Facebook is offering a grant worth $100m (around £78 million) to small businesses around the world to help them recover from the disruptions of Covid-19.
The social media platform will provide cash grants and ad credits to help small business owners keep the business running, pay rent and operational costs, connect with more customers and support the community.
The grant is open to up to 30,000 small businesses in over 30 countries.
They include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, india, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.
Who is eligible for the grant?
In order to be eligible for the grant Facebook is putting the following restrictions in place:
- You have between 2 and 50 employees
- Have been in business for over a year
- Have experienced challenges due to Covid-19
- You are located in or near a location where Facebook operates
You will have to complete the application process to find out exactly how much your business is entitled to.
How and where to apply?
- Scroll down to ‘how do I apply?’
- Select the tab under ‘where is your business located?’ and click your country.
Next, scroll down and click ‘continue to partner site.’
The Small Business Grants Program application page will appear in a new tab.
When applying, business owners are required to provide a PDF of the most recent financial statements or accounts and a legal document which proves that the business has been running for over a year. This can either be certificate of incorporation, confirmation statement, partnership agreement, business licence or registration.
Applications from UK residents are being accepted from 9am on 22nd September to 5pm 1st October 2020. The application window varies for all countries, so you’ll have to check when applying.
Author: Hannah Williams, Contributor, Tech Advisor
Hannah was previously a Tech Advisor Small Business Editor. She writes news, tutorials and buying advice tailored to very small companies, covering software from Excel to Sage and hardware including laptops.
Recent stories by Hannah Williams:
- Virgin Media O2 now offers gigabit broadband to all UK customers
- What is broadband?
- WhatsApp vs Signal: Which messaging app should I use?
