Posted on February 18, 2022

State Senator Sara Feigenholtz recently sent an update regarding the Illinois Back to Business grant program.

When the Back to Business Grant Program first launched, the Governor and the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) established a priority group system which is listed in their portal. These set-aside priority groups have hit their targets. DCEO will now be reconfiguring priority business groups based on the ‘below priority’ criteria. A business will receive higher priority status if more points under the criteria apply.

• Hard-hit industries (see eligibility guidelines for definitions)
• Disproportionately Impacted Areas (DIAs)
• Businesses that had less than $5 million in revenue in 2019
• Businesses who have yet to qualify for state funding or federal assistance (including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Business Interruption Grant (BIG), and more)

Priority Group 1 will consist of businesses that meet three or more of these criteria, Group 2 meets two of these criteria, Group 3 meets one, and Group 4 meets none. Based on the volume of applications for B2B, they anticipate that applications in Priority Groups 3 and 4 will NOT be reviewed before funding is exhausted.

Businesses that fall in Groups 1 and 2 can continue to check on their application by logging into the portal to see if the reviewer has any questions. They encourage businesses to reach out if there are special circumstances, but in nearly all cases they will not be able to offer much more than what the business owner can see in the portal.

If your business is still in need of funding, they recommend researching DCEO’s Advantage Illinois Program and the Illinois Treasurer’s Business Invest Program. These are two low-interest loan programs available to help businesses.

Please contact State Senator Feigenholtz’s office at (773) 296-4141 or emailing sara@senatorsara.com for any additional information and assistance.