The Washington State Department of Commerce will open applications for Working Washington Grants: Round 4 on March 29. Business owners can find information about the program and a link to the application portal at commercegrants.com. This is the fourth round of the Working Washington grant program. Legislators approved $240 million for the current round as part of an early action bill that also provided additional funding for rent assistance and other COVID-19 response efforts. This is a state initiative.

Some of the criteria outlined in this legislation include:

• Businesses must apply the grant award toward expenses incurred between March 1, 2020 through June 30th, 2021.
•  Commerce must take into account previous Working Washington awards distributed by the agency or affiliated partners. This means grant awards will vary. The maximum grant award will be $25,000.
• Grants must be equitably distributed statewide and to historically underserved and disadvantaged populations.

These grants are aimed at for-profit small businesses in industries that have hard costs associated with their operations, and faced the most significant challenges to paying those hard costs because they were required to close. Hard costs include but are not limited to rent, utilities, payroll or personal protective equipment. Eligible businesses must operate from a brick-and-mortar location that is separate from their home. Please go to the site, read the materials, and prepare your documents before the portal open, this way you can get in and out of the portal quickly once it goes live on March 29.