The grants are called Small Business Technical Assistance Provider Grants, and the program has helped women- and minority-owned businesses and other small businesses to keep their shops open when they might otherwise have been forced to close. MGCC was formed as a result of the consolidation of Massachusetts Community Development Finance Corp. and Massachusetts Economic Stabilization Trust in 2010. Through an economic development bill signed by the Governor of Massachusetts that same year, state law funded the new agency with $35 million.
The agency is now able to give small businesses technical assistance grants from $30,000 to $75,000 each and also provide loans up to $1 million to help stabilize small business. One small business owner was able to reduce inventory costs by almost 40 percent through the QuickBooks training received as part of the grant program.
The grant program has resulted in filling up once vacant downtown store fronts and increasing jobs by 105 percent over the previous year. By helping small business to become more stable, the agency has also preserved many jobs in the area that might have otherwise been lost.
For more information, visit www.mcdfc.com/
