The Regional Economic Development Organization, LEAP, has partnered with Ingham County Sunrise to provide economic relief to small businesses throughout the county since COVID-19 struck.
Shortly after the approval of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, LEAP and Ingham County bonded in an $11 million contract. They began to devise recovery plans for communities across the county in response to the pandemic. From there, Ingham County Sunrise was born. The program was constructed for the sole purpose of supplying financial relief to small, underrepresented businesses to improve their resiliency in the face of COVID-19.
“I think Ingham County really recognized the immediate emergent need that COVID-19 has caused and took action because it’s one of those things where if you don’t act, we never know how things would land,” said LEAP representative Dillon Rush.
After taking care of administrative fees, Ingham County Sunrise was able to allocate an estimated $8.5 million in competitive grants and $2 million for long-term assistance. With a whopping 1,100 applicants to consider, the program committed to dispersing relief grants based on three priorities: (1) to supply relief to businesses which are able to demonstrate severe negative impact, (2) select applicants who are geographically distributed throughout the business community, (3) assist underrepresented communities with heavy impact.
Collectively, LEAP and Ingham County Sunrise paid 630 impact grants.
