Here’s how many businesses have received Greeley Area Recovery Fund grants so far
The city of Greeley pledged $250,000 in taxpayer dollars to the Greeley Area Recovery Fund. As of May 5, 2020, applications had been approved for 44 businesses. Photo by Kelly Ragan.
By Kelly Ragan
There’s still plenty of grant money available for the taking in the Greeley Area Recovery Fund.
Benjamin Snow, Greeley’s director of the Department of Economic Health and Housing, spoke about the fund at the city council meeting Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, 126 applications had come through, Snow said, and about 90% were Greeley businesses. Of those applications, 44 grants had been awarded, totaling $135,000.
So far, the public-private partnership has raised $597,205.
The breakdown of the funding sources looks like this:
City of Greeley: $250,000
City of Evans: $20,000
Private donors (business): $305,000
Grassroots efforts (individual donors) : $22,205
According to documents presented at the city council meeting, the chamber knows of a company that is willing to match the money raised by grassroots donors at the end of the campaign.
The public won’t know which businesses get the grant money. But for now, we do know that the industry breakdown of grant recipients looks like this:
20 restaurants/coffeeshops/bars
14 retail/other
10 professional services
At the meeting, councilmember Brett Payton, who represents southeast Greeley and who also sits on the Greeley Chamber of Commerce foundation board, said he and his colleagues don’t know why there haven’t been more applications.
Amid the slowdown, the chamber increased its marketing, Payton said.
“Some of what we hear is that some businesses owners are saying there are others who need the money more than they do,” Payton said.
As for why only 44 out of 126 applications have been approved so far, Payton said many business owners who have applied have sent in incomplete applications.
Payton said the chamber foundation has made efforts to follow up and contact folks who need to finish their applications rather than simply rejecting them.
“Most people know their applications are incomplete,” Payton said, “but we aren’t getting the response rate we hoped for.”
For example, he said, some documents are password protected, or the same file is uploaded six times or the wrong documents are attached.
Who can apply for the fund?
According to the Greeley Area Recovery Fund website, applicants must:
Be an investor in the Greeley Area Chamber (the chamber is offering a six-month complimentary investor status)
Be a locally owned business in operation for a minimum of six months as of the date of application
Demonstrate solvency with positive equity and net income prior to Feb. 29, 2020
Provide proof of application for at least one of the available federal relief programs, such as the SBA, Disaster Loan, PPP Loan, or EIDL loan.
How to apply for the fund or donate to it
To learn more about the process to donate or apply, go to https://greeleyarearecoveryfund.com/.