New Marketing Grant for Small Businesses
Starting and growing a small, local business is HARD WORK. For many, it can feel like a lonely and daunting path, riddled with unknowns. Through initiatives like our Good Enterprises' Community Business Academy, 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 are doing 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 grant offering through LLF and its network that aims to match and facilitate up to 3 in-kind marketing projects for qualified local businesses in the Fall of 2023. Top candidates will display the ways their business does - or will - use their business as a force for good in the community.
If you and your small business meet the criteria outlined below, we invite you to complete the brief application by August 25, 2023. Grant opportunities are limited but all who apply will receive invitations to informative workshops, access to additional resources, and will be notified of future grant opportunities.
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.
2023 Grant Program Partners:
These grant opportunities are only made possible by the generosity of many Locals, including those below. Interested in becoming a grant program partner? Reach out to Jordan!
2023 Grant Timeline
- Application deadline: Aug 25
- Grant recipients notified by Sept 2
- Selected projects begin in October and should be completed by Dec 22
- Project partners and recipients to be recognized at Lowcountry Local First’s January Local Social on Jan 11, 2024.
Applications will be evaluated and considered by an outside review committee based on the following criteria:
- Applicant meets the criteria as outlined above
- Applicant displays clarity of potential project impact on their business’s growth and success
- Applicant's strength of business mission and/or community give-back
- Applicant attended or viewed at least one marketing workshop offered to applicants (see LLF's event page; 2nd workshop to be announced)
- Availability of project support by grant partners