The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) announced in a press release yesterday that $46 million in small business grants have been released to 2,655 small businesses through the Business Interruption Grant (BIG) program. Forty-six Greater Peoria businesses received grants totaling $750,000.
“I’m proud to announce the first $46 million of our Business Interruption Grant program has been deployed to help more than 2,600 small businesses in over 400 cities and towns in Illinois. That’s 78 of our 102 counties.”
– Governor JB Pritzker.
The BIG program is designed to help the businesses most severely impacted by COVID-19. Grants in this first round ranged from $10,000-$20,000 and may be used to help businesses with working capital expenses, including: payroll costs; rent; utilities; and equipment as well as other unexpected costs to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, such as PPE, training, and new technology. Small businesses with annual revenues of $3 million or lower were given priority.
More than 5,000 businesses applied for funding. Grantees were selected by random lottery. The complete list of grant recipients can be viewed here.
Future BIG Opportunities
The first wave of the BIG program accounts for only a portion the at least $540 million to be set aside for small business grants. About half of those funds will be set aside for childcare providers.
Stay tuned for updates by visiting www.gpcovid.com.