City, DMC combining to put up $100K in grant money for innovative business ideas

Destination Medical Center and the City of Rochester are each putting up $50,000 in grant funding toward a new initiative aimed at helping businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

The “Keep it Local, COVID-19 Innovators Grant Program” will offer financial assistance to businesses that are adapting their models in response to challenges posed by statewide social distancing measures.

The program, according to an announcement Monday, is the result of feedback from local residents and business owners on how the city can address needs not being met by other city, state and federal relief efforts.

How it will work

The city says the grant program will “work by encouraging small businesses to team up with local contractors and collaborate on ways to respond, adapt, and strengthen Rochester’s economy now and for the future.”

The following example was included in a city news release:

Bob's Diner doesn’t have a website but wants to promote its take-out options in response to the governor’s executive order closing dine-in options. StudioX, a local business, makes websites. Bob's Diner applies for a $500 Keep it Local grant to help fund website design through StudioX.

Under the terms of the grant program, all businesses collaborating on an application must be located within the city of Rochester. The businesses involved must also must have less than 50 full-time equivalent employees.

The maximum grant request is capped at $2,000, though an applicant can contract multiple service providers for a single project.

Applications will be available by 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 7. From there, they will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning Friday, April 17.

[More information on the grant program — which is being administered by the Rochester Downtown Alliance — can be found here.]

The city emphasizes that applying for the program will not disqualify a business from receiving additional funds from emergency assistance programs at the federal, state or local levels.

As part of Monday’s announcement, the city said it also plans to use an additional $20,000 in emergency funding to increase the capacity of the Small Business Development Center. The SBDC is available to assist businesses in applying for government aid, adapting existing business plans, and/or managing decreases in demand for products or services.