Six More Businesses in Leelanau County Awarded COVID Resiliency Grants

LEELANAU COUNTY, MICHIGAN – Six additional Leelanau County businesses have received grants to aid their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic through the Regional Resiliency Program (RRP) administered by Venture North Funding and Development. The Leelanau Peninsula Economic Foundation Board partnered with Venture North by reviewing grant applications and providing recommendations. To be eligible, all RRP applicants must be private businesses with nine or fewer full-time employees.

“We are grateful to the Leelanau Peninsula Economic Foundation for serving as the local partner to review and provide recommendations on grant applications,” said Laura Galbraith, President of Venture North. “We could not begin to be familiar enough with the RRP applicants to make good decisions. We are fortunate to have had great collaboration with organizations that have served in this capacity since the RRP began in 2020.”

In a separate announcement, eleven other businesses in the County, in Leelanau Township, also received RRP grants through a grant round supported in part by the Leelanau Township Community Foundation that can only use funds for initiatives within the Township.

The RRP was created in 2020 to help businesses deal with urgent needs and adapt their operations to meet the challenges of the pandemic. By July 2021, Venture North will have worked with local partners to allocate $1 million in grants of up to $5,000 throughout the ten-county region. The origin of all funding has been philanthropy, through donations and grant awards, with the Consumers Energy Foundation awarding $450,000 of the one million dollars over the past 15 months.

Funding from the Consumers Energy Foundation, Cherryland Electric Cooperative, and the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation supported the six small business grants in Leelanau County.

“Many small businesses continue to overcome the challenges of being closed and losing revenues, profits, and reserve capital,” said Laura Galbraith, President of Venture North. “In a number of cases, businesses are finding it extremely difficult if not impossible to purchase the inventory they have routinely sold, forcing them to either wait for an undetermined amount of time or align with new suppliers and products. In addition, the global supply chains are nowhere near providing the same level of products and services as they did pre-pandemic for many reasons. Small businesses are the economic engine in rural Northwest Michigan and make up the majority of all businesses in our region. We could not be more grateful for the philanthropic contributions of funding, talent, and time during these extraordinary times that has made the RRP possible.”

“We look forward to supporting the growth and development of the RRP awardees through our lending capital which is our primary focus,” said Galbraith. “We have several RRP awardees working with us on growth financing and expect that trend to accelerate consistent with the recovery and rebound of businesses.”

Leelanau County Grant Recipients (excluding those announced separately in Leelanau Township):



News CoverageJamie JewellVenture North, Traverse Connect, Leelanau Peninsula Economic Foundation, Regional Resiliency Program