News from Andy Kelleher Executive Director, Main Street Lansing

Posted: April 13, 2020

Five things today: (1) Artist Relief Fund, (2) Farmer Relief Fund, (3) New Small Business Relief Fund, (4) CARES Act Stimulus Check Update, (5) IEDA Grant Update———————————————————————

(1)

The Iowa Arts & Culture Emergency Relief Fund provides short-term financial relief to those in the arts, cultural and creative industries most impacted by state disaster declarations, natural disasters, and other forms of emergencies. It provides one-time funding of $1,000 for eligible Iowa artists and $2,500 for eligible Iowa arts nonprofits. The application for the first round of funding opens today (April 13th, 2020) and closes on Friday (April 17th, 2020). Due to the extent of this public health emergency, grant requests are anticipated to exceed available funding. Should additional funding become available, the application period may reopen. However, applying quickly is highly recommended. Learn more and apply here: https://iowaculture.gov/arts/grants/iowa-arts-emergency-relief-fund

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(2)

American Farmland Trust’s Farmer Relief Fund will award farmers with cash grants of up to $1,000 each to help them weather the current storm of market disruptions caused by the coronavirus crisis. Eligible applicants include any small and mid-size direct-market producers. These are defined as producers with annual gross revenue of between $10,000 and $1 million from sales at farmers markets and/or direct sales to restaurants, caterers, schools, stores, or makers who use farm products as inputs. Learn more and apply here: https://farmland.org/farmer-relief-fund/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=b4dec3c2-c1b8-4aa2-b782-05fe7af2c3b7

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(3)

The Iowa Small Business Relief Fund (this is different than the similarly-named program offered by Iowa Economic Development Authority) is dedicated to helping small business owners impacted by COVID-19 by offering grants ranging from $500-$3,500. Note: businesses can not be recipients of Federal and State small business relief dollars. To be eligible, businesses are required to have 1-7 employees prior to March 17, 2020, be based in Iowa, complete the online application, provide a 3 month P & L statement or bank statements, and provide a 2019 and 2020 Q1 Revenue. Funds can be used for business expenses including rent, insurance, utilities, delivery services, etc. Learn more and apply here: https://www.empowermoney.org/smallbusinessrelief

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(4)

The $1,200 stimulus checks from the CARES Act have started going out to the public. The IRS has stated that people who already have direct deposit information on file from their tax records will receive payments in the coming week. A U.S. Treasury spokesperson said that up to 70 million Americans will be paid by April 15th. For those without direct deposit, paper checks will arrive by mail any time between now and early September. The IRS is going to be launching a new “Get My Payment” tool in mid-April to check your payment status and confirm your payment type (which will allow you to enter your bank account information for direct deposit if you don’t care to wait for a paper check). If you don’t normally file taxes and are curious about how to receive your stimulus money, the IRS has guidance for you in their “Non-Filer” section. You can learn more about everything I’ve said above and watch for updates here: https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments

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(5)

Notifications were made last week for recipients of the IEDA Iowa Small Business Relief Grant. All applicants that were awarded a grant have received notification. At this time, all available funds have been expended. If additional funding is allocated, awards will be made from the current pool of applicants. IEDA will not open a new round of applications. You can see more info and view a list of grantees here: https://www.iowaeconomicdevelopment.com/aspx/general/dynamicpage.aspx?id=205

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