Stoney administration awards $1.32M in support to businesses, extends deadline for grant program

The City of Richmond has approved the first wave of grant awards for the Richmond Recovers Grant Program. 123 applicants were notified of their approved grant applications and will receive a total of $1.32 million in grant funding. 

Of the 123 approved grant recipients, 42 are restaurants and nine are non-profit organizations. The city allocated three million of its CARES Act dollars to fund the grant program.

“This grant program is providing much needed financial relief to small businesses and non-profit organizations that have lost revenue due to COVID-19,” said Mayor Levar Stoney. “We will continue our efforts to make more financial resources available to help our Richmond businesses.”

The Richmond Recovers Grant Program still has $1.68 million to award. The Department of Economic Development is working with grant applicants to ensure that all of the required information is submitted in order for their application to be evaluated.

“Nearly 500 grant applications were started using our online application portal, and 300 of those applications had sufficient information for an initial review. We are modifying our eligibility criteria while we continue to follow up with applicants by email and telephone to get all of the information that we require to make decisions on the grant awards,” said Leonard Sledge, Director of Economic Development. “We have also decided to extend the application deadline to allow more applications to be submitted.”

The application deadline for the Richmond Recovers Grant Program has been extended to Monday, October 19, 2020. Grant funds can be used to reimburse the costs of employee wages (including the cost of benefits); rent, mortgage, and utilities for commercial workspaces; and working capital. 

Full program guidelines and eligibility requirements can be found at www.rvastrong.org/richmondrecovers.

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