Fort Worth groups continue to support small businesses by offering $250,000 in cash grants
May 6,2020
See full City of Fort Worth article here.
Protect the Fort, a combined effort by the City of Fort Worth’s Economic Development Department, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce and Visit Fort Worth, will launch its Small Business Grant Program with the support of Facebook. Applications open May 13.
“We appreciate the opportunity to support small businesses as they represent the heart of the Fort Worth economic engine,” said Matt Sexton, community development regional manager for Facebook. “Since we broke ground on our data center in 2015, we’ve called Fort Worth home, and we are now seeing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our neighborhoods. We are proud to partner with Protect the Fort, who is working around the clock to assist small businesses to weather this storm and continue to serve our one-of-a-kind community.”
The grant recipient, Fort Worth Chamber Foundation, will disburse the funds among eligible small businesses. The review committee will include one representative from each of the following: the City of Fort Worth, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce, Visit Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Chamber Foundation.
Eligible small businesses in Fort Worth will qualify to receive up to $5,000 for rent, mortgage, inventory, working capital, payroll, IT, or innovation and/or marketing efforts.
“The City of Fort Worth is excited to collaborate with Facebook and our community partners to develop this lifeline for local businesses,” said Brenda Hicks-Sorensen, assistant director of the city’s Economic Development Department. “These grants will give business owners the resources they need to cover the essentials, which makes it another important tool in Fort Worth’s growing collection of businesses resources.”
“This has been a tremendously difficult time for many of our small businesses as they try to pivot their operations amidst coronavirus concerns,” said Brandom Gengelbach, president of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. “We hope that these funds will help our businesses to keep their doors open and get back on their feet.”
Applicants will provide a brief narrative on their needs in each category requested. Protect the Fort encourages all small businesses with fewer than 25 employees to apply, with priority given to minority-owned businesses.
Applicants may not have received any CARES Act funds.
All eligible businesses in Fort Worth are now able to submit their application at ProtectTheFort.com.