The Crazy Could-Be 3-Day Creative Class Stimulus
Musicians & Artists Have a Fleeting Chance at Grant Relief in the Stimulus
(3/27/2020 1:10 PM Edit: The House has now passed the CARES Act and it looks set for the President’s signature. All small businesses and artists are encouraged to apply ASAP. While there is no legally required 3-day deadline, the current and proposed legislation calls for a finite budget against a 3-day processing time for applications, thus waiting to apply could result in no money remaining when your name is called in line. In sum…
Forgivable loans of up to $10,000 (grants) are available and must be processed within 3-days of application per the language of the proposed CARES Act pages 68–70 here (link).)
Musicians and artists…please strongly consider clicking this link and IMMEDIATELY applying for a Small Business Administration (SBA) Disaster Loan.
Don’t think of this as a loan, but rather a grant (see below and stay tuned). We believe this financing package has the potential to be a Creative Class Stimulus for musicians and artists, and no one is talking about it.
Stimulus as in they have to process applications for $10 billion in three days across grants of up to $10k per applicant. And the program is ideal for the freelance model that musicians and artists embrace. At a minimum, a total of one million grant checks will be awarded via this mechanism.
Here’s the drill:
Two weeks ago the President went to the Oval Office and asked for $50 billion to be allocated toward emergency disaster relief loans administered by the SBA. Notably, the loans’ terms require (under penalty of perjury so no false statements) that small businesses and sole proprietors must have been negatively impacted by the crisis to qualify. I’m betting that the vast majority of musicians and artists meet this requirement (e.g. no concerts, no galleries).
These SBA Disaster Loans have pretty good loan terms: a 3.75% interest rate for for-profit organizations over up to a 30-year loan term. And sole proprietors (which includes many artists and musicians) can apply!
But it got really interesting in the last few hours.
The Senate passed the CARES Act and for the first time we saw the terms of the $2 trillion stimulus. It still has to pass the House and receive the President’s signature but it looks promising.
Relative to the SBA Disaster Loan program, the government added a $10 billion grant allocation that has a 3-day processing time. 3 days! And according to this report, all applicants for the SBA Disaster Loan can get up to a $10,000 grant by getting in line for the larger loan. Even if they ultimately get denied for the loan.
And don’t forget — the 3-day processing times for the $10,000 grants under the new law means the window to apply for the program is now.
So the clock is ticking. Musicians and artists should apply ASAP for the SBA Disaster Loan to be eligible for up to a $10,000 grant.
Did I mention musicians and artists should apply for this program now?!?!?!
Here’s the link again.
