Marketing Momentum Small Business Grants

We get it! Starting and growing a small, local business is HARD WORK. For many, it can feel like a lonely and daunting path, riddled with unknowns. Lowcountry Local First is here to ensure that our region is hospitable and encouraging to all people looking to fulfill the dream of business ownership. We delight in building relationships that matter, and one NEW way we can do so is by connecting those in need of a little marketing momentum with generous experts in the community who are ready to help. The Marketing Momentum Small Business Grant Program is an in-kind offering through LLF that aims to connect and facilitate up to 3 in-kind marketing projects for qualified local businesses in the fall of 2023. Top candidates will display ways their business does - or will - use their business as a force for good in the community.

If you meet the criteria outlined below, we invite you to complete the brief application by 5 p.m. on August 25, 2023. Grant opportunities are limited but all who apply will receive invitations to informative workshops, access to additional resources, and will be notified of future grant opportunities.

Grant Eligibility Criteria

  • The applicant must be the owner of the business and be 18 years of age or older.

  • The applicant must be eligible for Lowcountry Local First membership:

    • The business is privately held and not publicly traded.

    • The business is based locally and has no corporate or national headquarters outside the Lowcountry.

    • The business owners who have a controlling interest of more than 50% live in the Lowcountry.

    • The business can make independent decisions regarding the name and look of the business, business purchasing, practices and distribution, as well as pays all its own marketing, rent, and other business expenses.

  • The applicant has been in business and making sales for two or less years or is preparing to launch in the next 6 months.

  • The applicant’s business employs less than 5 full time employees.

  • The applicant’s business must be a for profit business. 501(c)(3) entities and 501(c)(6) entities are not eligible for this grant.

  

Apply Now!

  

2023 Grant Timeline

  • Grant Application Launch: July 27

  • Application deadline: Aug 25 at 5 p.m. 

  • Grant recipients notified by Sept 29

  • Selected projects begin in October and should be completed by Dec 22

  • Project partners and recipients to be recognized at Lowcountry Local First’s January Local Social on Jan 11, 2024.

Applications will be evaluated and considered by an outside review committee based on the following criteria:

  • Applicant meets the criteria as outlined above

  • Applicant’s clarity of potential project impact on their business’s growth and success

  • Strength of business mission and/or community give-back

  • Applicant attended / viewed at least one marketing workshop offered to applicants (see event page; 2nd workshop to be announced)

  • Availability of project support by local program partners