As a follow-up to an earlier “Moore About Business” segment regarding how the Lee County American Rescue Plan Act (or ARPA) funds were put to use, I spoke with Lee Ford, Managing Partner of SW Florida Impact Partners, which is a local nonprofit organization seeking to create healthy communities of economic opportunity throughout our region.
This organization was one of five that administered the distribution of ARPA funds that came to Lee County from the federal government to help rebuild the local economy after the pandemic.
The other four organizations are SCORE Southwest Florida, Goodwill Southwest Florida, Southwest Regional Manufacturers Association and the Small Business Development Center at FGCU.
Ford shared how the ARPA funds benefited his organization’s clients.
"It allowed them to secure some of the professional services and equipment that they needed to enhance their business," he said. "They were able to get marketing company, accounting services, pay their payroll. It was just a step up. That's exactly what it was intended to do, is to help them be more sustainable."
He then discussed the specifics of how many Southwest Florida Impact Partners clients applied for and how many received ARPA funds for their businesses.
"As of today, we have a total of 210 clients from the ARPA program and out of that 51, 52 or so received the grant up to 20,000," said Ford. "And all those we continue to network with them, providing and introducing them to essential services that any business needs to be sustainable. It's all about capacity and sustainability."
There were several challenges going through the application process, however, that Southwest Florida Impact Partners helped its clients work through.
"The majority of them did not know how to facilitate the application process. We had to work with them to make sure that they got everything they needed to even qualify to be submitted for the grant," he said.
Ford then went on to explain why and how the program was set up.
"The purpose for this program was because they found, after research, that the majority of the businesses and underserved communities did not receive PPP loans and grants and stuff because they didn't have the capacity to even fill out the paperwork," he said. "The mentality of my team was that we'll do whatever we can to help the companies qualify."
Not only did many Southwest Florida Impact Partners clients receive ARPA funds to make their businesses more sustainable, all applicants benefited from going through the entire application process.
"What we tell them is, 'Now you have a template of what's going to be required and how you what it takes for you to go forward in a grant process,' he explained. "And because they get copies of everything they submit, we tell them, 'Put it in a file, so you have it when you go into these other grants.' Which some have, we can help those businesses get other grants."
Ford was very satisfied with how things turned out for Southwest Florida Impact Partners and its clients.
"It turned out to be a very successful program. We actually did more grant awards than all the other partners."
Karen Moore is publisher of Southwest Florida Business Today, and special to WGCU Public Media.
