Relaunch Fund

2021 RELAUNCH FUND HIGHLIGHTS

The Collective Empowerment Group made a huge effort to adapt to the needs of its members and community during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Our goal for the CEG Covid-19 Small Business Relaunch Fund was to make a difference for the Small Businesses CEG members. Funds were allocated to eligible Small Minority Owned Businesses to address the costs of business interruption caused by required closures due to COVID-19.

RELAUNCH FUND REQUIREMENTS

Purpose:
Sustainability: This fund will be used to help provide small business grants of 500
– 1000 dollars to 20-30 low economic Small Minority Owned Businesses in order to help them remain sustainable beyond COVID-19 and the recent  challenges in our city.

The Grant can be used for the following:
– Employee Compensation (including wages and benefits)
– Working Capital
– Equipment Inventory: upgrades to business communications, such as
computer hardware, business software and telecommunication equipment
in order to have a responsive and effective web and social media presence
– Rent
– Other business-critical operating expenses

We will have an application go live for 2 weeks from March 15th – March 30, 2021.

The Relaunch Grant Advisory Board will have 2 weeks to use a scoring system to review and score the candidates. We will then notify 30 candidates who will participate in our In-Person Pitch night on April 15, 2021 . We will make our final selection of 15-20 recipients. All grant recipients will be notified via email by April 30, 2021.

Eligibility:
1. Small Minority Owned Business : Must have no more than $500,000 in annual gross revenues
2. Your principal office is located in the Hamilton County area
We strongly encourage disadvantaged Small Businesses in Downtown and Over the Rhine areas to apply, however other economically disadvantage business who may be outside of low to moderate income areas can also apply
3. Must be a for profit business entity

4. 100% of the Business is owned by Hamilton County Residents
5. More than 50% of the Business Employees are Hamilton County Residents
6. The Recipient will make a statement to CEG about how the funding helped their business.
7. Must be able to demonstrate at least a 25% loss in revenue that can be attributed to COVID-19