Facebook Launches Grant Program To Help Small Businesses
As the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, there seems to be an unspoken (much spoken) agreement between the private and public sectors to try and do their part to help ease the destruction that this pandemic has brought. People all over the country are struggling, many have been laid off, and many small businesses are losing money to this crisis, which seems to be wrecking a special kind of havoc on the economy. A lot of large retailers like Amazon and Walmart are offering paid leave to their employees that can’t work from home to help mitigate the damage. And now, it seems that Facebook is taking a stand to help the small business that have been majorly impacted by COVID-19, by creating a 100 million dollar grant program.
Unfortunately, it seems like the COVID-19 pandemic and all issues stemming from it situation wise is going to get worse before we get better. Even though a vaccine is currently being tested in Seattle, the actual distribution could be months away, and the spread of the virus into new regions is frightening. Perhaps equally as disturbing is the impact that this pandemic has had on the U.S economy. The drop in the U.S stock market (one of the largest in history) has signaled a recession, unemployment in massively on the rise, and small business are being walloped.
And so to help ease the burden somewhat, Facebook, one of the largest social media companies in the world, has created a $100m grant program, which is looking to help 30,000 small businesses spanning 30 nations around the world that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg spoke on this new grant program in a Facebook Post to her page:
“We’ve listened to small businesses to understand how we can best help them. We’ve heard loud and clear that financial support could enable them to keep the lights on and pay people who can’t come to work. That’s why today I’m announcing that Facebook is investing $100 million to help 30,000 small businesses in over 30 countries where our employees live and work.”
Sandberg went on to explain that this is not all that Facebook is doing to provide help throughout this tough time. In addition to the grant program, Facebook is also giving additional resources to those who need them.
For example, Facebook has launched a business hub, which will become a significant resource for both Facebook employees as well as health care providers. This business hub will also work to provide support to small business that has been massively impacted by the pandemic. Facebook is also working to create a new virtual training program to support businesses affected by this crisis.
GrantWatch is committed to helping ensure that nonprofits have the proper information about grants that have been made available as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our team is consistently updating this list to reflect any updates available. You can find that list here.
