What is it? 

The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) has created a Grant Program to help small businesses in Connecticut recover from the economic impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Eligible businesses and nonprofits can receive a one-time $5,000 grant and all funds will be disbursed to approved applicants by December 30, 2020.

Am I eligible?

The criterion for eligibility are:

  • No more than 20 total full-time employees in 2019 across all of their Connecticut locations, OR have total 2019 payroll of less than $1.5 million (annualized).

  • Businesses is able to demonstrate a 20% or more loss in revenue year to date as of September 30th, 2020 compared with the same period in 2019.

  • Business must have been established by October 1, 2019 and still be active (as verified by DRS).

  • Home-based businesses are eligible.

  • Sole proprietorships are eligible.

  • Eligible entities: for-profit businesses that use any type of incorporation (Aka, LLC’s, Corporations, S Corporations all eligible), as well as nonprofit organizations.

  • Craft breweries are eligible.

The last two eligibility requirements require further explanation:

  • “Those who already received federal CARES Act, PPP or EIDL assistance are eligible, but the grant cannot be used for the same expenses incurred or expected to occur between March 1, 2020 through December 30, 2020. “

What Connecticut is saying here is that they won’t give you funds for things either of the Federal funds already paid. See examples:

  1. You received a $10k PPP loans and had $10k of Payroll costs and no other expenses. You are ineligible for the CT grant program because all your costs were already covered by the PPP.

  2. You received $10k in PPP loans and had $15k of payroll costs and no other expenses. You are eligible for the $5k CT grant program because you had more eligible expenses than the PPP covered.

  • “The business must remain a viable business, be planning to reopen, and be planning to rehire any workers let go due to COVID as business conditions recover, and have a material financial need that cannot be overcome without the grant of emergency relief funds.”