Wine Country Times

The Sonoma Valley Rotary Foundation, which has given out approximately $115,000 in grants to local businesses, is still gathering funds and dispersing grants to help offset some of the troubles created by the COVID-19 economic crisis.

Dub Hay, committee chair for the Sonoma Valley Rotary Catalyst Grants, told the Wine Country Times that the Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund has provided half of the funding for the Rotary’s effort so far.

“It’s philanthropy to try to help people that are going to fall through the cracks because of COVID, so it’s very wide and broad,” Hay said. “It’s about food security, it’s about rent help, it’s about anything we can do to help Sonoma come out better than if we did nothing.”

Hay estimated that the fund has raised approximately $1.5 million just from local donations.

“And part of that grant process was, they approached Rotary and said, ‘We don’t know what to do about small businesses, it’s just too broad,’” Hay said. 

For Rotary though, working with small businesses was a perfect fit.

The Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund offered to provide the Rotary with $50,000 to help local businesses if the Rotary would match $50,000, and the Rotary agreed, he said.

The Rotary began making grants to businesses in the Sonoma Valley with fewer than 20 employees, he said. In order to make the grants as effective as possible, the Rotary has kept the grant application process fast and lean, with a single-page form submitted by email the only paperwork needed, and grants disbursed twice a week.

“We’ve been awarding grants over the last six weeks to these businesses that applied,” Hay said. “There’s been 161 grants so far, totaling $114,000-$115,000.”

The Rotary was able to keep going after the first $100,000 because the Catalyst Fund offered to renew the arrangement when they saw how successful it had been, with each entity again contributing $50,000.

The Rotary is continuing to raise money for the grants with a GoFundMe page, and Hay said they intend to keep the effort going as long as they can.

“We’ve got about another $85,000 left to grant to small businesses in Sonoma Valley, and we’re just trying to help them have some hope,” Hay said. “Every little bit helps. These aren’t big grants.”

Grants have averaged between $500 and $1,500 he said.

“We’re just trying to help everyone get through this thing until they can get back so they can reopen,” Hay said.

A copy of the form can be downloaded online, and grant requests are then submitted by emailing the form to Rotary95476@gmail.com.

Hay said that the committee meets twice a week to approve grants – on Mondays and Thursdays – and grant checks are mailed out the next day.

“We’ll keep this going as long as the pandemic is here,” Hay said. “We’re just trying to help.”