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City Awards an Additional 143 Grants from Small Business Stabilization Fund

The Office of Economic Development (OED) awarded an additional 143 businesses $10,000 grants from the second round of the Stabilization Fund. In March of 2020, OED quickly launched the Stabilization Fund to allocate $2.5 million in emergency funding to small businesses impacted by COVID-19. OED received over 9,000 applications and. because the need is significantly greater than the available resources, OED did not re-open the application process for round two.—Instead, businesses were selected from the original pool of eligible applicants.  

“In the face of this unprecedented crisis, our office with the support of our City partners was able to provide emergency funding to nearly 400 small businesses throughout our City.” said Pedro Gomez, Director of Small Business Development at OED. “These grants have helped our small businesses to stay afloat over the past several months, however, there are so many businesses that are still in need of support.”  

OED prioritized businesses located in areas of the city that are at risk of high-displacement and by applied a weighted lottery system that ensured 80 percent of the recipients were from those areas of the city. As a result, nearly 75 percent of the recipients from this second round identified as people of color.  

The City is working closely with our philanthropic partners to secure funding for future grants. Those interested in donating to the Stabilization Fund can do so by  emailing covidpledge@seattle.gov.  Businesses throughout Seattle are encouraged to monitor the OED website for updated information and any future announcements.  

The full list of grantees for the second round of the Small Business Stabilization Fund is below: 

Grantees of the second round of the Stabilization Fund.