Inkwell Grant Seeking and Professional Writing
remote Cobble Hill, BC, Canada

If you did not previously apply to the Small and Medium-Sized Business Recovery Grant offered by the Province of BC because of eligibility restrictions - please note that there have been some changes that may interest you! These include: * Lowering the requirement for the amount of time a business had to have been in operation from three years to 18 months.... * Removing the requirement to list a number of remittance accounts such as GST, PST, and WorkSafeBC registration numbers. * Extended the grants to sole proprietors with fixed costs. * Expanding the revenue requirements to include businesses that continue to earn 30 percent or less in revenue. * Streamlining the required recovery plan to a two-page form. As a refresher, this grant provides a "base grant" of $10-30K (depending on annual revenue) for BC businesses (with up to 149 employees) that have lost revenue due to COVID (see the website for specific loss criteria). This funding must be used to carry out a "recovery plan" (ex. new hours, modified facility, online sales, etc.) that were NOT implemented prior to Sept. 17, 2020, and can be used towards fixed costs (rent, overhead). If you work in the tourism sector, you could be eligible for an additional $15K "top-up" if a "significant part of your business's total goods or services are purchased by visitors." There are 2 options for preparing your recovery plan: 1) Via a professional assigned by Small Business BC 2) DIY with the support from your own service provider (who the program will fund up to $2000). Info and apply here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca//economic-r/business-recovery-grant #fundingfridays

Hey hive mind! I'm a day past my usual #FundingFriday post but we can all agree...it's been a weird week. Anywhoozle, today, I'm buzzing about the BC Bee Program. This grant is open to regional/community beekeeping associations or groups; beekeepers or groups of beekeepers with permitted hives; and First Nations/Indigenous organizations. ... If you have a project that promotes best bee management practices, you can get up to $5,000 for activities and expenses related to research, exploration, field-testing, and sharing best practices/techniques to promote healthy colonies and implementing practices related to bee disease monitoring, response and treatment. Examples include introducing pollen substitutes or supplements; improving your beehive management systems, and purchasing equipment to enhance bee health. Regular/ongoing activities associated with hive maintenance or commercial honey production, business development activities, and promotion/marketing projects are ineligible. The application window opens Monday, January 11th so bee prepared! Project activities must take place between April 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. Recipients must contribute a minimum of 20% towards the total cost of the project (in-kind contributions count towards this). Information and apply here: https://iafbc.ca/bee-bc/

Happy New Year's edition of #FundingFriday! Today I'm telling you about the BC Arts Council's Expanded Arts and Culture Resilience Supplement. The deadline for this opportunity has just been extended to January 29, 2021. This grant is a one-time funding supplement for BC arts and culture organizations facing financial hardships due to COVID-19. ... Eligible recipients are: 1) Current BC Arts Council Operating Assistance clients, and 2) Arts and culture organizations and collectives who have received at least one BC Arts Council grant since April 1, 2016, for eligible programs (eligible programs include: "Professional Project Assistance: all disciplines; Project Assistance: community arts, organizations; Community Arts Festivals; Arts-Based Community Development; and Youth Engagement Program) COVID hardships/impact need not be limited to revenue loss - they can also include reduced capacity or activity. If your organization received funding via the Arts and Culture Resilience Supplement program earlier in 2020, you ARE still able to apply for this program - they are separate opportunities. This funding can be used to assist with expenses required to maintain operations such as paying artists, retaining space, and protecting/restoring jobs. You are expected to have pursued and accessed any applicable provincial and/or federal supports. You are also expected to be operating at the time of application and have plans to continue operations into the future. The actual amount received will be determined by the BC Arts Council in accordance with the size of the organization's operating budget. The minimum grant will be $10,000. More information here: https://www.bcartscouncil.ca//expanded-arts-culture-resil/

"There is no shortage of captioning services and many of them are free or low cost. For those with business accounts, Microsoft Teams has live captioning included with the subscription and Google Meet is free for 60 minutes. Zoom has a more expensive paid option in a partnership with voice-to-text service otter.ai that immediately transcribes content. Events with volunteers can designate someone to do live captioning via Zoom." https://www.cbc.ca//opinion-roberta-mcdonald-online-events

Happy holidays from Inkwell! Yesterday was Christmas so this week's #FundingFriday post is a day late. The Canada Summer Jobs Program is open for applications once again. The window opened on December 21, 2020, and will close on January 29, 2021.... As before, this program provides funding to cover some of the costs associated with hiring young Canadians for a variety of jobs. The overarching goal of the program is to help young people gain quality work experience that will help them build their careers/find secure employment. As before, funded employers are expected to provide adequate and enriching supervision, mentoring, and skill-development opportunities as well as comprehensive health and safety training. The program USED to restrict jobs to students (secondary and post-secondary) but in recent years this was changed to include ALL eligible employees aged 15-30. THIS YEAR, there have also been some important changes in light of COVID. 1) Private (e.g. for-profit businesses) and public (e.g. municipal governments) grant recipients can now be reimbursed for up to 75% of their provincial/territorial minimum wage (prior to this year, it was only 50% for these employers/recipients). Non-profit employers will again receive coverage of 100% of the minimum wage. 2) Employers/grant recipients can use CSJ funding for part-time positions (prior to this year, funded employees had to work 30+ hrs/week). Note: the minimum # of hours per week is 12 3) Although it is still called the Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) grant recipients can use CSJ funding for job placements happening any time between April 26, 2021, and Feb 26, 2022, (prior to this year, CSJ employment was limited to the summer months). Note: the latest a CSJ-funded position can start is Jan 15, 2022 and funded positions must run for at least 6 weeks. 4) Employers may amend job activities after an agreement is signed IF these changes are a result of COVID-restrictions. As in past years, additional funding may be available to employers with expenses related to accommodating workers with disabilities (e.g. visual language interpreters, adaptive tools, etc.). And remember: Before applying, make sure you check the national and local priorities for this year's program and speak to how your project/employment aligns with these considerations. https://www.canada.ca//ser/funding/canada-summer-jobs.html