Small Business CARES Grant

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Round II of the Miami County Application period will begin at 8 a.m. Oct. 22. It will close at noon, Nov. 4.

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In June 2020, Governor Kelly appointed the Strengthening People and Revitalizing Kansas task force to begin establishing funding opportunities to aid in responding to COVID-19. Kansas received $1.25 billion in Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES Act) Funds.

A portion of that allocation, $6.9 million, was provided directly to Miami County to assist with the local impacts to the county's economy, families, healthcare, schools and communities. The Miami County Commissioners set aside $100,000 from that allocation to assist businesses. There is the potential that additional funds may become available within the next 60-days. However, applicants should not rely on that possibility.

To qualify, businesses and nonprofit organizations must show they need the funding due to revenue losses generated by the impacts of COVID-19. This includes revenue lost due to event cancellations, business closures or lost sales.

A summary of the program is available here.

Eligible

  • Businesses or nonprofits with fewer than 100 employees
  • Nonprofits, 501(c)3 or a 501(c)6
  • Entities must have been in operation within Miami County since March 17, 2020 and under same ownership 
  • Home-based or mobile entities must have 3 or more full-time equivalent employees
  • Nonprofits with 1 or more full-time equivalent employees
  • All other entities must have 1 or more full-time equivalent employees -- A sole proprietor counts as an employee

Ineligible

  • Entities that received CDBG-CV funds allocated by Miami County, the City of Louisburg or the City of Osawatomie
  • Entities that received $150,000 or more in financial assistance from the Payroll Protection Program
  • Entities with 100 full-time equivalent employees or more
  • Homebased, multi-level marketing businesses
  • Licensed daycare facilities of any kind -- Those operators should apply for assistance via ECKAN

Requirements

  • Entity must still be in operation and under the same ownership
  • Applicants will be required to agree to a series of affidavits indicating a series of binding obligations such as the information they provide is factually correct and that funds from another program have not been received to cover the same losses

Award Amounts

  • Maximum grant award, $3,000  

Process

Applications will be scored with a focus on community impact, longevity of the entity's operations and impact due to COVID-19. A minimum score must be achieved to become eligible for funding. Funds will be allocated based on scoring. Awards will be made until the budget has been depleted or until all applications meeting the minimum required score are funded. Funds are expected to be released by mid-November.

Preparing to Apply

Applicants are encouraged to gather all of the items they will need to apply prior to starting the application. The portal DOES NOT allow you to save your work and return at a later time. In addition, information cannot be edited once the application is submitted.

Prepare by gathering:

  • A Profit and Loss Report for March 1, 2019 through Aug. 31, 2019 and for March 1, 2020 through Aug. 31, 2020 that demonstrates a negative impact from COVID-19. If your entity was not open during that period in 2019, provide a Profit and Loss Report for the period it was open prior to March 1, 2020 and a comparative report for March 1, 2020 through Aug. 31, 2020.
    • If you need help creating this report and utilize QuickBooks, these tutorials may help you.
      • QuickBooks Desktop version
      • QuickBooks Online version
      • If you need to manually create this report, the SBA offers free guidance here, and SCORE offers assistance here.
  • Know your overall January through December 2019 annual revenue.
  • An electronic version of your W-9. A blank version can be downloaded from here.
  • Know your appropriate contact person, address, phone number, entity name and email address.
  • Know when the business was established within Miami County.
  • Know an estimated amount of COVID-specific expenses you have incurred including the purchase of personal protective equipment, remote work expenses, technology or safety upgrades, etc. 
  • Prepare 500-1,000 character summary that provides an overview of how COVID-19 has changed your operations and how you have adapted to meet those challenges. This includes an overview of COVID-related expenses.
  • Know how many full-time equivalent employees you had as of March 1, 2020 and Aug. 31, 2020.
    • Average hours worked by part-time employees may be combined to count as a full-time equivalent employee.  Example: A company has one full-time employee and three part-time employees who each average about 15 hours a week. Result: 2 FTEs
  • All documentation must be a PDF, DOC, DOCX, PNG, JPG or JPEG format. Excel formats are not supported and must be converted to one of the listed file types. It is also important to rename the files to include your company name. It is anticipated that numerous applications will be received. Processing them will be greatly expediated by having the uploads clearly connected to each applicant.

Application Portal:

  • The application portal has closed and will reopen for round two at 8 a.m. Oct. 22. It will close again at noon, Nov. 4, 2020. All documentation must be submitted via the application portal.