City of Bainbridge Island
Small Business Assistance Grants

Application Period Opens March 12th

The City of Bainbridge Island is making $200,000 available
for eligible small businesses, cooperatives & nonprofits,

negatively impacted by COVID-19

Up to $10,000

The Kitsap Economic Development Alliance (“KEDA”) is partnering with the City of Bainbridge Island to administer a small business grant program in response to COVID-19.

 Grant eligibility is dependent on the business's ability to demonstrate significant negative financial impact due to COVID-19, backed up by documentation.

Businesses may receive between $5,000 – $10,000 based upon their eligibility, COVID-19 financial impacts and the number of total applications received by the City. Priority will be given to industries most negatively affected by the pandemic, such as hospitality, tourism, fitness, and small retail.

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Grant funds, if awarded, will help your organization remain in operation and mitigate negative financial impact from COVID-19. Funds may be used to reimburse expenses incurred during the pandemic impact timeframe (beginning March 1, 2020 ) or for non-capital, non-entertainment expenses that will be incurred in  2021.

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Applicants are NOT required to submit receipts, but WILL be required to provide a detailed explanation of:

• how business/organization has been impacted by the pandemic and,

• how funds will be used to help the business or non-profit

• businesses are required to maintain records and receipts of applicable expenses claimed under this grant for a period of six years.

GRANT REVIEW WEBINAR

KEDA will offer a webinar on Wednesday, March 10th at 2pm to review the grant application process and timeline. This is a great opportunity to ask questions and make sure you have all necessary details and documents required for a successful application.

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Qualifying Businesses

Qualifications—To be eligible for this grant program, applicants must:

• Be actively licensed with the City of Bainbridge of Island.

• Have a physical commercial location in the City of Bainbridge of Island established on/or before March 1, 2020 and have been opened since March 1, 2019 or earlier (i.e., businesses had to be open a full year pre-COVID).

• Have no more than 50 full-time equivalent employees (defined as 34-40 hours weekly) and annual gross revenues of up to $5,000,000.

• Be (and have been) in compliance with Governor Inslee’s Healthy Washington and previous similar Safe Start and other COVID-19 related guidelines.

• Engage in a type of business eligible to receive funding by the US Small Business Administration: (https://www.sba.gov/partners/lenders/7a-loan-program/terms-conditions-eligibility#section-header-15 )

• Ability to demonstrate negative financial impact due to COVID-19: ​

  • Commonly, negative financial impact will be determined by comparing annual gross revenue betweenQ2 through Q4 for  2019 and 2020.

• Negative impact shown will determine the amount to be funded. Backup documentation of that negative financial impact (Profit & Loss statements) must be provided.

Determining Eligible Expenses 

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Businesses (and non-profits) will be asked to describe how funds will be used to help the business. This information is necessary to  ensure that proposed expenses are eligible for reimbursement. Expenditures are only being accepted on costs incurred March 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021.

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You will self-attest by signature that the answer to ALL of the following  questions is "YES"
 

• Is the expense connected to the COVID-19 emergency?

• Is the expense "necessary" to continue business operations?

• You confirm that the expense is NOT filling a shortfall in government owed payments (i.e. taxes, licenses, state/county/federal and/or city fees)

• The expense has NOT been funded by any other funder, whether private, state or federal*

• You would not be seeking this grant IF you had NOT been impacted by COVID-19

* Public funds such as EIDL, PPP and CARES cannot be used for same use twice -- i.e. if you used public funds for April rent, this grant cannot be used for April rent.

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Most ordinary and necessary business expenses defined by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) are allowed, including:

• Rent or lease expenses

• License and regulatory fees

• Employee wages

• Supplies and Services

• Contract labor

• Utilities

• Advertising/Marketing

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Use of Funds

In general, eligible businesses may use this funding for any activity considered an ordinary and necessary eligible business expense allowed by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) tax rules. Conversely, businesses SHALL NOT use the funding for any expense not considered such.

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Ineligle Activities

Businesses MAY NOT use the funding for the following activities:

• Examples of Disallowed Expenses (Not a comprehensive list)

•  Wages, bonuses, or draws by an owner of an eligible business or any personal (non-business) expenses by such an owner.

•  Capital expenses.

•  Entertainment expenses (even if allowed by IRS tax rules). 

• Any expense that would not be considered an eligible business expense by IRS rules.

• Businesses that received previous funding under the Working Washington Small Business Emergency Grant program or other local grants MAY NOT claim the same expense twice. (EXAMPLE: If rent was applied to PPP forgiveness, applicant can not apply for the same time period.)

• Rent reimbursement: If including rent as an expense you may not claim rent for months that landlord provided rent relief

ABOUT

Bainbridge Island Small Business Relief Grant

The City of Bainbridge Island, Washington has made $200,000  available to assist small businesses and non-profits negatively impacted by COVID-19. 

• Grant application period: March 12 to March 28, 2021

• One round of funding – minimum $5,000 – maximum $10,000 (depending on demonstrated  financial impact and number of eligible applicants)

• Must have less than $5 million in annual revenue

• Grant eligibility is dependent on the businesses ability to demonstrate significant negative financial impact due to COVID-19, backed up by documentation.

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Eligible COVID-19 impacts will be determined by a comparison of  2019 Gross Revenue (Q2-Q4) and 2020 (Q2-Q4) Gross Revenues. For the purpose of this grant, applicants should NOT include any other 2020 grant funds.

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Receipt of previous grant funds, EIDL/EIDG and PPP do NOT disqualify businesses.

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BE READY TO APPLY

Have this information and required documentation (pdf files for uploading) on hand when the portal opens.

Application period:  Portal opens Friday, March 12th at 8:00 am and closes at 11:59 pm on Sunday, March 28th

WA STATE UBI

W9 IRS FORM - Completed and Uploaded -  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf

BUSINESS STRUCTURE

Sole Proprietorship

Home Based Business

501(c)3

501(c)6

General Partnership

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

Cooperative

Close corporation

Corporation

- C Corp

- S Corp

- B Corp

Limited Partnership (LP)

Limited Liability Partnership​

​General Partnership

Limited Partnership (LP)

Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)

WA DEPT OF REVENUE 4-DIGIT LOCATION CODE​ - https://webgis.dor.wa.gov/taxratelookup/SalesTax.aspx

(NONPROFITS will be reviewed based upon physical address of its main office rather than DOR tax rate.)

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DATE BUSINESS OPENED​

Eligible businesses will have been in business before March 1, 2019 with a physical (storefront) Bainbridge location as of March 1, 2020.

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GROSS REVENUE

Eligible businesses will have gross revenues NOT to exceed $5 million per year.

DETERMINING ELIGIBLE COVID-19 IMPACTS:

The following report/comparison of gross revenue will be used to determine your COVID related impacts:

•  2019 Q2-Q4 GROSS REVENUE $______________

•  2020 Q2-Q4 GROSS REVENUE $_______________

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NUMBER OR EMPLOYEES (FTE)

Eligible businesses will have no more than 50  employees (FTE) not including owner as of January 15, 2020 or date of application.

Calculations: Full Time Equivalent = FTE. Final numbers to be rounded up.

• Full-Time Employees (Not Volunteers) = Employees working 34-40 hours per week = 1 FTE

• Part-Time Employees (Not Volunteers) = Employees working less than 34 hours per week, add their hours together and divide by 40. Example: 3 Employees working the following 11+29+20 hours = 60 Hours/34 hours = 1.5 FTE.

APPLICATIONS WITHOUT UPLOADED DOCUMENTATION WILL BE CONSIDERED INCOMPLETE AND INELIGIBLE. Be prepared with pdf files of the following:

1. Completed and signed IRS Form W9

2. Bainbridge Island Business License

3. Proof of Financial Impact (Profit & Loss Statements for Q2-Q4 2019 and 2020 )

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STATEMENT OF IMPACT
Telling your COVID story is vital to the review of your application - be as specific and detailed as possible in all areas requesting explanation.

OTHER RELIEF FUNDS RECEIVED & DESCRIPTION HOW FUNDS WERE USED

Previous financial government grant support will not disqualify you as an applicant. We reserve the right to request documentation of the invoices, bills, etc. you were reimbursed for and an accounting of other funds received in order to best deploy this grant.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW FUNDS WILL BE USED
Businesses will be asked to describe how funds will be used to help the business.

Applicants are not required to submit receipts. However, during the review process, KEDA and/or the City may request documentation for clarification. Businesses WILL be required to provide a detailed explanation describing how funds will used to help the business. ALL receipts and documents related to this grant (if awarded) MUST be kept for potential follow-up or review for six (6) years and furnished upon request. Failure to submit supporting documentation if requested may disqualify the recipient and result in the forfeiture of the grant funds.

SELF CERTIFICATION REGARDING USE OF FUNDS
You will self-attest by signature that the answer to both of the following questions is "YES":

• You would not be seeking this grant IF you had NOT been impacted by COVID-19; and

• Grant funds, if awarded, will help your business remain in operation and mitigate negative financial impact from COVID-19.

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