In response to the economic hardships experienced by small businesses, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent announcement of additional closures by the State of California, the City of Menifee has released Phase II of the Menifee Cares Grant Program, as part of the Menifee Cares Initiative and Menifee Forward campaign. The program provides eligible businesses between $1,500 to $5,000 in grants to assist with the impacts of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Pre-applications will be accepted from October 28 through November 11 at 4 p.m. At the close of the pre-application period, the city will hold a lottery to randomly order all complete submitted pre-applications and preliminarily select the businesses that are eligible.
Eligibility:
- Pre-application must be submitted to the City of Menifee through our web portal and reviewed in advance
- Business must have an existing City of Menifee Business License and be in good standing
- For-profit business located in the City of Menifee with less than 15 employees (sole proprietors are permitted to apply)
- Business has been a business for at least one year from June 17, 2020
- The majority of staff must live in a household with low to moderate-income levels, as described in the application
- Owner has a valid employee identification number (EIN)
- Business or owner is registered with DUNS & Sam.gov or will have applied by the time the funding is granted (www.dnb.com/duns-number.html and www.sam.gov)
- Owner is 18 years or older
- Business has a bank account
- After disperse of grant funds, there will be a 2-year monitoring period
- The business must be able to show a need for funding in order to stay in business, maintain their lease payments, or to retain their staff as a result of COVID-19
In addition to the City of Menifee Cares Grant, there are loan programs available to Menifee businesses through the County of Riverside, which can be reviewed at www.menifeebusiness.com/menifee-cares/benefits-for-businesses or through the Economic Development Resource Toolkit.
