COVID-19 Grant & Loan Program Information

The Federal SBA Loan, Grants for Nonprofits, & Developing Lists of Private Grants
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The Federal SBA Loan with Advance Payment and Opportunity for Repayment Waiver

On Friday, March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the CARES Act, which provides additional assistance for small business owners, including the opportunity to receive up to a $10,000 Advance on an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) for emergency capital. The SBA will send you an advance – $10,000 and you may not be required to pay this back, if expenditures are documented correctly. Even if you are turned down for the loan, you get to keep the $10,000. Proper documentation regarding use of the funds is required (payroll, overhead, rent, utilities, etc.).
So, how do you apply, or what if you already submitted an application for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan –
Apply here (online, not through a bank or lender).
The SBA is updating its system to implement this provision so small businesses can request an EIDL advance when they apply for the loan. This update will be available in the coming days.In the interim period, you can still apply for a full Economic Injury Disaster Loan but will need to reapply for the Advance when the system is updated with a streamlined application. Once updated, the Advance will be included in your EIDL application process. Nonprofit organizations are eligible applicants.
• There are NO fees, NO closing costs and NO collateral. Businesses must have a good credit history and possess the ability to repay the loans. You cannot use it to refinance a business’s long-term debt, though.
• If you apply for an EIDL loan, it is added to the maximum SBA loan and can later convert into a 7A loan. The 7A loan is designed to help employers (impacted by COVID-19), with fewer than 500 employees to make payroll and cover other expenses from February 15 to June 30. This will be done by having businesses apply for an SBA 7(a) loan through their local bank, not the SBA directly. Here are some of the features of the new loans:
Maximum – The maximum loan is the average monthly payroll for the business, plus payroll taxes and benefits (like a 401K match), for the twelve-month period prior to when the loan is made (capped at $8,333.33 per person), times 2.5, Plus, the balance on other disaster SBA loans taken out after January 31, 2020.

Grants for Local Government and Eligible Nonprofits (including hospitals and related facilities, clinics, long-term care facilities, and outpatient facilities) for Necessary Expenses

Federal Funds will be dispersed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Recipient), with the following applicants permitted to apply for funding:
1. State, local, tribal and territorial governments.
2. Eligible private nonprofit (PNP) organizations with an IRS effective ruling letter granting tax exemption under section 501(c), (d), or (e), including hospitals and related facilities, clinics, long-term care facilities, and outpatient facilities. Definition of PNP can be found here. Portal to register your organization and user: https://grantee.fema.gov/
(Note if you want us to prepare this grant request, we are recommending that an authorized, employed user be the registered point of contact, call us for more detail).
FEMA has announced that certain emergency protective measures taken to respond to the COVID-19 emergency may be eligible for reimbursement under Category B of the PA program. FEMA will assist with such emergency protective measures at a 75% federal cost share (with Applicants covering the other 25%).
If not eligible for reimbursement through Health and Human Services (HHS) or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), FEMA may provide PA for the following emergency protective measures:
  • Management, control and reduction of immediate threats to public health and safety:
  • Emergency Operation Center costs
  • Training specific to the declared event
  • Disinfection of eligible public facilities
  • Emergency medical care:
  • Non-deferrable medical treatment of infected persons in a shelter or temporary medical facility
  • Related medical facility services and supplies
  • Temporary medical facilities and/or enhanced medical/hospital capacity (for treatment when existing facilities are reasonably forecasted to become overloaded in the near term and cannot accommodate the patient load or to quarantine potentially infected persons)
  • Use of specialized medical equipment
  • Medical waste disposal
  • Emergency medical transport
  • Medical sheltering (e.g., when existing facilities are reasonably forecasted to become overloaded in the near future and cannot accommodate needs)
  • Under President Trump’s national emergency declaration, FEMA’s Regional Administrators have been delegated authority to approve requests for non-congregate sheltering for the duration of the Secretary of HHS’ declaration of a Public Health Emergency for COVID-19.
Applicants are empowered to drive their own recovery and directly apply for reimbursement without waiting for FEMA to assign a Program Delivery Manager. FEMA is simplifying the process so applicants may directly apply for assistance through the PA Grants Portal.
Costs must be directly tied to the performance of eligible work, documented, and reasonable in nature and amount. Examples of eligible costs include:
  • For emergency work:
  • Overtime labor for budgeted employees and straight-time and overtime labor for unbudgeted employees;
  • Backfill employee labor, Call-back pay, Night-time pay, Weekend differential pay, Stand-by time;
  • Necessary equipment;
  • Necessary supplies and materials.

Developing Lists of Private Grant Opportunities

Private grant opportunities related to the COVID-19 crisis are growing by the day, with many not yet open for applications. We are analyzing them each morning and will be sharing specific opportunities with our client organizations. However, I am pleased to recommend the following two lists, which are easy to interpret and just great. We would like our educational and health care clients to take a moment to check these out – we know your needs are great at this time.
1. Candid – a list of COVID-19 funding resources by organizational area, including Grants for Nonprofits, Grants for Artists (all disciplines), and Grants for Small Businesses.
2. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has by far the best “Grant Roundup,” producing this incredible list of new grants related to the COVID-19 crisis, evolving each day (as always, Pittsburgh, most generous city in U.S., makes list a couple times).

Grant Funding under the CARES Act

The Federal CARES Act Includes a Funding Injection to the following agencies, some of which will be available for applications submitted under grants.gov. Check back for additional details!
• $20.5 million for the USDA Rural Business Cooperative Service – the legislation provides $1 billion in lending authority available for the Business and Industry loan guarantee program, which provides financing to business owners that might not be able to qualify for a loan on their own.
• $1.5 billion for the Economic Development Administration – funding to support
economic development grants for states and communities suffering economic injury as a result of the coronavirus.
• $31.1 billion for the Department of Transportation (DOT) – funding included for the Federal Aviation Administration, Airport Improvement Program, Essential Air Service, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration Transit
Infrastructure Grants, and Amtrak.
• $4.3 billion for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) – funding for public health preparedness and response which includes direct funding to state and local public health responders as well as State and Local Preparedness Grants.
• $45 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) – funding to continue FEMA’s entire suite of response and recovery activities and
reimbursements provided to states and localities nationwide by the Disaster Relief Fund.

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