14 Businesses Awarded a Total of $28,000 from City of Statesboro’s “Love Ur City” Campaign

“We received applications from several great Statesboro businesses and wish we could have helped them all,” said Dr. Dominique Halaby, Director of Georgia Southern’s Business Innovation Group. “That said, we are very grateful to those that contributed to this effort and honored to help allocate the available support to local small businesses impacted by the pandemic.”

The Business Innovation Group received a total of 22 applications and ultimately selected 14 eligible businesses. The award amount varied based on need with six businesses receiving a $1,500 award, two businesses receiving $2,000, and six businesses receiving $2,500. The businesses spanned across multiple industries from wellness to manufacturing. The average annual revenue for the recipient businesses was $76,832 with an average number of 3.5 employees.

“We used a holistic approach to determine the final number of recipients and their eventual amount of funding,” said Dr. Halaby. “Some of the factors considered included demonstrable revenue loss, the number of jobs impacted, stated use of funds related to combating the pandemic, industry type, etc. All applicants were ranked on the reviewed factors and placed in buckets with recommended funding levels.”

The Love Ur City campaign raised over $42,000 during May to benefit two funds: the Statesboro COVID-19 Small Business Relief Fund and the Statesboro COVID-19 Family Relief Fund. The small business fund was managed and administered by Georgia Southern’s Business Innovation Group while the family fund applications and grants were managed by local nonprofit United Way of Southeast Georgia.

The City did not initially provided the names of the businesses with their press release, but AllOnGeorgia requested the information Tuesday and it was provided Wednesday.

$2500