this program for the same purpose.

Will businesses be required to report the grant funds as income purposes?

- - Yes, we are requesting the business W-9 for this purpose.

Funding for the program is from the state’s Working Washington Small Business program and includes federal Coronavirus Assistance, Recovery and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds to help with COVID-19 response and recovery efforts across Washington State.

The Washington State Department of Commerce partnered with GGHI and the 34 other Associate Development Organizations statewide to make a new tranche of $10 million in grants available. Applications and administration of the new funds are run by the local organizations that serve all 39 counties. The Washington State Department of Commerce is not accepting or reviewing applications, this will be done by the local economic development organizations.