CalNonprofits is partnering with the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) and the grants manager organization Lendistry to provide grant program and application information to nonprofits across the state. Thanks to advocacy by CalNonprofits and others, this program explicitly includes nonprofits as eligible grantees.

On Tuesday, December 29th we hosted a webinar with CalOSB and Lendistry to get answers and guidelines for nonprofits. Because the guidelines and processes are changing rapidly -– sometimes even several times in the same day – we are no longer making the recording of this webinar available. 

We are so glad that more than 1,200 people were able to attend the webinar, getting valuable information directly from CalOSBA (the California Office of the Small Business Advocate) and Lendistry. 

Please join us on Wednesday, January 6th at 2pm for a webinar with Lendistry that will cover the most updated information, and provide clarifications as well. Click here to register (if you can't participate in the live webinar, register anyway to get the recording and slides on Thursday, January 7th.)

CalNonprofits worked hard to ensure that nonprofits were eligible to apply for these funds and continues to advocate for nonprofit eligibility for small business COVID-19 relief programs. We are grateful to our webinar speakers for making themselves available on short notice.

Applying and getting help

1. Lendistry is the administrator of this grant program on behalf of CalOSBA. Apply here: https://calnonprofits.mylendistry.com/login. As of December 30th at 2pm their website is crashing and their phone wait times are more than 30 minutes. The good news is that grants are not "first come first served" so you can wait until their systems are back up to apply.

2. CalNonprofits is pleased to be named as an application partner for the California Small Business COVID-19 Grant Program. Our role is to support nonprofits in getting the most updated information and answering your questions.

3. When you apply on the Lendistry site, you must choose a partner from the list. Choosing CalNonprofits as the partner helps us continue to demonstrate both the need in the nonprofit community and the strength of nonprofit networks!

4. The application partner organizations (including us) do not have any influence or input into which organizations are chosen or rejected for grants.

5. The application process for Round One begins at 6:00 AM on Wednesday, December 30, 2020 and ends at 11:59 PM on Friday, January 8, 2021. Grants will range from $5,000 to $25,000 depending on the size of the organization. There will be two rounds of grants totaling $237.5 million each.

Additional information:

• You do not have to be a CalNonprofits member to choose us as your partner. (But we hope you'll consider joining! Membership info here.)
• Email Sue Sigler, CSBG Program Manager, with questions about the program at sues[at]calnonprofits[dot]org.
• Check the CalNonprofits website frequently. We post new information as it becomes available, including a number to call for our technical assistance.
• Lendistry (the administrator of this grant program on behalf of CalOSBA) is also available to answer questions and can be reached by email at careliefgrant@lendistry.com, or by phone at 888-612-4370 during the following hours:
  • December 30th/31st (Wednesday/Thursday) 6am-6pm PST
  • January 1st Friday Closed
  • January 2nd (Saturday) 7-12pm PST
  • January 4th – March 31st 7am-7pm PST