The Governor has announced the opening of the second round of the Business Interruption Grant (BIG) Program.
These grants will be available to all small businesses statewide that experienced losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting today, the application is available on Department of Commerce website to review. Applicants can start gathering the necessary information and on the afternoon of September 17th, the application will be opened. Grants will be awarded and funded on a rolling basis until funding is depleted.
Funding for this round is approximately $200 million, with more than half of the funds earmarked for businesses downstate. Of this funding, $70 million will be invested in Disproportionately Impacted Areas (DIAs) and $60 million in heavily impacted industries. A map of the DIAs can be found on the DCEO website. The heavily impacted industries are defined a having annual revenues of $10 million or less and have been close or operating at a very diminished capacity since mid-March and are likely to continue to do so until Phase 5 of the Restore Illinois Plan. These industries include the following:
- Event spaces
- Music venues
- Performing arts venues
- Indoor recreation
- Amusement parks
- Movie theaters
- Museums
- Charter/shuttle buses
While these priority areas are part of the program, the BIG program is open to all eligible businesses (for profit and nonprofit) with $20 million or less in annual revenue in 2019 and experienced losses due to COVID-19. The grant size will be equivalent to two months of expenses.
DCEO will be hosting a series of webinars regarding this program. You can register for any of the webinars by using the links below:
