The City of Cumming and Forsyth County Government are offering the county’s small businesses a funding opportunity to help mitigate financial hardships created by the COVID-19 pandemic via the Forsyth County Chamber. The Forsyth County CARES Small Business Grant program will provide up to $10,000 for small businesses based in Forsyth County to use on working capital, equipment, payroll, healthcare benefits, contract labor, supplier payments, rent, lease or mortgage payment for real property used for business purposes or purchase payments for business property, utility payments for business properties, costs of critical business operations, PPE and sanitation supplies.

Applications open today, Aug. 5^th at 9 AM and close on August 19, 2020 at 5 PM. A full list of eligibility requirements and more information about the application process is available at www.ForsythCountyCares.com. The Forsyth County Chamber will host free webinars for all local businesses covering the application process. For the dates and times of these webinars and to register to participate, visit www.focochamber.org/events.

To be considered for the Forsyth County CARES Small Business Grant program, small businesses must meet the following requirements:

• Have its principle location located within Forsyth County;
• Have been operating a minimum of one year prior to March 1, 2020;
• Have a current City of Cumming or Forsyth County business license as of March 1, 2020;
• Demonstrate a reduction in sales/revenue as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Use grant funds on authorized expenses;
• Plan to resume normal operations after emergency guidelines are lifted;
• Cooperate with grant auditing practices;
• Demonstrate ongoing business operations as of one year prior to March 1, 2020;
• Not have an owner, officer, partner or principal actor of the business with a felony conviction for financial mismanagement within the last three years for which he/she is still serving a sentence;
• Not publicly traded company, partially owned by a hedge fund or owned by a corporate franchise;
• Not have any current city, county, state or federal tax liens;
• Not have any current unpaid code enforcement liens and is not operating in violation of any laws; and
• Must be committed to recommended COVID-19 safety guidelines.

Grant funding will be available in four different tiers based upon the number of full-time, W-2 employees at the company as of February 15, 2020. The tiers of grant funding include up to $2,000 for a sole proprietorship; up to $5,000 for two to five employees; up to $7,500 for six to 25 employees; and up to $10,000 for 26 to 499 employees.

Each business owner will be required to complete an application based on the objective requirements approved by the City of Cumming and Forsyth County Board of Commissioners. Completed applications will be time stamped when submitted. Each application will then be certified by an independent volunteer oversight committee. This independent volunteer oversight committee will consist of two representatives appointed by the City of Cumming and five representatives appointed by Forsyth County Government. The purpose of the committee is to provide a final review of grant applications to certify that an applicant has met the established criteria established before the grant money is released.

For more information and questions about this program please e-mail support@forsythcountycares.com.

August 5, 2020 Laura Stewart