Marketing Momentum Small Business Grants

We get it! Starting and growing a small, local business is HARD WORK. For many, it can feel like a lonely and daunting path, riddled with unknowns. Lowcountry Local First is here to ensure that our region is hospitable and encouraging to all people looking to fulfill the dream of business ownership. We delight in building relationships that matter, and one NEW way we can do so is by connecting those in need of a little marketing momentum with generous experts in the community who are ready to help. The Marketing Momentum Small Business Grant Program is an in-kind offering through LLF that connects and facilitates up to 3 in-kind marketing projects for qualified local businesses each year. Top candidates will display ways their business does - or will - use their business as a force for good in the community.

2025 Grant Timeline

  • Grant applications open: January 6, 2025

  • Application deadline: January 31 at 5 p.m. 

  • Grant recipients notified no later than February 25

  • Recipients and project partners recognized at 12th annual Good Business Summit, March 6 at Charleston Music Hall

  • Selected projects begin in March and should be completed by May 30

2023 Grant Recipients Included:

  • Brighter Outlook Vision
  • The Broken Leash
  • Peculiar Pig Farm
  • Selfie Addict Studio
  • Shoreline Restoration Group

 

TESTIMONIALS:

"This was an amazing opportunity and will really propel our business. We now have a plan and vision which we did not have before. We have a path to target the customers we want and also a plan on how to keep them."

-Zach, 2023 Grant Recipient

"We are incredibly grateful for this experience! Our partner has such a wealth of knowledge and knows the key players in the area, which we do not. We could never have afforded this and are so happy to have help. I hope one day we can pay it forward!"

- Abbigail, 2023 Grant Recipient

 

Grant Eligibility Criteria

  • The applicant must be the owner of the business and be 18 years of age or older.

  • The applicant must be eligible for Lowcountry Local First membership:

    • The business is privately held and not publicly traded.

    • The business is based locally and has no corporate or national headquarters outside the Lowcountry.

    • The business owners who have a controlling interest of more than 50% live in the Lowcountry.

    • The business can make independent decisions regarding the name and look of the business, business purchasing, practices and distribution, as well as pays all its own marketing, rent, and other business expenses.

  • The applicant has been in business and making sales for two or less years or is preparing to launch in the next 6 months.

  • The applicant’s business employs less than 5 full time employees.

  • The applicant’s business must be a for profit business. 501(c)(3) entities and 501(c)(6) entities are not eligible for this grant.

Grant opportunities are limited but all who apply received invitations to informative workshops, access to additional resources, and will be notified of future grant opportunities.

Applications are evaluated and considered by an outside review committee based on the following criteria:

  • Applicant meets the criteria as outlined above

  • Applicant’s clarity of potential project impact on their business’s growth and success

  • Strength of business mission and/or community give-back

  • Applicant attended / viewed at least one marketing workshop offered to applicants (options to be provided)

  • Availability of project support by local program partners