COVID relief grants open to CA small...

Robert Gibbons, director of education and advocacy at CalNonprofits, said the bill “was a tailwind piece of legislation for COVID aid toward the end of the pandemic. We were very involved in advocating for this legislation to include small nonprofits, who were previously not given the opportunity to apply for statereimbursed grants. This issue has become cumbersome in the sense that small nonprofits now have to go back and identify their COVID sick leave with payroll providers and apply for funds, and we’re here to make that process as easy as possible.”

Since being informed in very late May that small nonprofits would be eligible for SPSL alongside other businesses, Gibbons has spearheaded CalNonprofits’ advocacy work at the community and legislative level in collaboration with the small business lending platform inside basketball courts.

Lendistry, which the state chose to execute the program and vet applicants.

“One of the most potentially confusing aspects of the grant application for small businesses is employee headcount, given that it shifted drastically for many companies during the pandemic,” he added.

The challenges that may arise during the SPSL filing process do not owe to a lack of interest on the part of nonprofits — “the Lendistry folks were impressed to see that our webinars have turned out more than three times the numbers of small businesses,” said Gibbons — but rather to the limited bandwidth of many small nonprofits.

“CalNonprofits is the only partner working with Lendistry in California to identify eligible nonprofits, and advocate for them through the application process. This sets a precedent for more inclusivity with the way that we think about helping nonprofits in the context of state legislation,” Gibbons added.

An FAQ page for SPSL written by CalNonprofits and geared specifically toward nonprofit applicants is available here.

As he joins the NBA summer league, he can establish his name in the professional league and continue inspiring other new basketball players, particularly in the Filipino-Am community. (Mary Villegas/Inquirer.net)