Many Stamford COVID grants go to businesses owned by women, minorities
STAMFORD — About two thirds of the small businesses set to receive a COVID-19 relief grant from the city are owned by women or minorities, and Stamford’s director of economic development said it’s a result of outreach efforts.
Indigo Wellness Group, which offers acupuncture treatment, massage therapy, nutrition counseling and other services at an office in the city’s downtown, is one of the 120 women- and/or minority-owned businesses that will receive a roughly $8,000 grant, pending completion of final paperwork.
“COVID was really a rough time,” said the business’ owner, Sarah Swanberg, a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. “There were moments of not thinking we were gonna make it through that time. We touch people for a living, and it was not a good time to be doing that.”
But her business managed to stay afloat, she said. Now, the grant from the city will help “create a little bit of a cushion” in case of future crises, Swanberg said.
“Also, we’re like, ‘OK, we have some momentum behind growth that we were able to accomplish during these weird couple of years, and how can we use this grant to propel us even faster?’ ” she said.
The city used $1.5 million of its federal American Rescue Plan Act money to fund the grant program.
In its count of minority-owned businesses, the city of Stamford included those owned by people from racial and ethnic minority groups as well as those owned by veterans and people with disabilities.
Of the 176 announced recipients, 34 are Latin/Hispanic-owned, 14 are Asian-Indian-owned, 13 are Asian-Pacific-owned, 10 are Black-owned, three are veteran-owned and three are owned by individuals with disabilities, according to the city.
Of the total, 73 are women-owned businesses. Thirty are both women- and minority-owned.
“It is a priority for Mayor Simmons’ administration to support women- and minority-owned businesses,” said Leah Kagan, the city’s director of economic development. “In addition, it is a priority through the ARPA funding to support businesses that were hardest hit by the pandemic, which are women- and minority-owned businesses.”
Kagan attributed the large proportion of grant winning businesses that are women- and/or minority-owned to the outreach the city did with the help of local community and business organizations.
“We do not have large marketing resources, so we really relied on partner organizations that have networks and memberships to get the word out about the grant opportunity,” Kagan said.
Those groups included the Black Business Alliance, the Hispanic Advisory Council of Greater Stamford, the Women’s Business Development Council, the Stamford Downtown Special Services District and the Stamford Chamber of Commerce, she said.
The city had documents available in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole, and Spanish-speaking applicants could receive assistance with their applications over the phone or email, Kagan said.
At one point, the city planned to select grant winners through a lottery process. A third of the grants were going to be reserved for women- and/or minority-owned businesses, and those businesses would have had their own lottery, Kagan said.
“We decided to pivot from that because we wanted to give grants between $7,500 and $10,000, and based on the number of eligible applications, we were able to do that without the lottery,” she said.
The city received a total of 262 grant applications, 86 of which were rejected.
“The only reason businesses were deemed ineligible was if they didn’t meet the criteria that was outlined,” Kagan said.
The criteria included being located in Stamford, having fewer than 60 employees and reporting between $25,000 and $2 million in revenue in 2021. Applicants were also required to provide documentation, including tax returns or profit and loss statements, to qualify for a grant.
Of the $1.5 million set aside for the grant program, the city spent $80,738 on administrative costs, which included hiring a pair of seasonal workers to help perform outreach, review applications and answer questions from applicants, said Lauren Meyer, a special assistant to Simmons.
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