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Minnesota Small Business Relief Grants

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) will oversee the Minnesota Small Business Relief Grants Program approved by the Minnesota State Legislature and signed by Gov. Tim Walz on June 16, 2020.

NOTE: The program concluded on 12/30/2020 and is no longer active. The waiting list has closed and no additional selections or approvals will be made. If you are interested in the COVID Relief Grant Program that launches September 20, 2021, you can find more information on that program's website.

Overview

This program made available $10,000 grants to Minnesotan owned and operated businesses that can demonstrate financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. A total of $60.3 million was available for grant awards selected through a computer-generated, randomized selection process.

Awards were disbursed and administered by qualified local and regionally based nonprofit organizations. Grant funds received by individual businesses shall be used for working capital to support payroll expenses, rent, mortgage payments, utility bills, and other similar expenses that occur or have occurred since March 1, 2020, in the regular course of business. These are grants and no repayment will be required.

In November, DEED requested $10M in additional resources from the state’s CARES Act funding from the legislative COVID-19 Response Commission.

The funding will be used to support more businesses who applied for the Small Business Relief Grant program in July and were not selected in the lottery. We will not be taking any additional applications for funding but will be making funds available to businesses on the wait list.

If you receive notification that your application been selected to move forward in the grant process you will be contacted by a non-profit agency to work with you and verify your documentation. If approved you will receive grant funding of $10,000.

If you receive notification that your application has not been selected your application will be put on a waiting list should additional funds become available.

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