Emergency Small Business Grant Funding

Dane County recently put out an update with information on how Small Business Grant Funding was distributed. Here are the details from the County Exec’s office in italics:

More than $14 million was made available to assist small businesses that were locally owned in Dane County and reeling from the economic downturn related to our ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the grant program assisted a total of 2,662 businesses with an average grant award of $4,006. The businesses that received grants from the program reported the retention of the equivalent of 13,007.51 full time jobs.

The total amount of funding requested from applicants in 2020 was $74 million through June 15th, the program application deadline.

In 2021, the grant program assisted 399 businesses with an average grant award of $9,750. In 2021, the program placed a priority on assisting businesses that were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and providing larger grant amounts due to the ongoing economic strain the pandemic continues to place on small businesses.

The total amount of funding requested from applicants in 2021 was more than $51 million through February 15th, the program application deadline.

Funding for the 2021 round was recently released, and job retention numbers will be collected and submitted to the County by Dane Buy Local in future reporting.

Attached, please find the list of businesses that were awarded grants in 2020 and 2021, and corresponding demographics for the grant awardees. Please note that the demographics related to location of the business are based on the mailing address of the business. All businesses are headquartered in Dane County.

In 2020:

- 25% of the total grants were awarded to business owners of color.

- 63% of the total grants were awarded to woman-owned businesses.

- 54% of awards went to businesses inside the City of Madison, and 46% of awards went to businesses outside the City of Madison.

In 2021:

- 39% of the total grants were awarded to business owners of color.

- 59% of the total grants were awarded to woman-owned businesses.

- 57% of awards went to businesses inside the City of Madison, and 43% of awards went to businesses outside the City of Madison.

Here are some additional PDFs with details:


2020 Awardees

2020 Demographics

2021 Awardees

2021 Demographics

Going forward to provide more accountability to the public and to properly set priorities for the America Recovery Plan (ARP) money, I am co-sponsoring this resolution:

https://dane.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=9336172&GUID=5D10B011-7B32-4F14-854A-2149B1FDF542

I am also sponsoring a resolution to continue the Dane Arts Need Grant (DANG) for $1 million dollars:

https://www.wispolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DANG-PR-1.pdf