Small businesses in the Bay Area suffering during the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders will receive grants from Facebook totaling $15 million, the company said.
Across the U.S., the Menlo Park social media giant’s grant program will focus to a large extent on investments in businesses that Facebook believes are under especially dire threat from the outbreak, an executive said Tuesday.
“We are prioritizing 50% of grants to eligible minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses due to the disproportionate negative impact that COVID-19 will have on these businesses, their employees, and the communities that they serve,” Facebook’s global chief diversity officer Maxine Williams said in a statement.
The application period of about two weeks will open later this week, Facebook said, adding that business owners can put their email addresses into the program website to be notified when applications can be submitted. Bay Area businesses receiving grants should receive them within about a month of applying, Facebook said.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf both praised the promise of grants, which Facebook said are part of a $100 million world-wide investment in 30,000 small businesses affected by coronavirus “in over 30 countries where our employees live and work.”
Also on Tuesday, Jack Dorsey, CEO of social media firm Twitter and mobile-payments company Square said he would donate $1 billion of his equity in Square — representing about 28% of his wealth — “to fund global COVID-19 relief.” Dorsey tweeted that after the pandemic, the focus of the limited-liability company he plans to seed with his money will switch to health and education for girls, and universal basic income.