As many of you are aware, the government passed a stimulus package to combat the negative economic impact of COVID-19. The CARE Act has a Paycheck Protection Program that is a ‘loan’ guaranteed to be forgiven as long as the employee(s) remain on payroll. The amount provided is 2.5 times the average monthly payment (salary and other compensation). For most of us, this would cover your Director’s salary and incidentals (travel, performance fees, registrations, continuing education, etc.)
Your chapter, as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization is eligible. The program is being administered through local banks as long as they are qualified SBA lenders. Check with your financial institution to see if they are a lender. Everything helps….
An even greater impact is through a second SBA ‘loan’ type (also fully forgivable) called the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). Loans of $10K are available. You will need to enter in the past years income and cost data to support the degree of adverse economic impact. With the information in hand, it only takes about 15 minutes to apply online. You will get a confirmation number and the SBA will contact you in about a week…Here is the link: https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options
Get started now. It’s first come-first served and the money WILL run out.
Finally, there is nearly $30 million in National Endowment for the Arts grants that will be administered at the state and local level starting no earlier than the end of April. Harmony Hall offers its assistance in helping us prepare potential grant requests with the potential of rolling them all up for the district to create a bigger and more meaningful “ask”. One thing you can do now to prepare for this is start gathering together information on how COVID-19 has adversely impacted you. Obvious areas are loss of revenue due to cancelled shows and other performances. Stay tuned as more information becomes available.
Let me know if your chapter has identified other ways we can help or have come up with new ways to generate funds to counteract the adverse impact of the Coronavirus.
Paul Martin President