WEDC announces another round of COVID relief for businesses

Metro Wire Staff

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. will provide a second round of the “We’re All In” small business grants, providing an additional $50 million to small businesses negatively affected by COVID-19.

The first phase of the program provided more than $65 million in grants to over 26,000 businesses statewide over the summer. The new round will provide grants of $5,000 each to another 10,000 small businesses in the state, according to Gov. Tony Evers’ office.

“Wisconsin’s small businesses have demonstrated unbelievable creativity and ingenuity in adapting to the pandemic,” said WEDC Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes in a news release. “But what we’re hearing from many of them is that they’re already stretched to the limit and are concerned what the next few months will hold.”

Applications for the grants will open at 8 a.m. Oct. 19, and close at 11:59 p.m. Nov. 2. Awards will not be made on a first-come, first-served basis, though priority will be given to businesses that have not previously received funds from the first-round of the We’re All In or Ethnic Minority Emergency Program grants.

The grants will be administered by the Wisconsin Dept. of Revenue. Applications are available at revenue.wi.gov.

To be eligible, businesses must be:

• a Wisconsin-based, for-profit business;
• in 2019, have 75 percent or more of company labor costs in Wisconsin and 75 percent of their assets in Wisconsin;
• earn more than $0 and less than $1 million in annual revenues (gross sales and receipts); and
  have started operating prior to Jan. 1, 2020, (Seasonal businesses should use the highest total FTEs employed during the season.)
• have filed their 2019 taxes.

The grant application can be found at revenue.wi.gov, or by calling the Wisconsin Department of Revenue at 608.266.2772.