One week after initiating Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) announcements for the Priority One grant category, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued the first report on awards made to-date.
While initial progress on issuing awards has been modest, totaling just 50 grants, the SBA has indicated that grant awards will soon accelerate, with all Priority One applications still expected to be processed before the Priority Two processing period begins on June 10. Most theatre applications will fall within the non-priority processing period, which is scheduled to begin announcing awards on June 25.
Over the past week, many SVOG applicants have received an SBA email message confirming receipt of their application. However, some that have submitted an application did not receive such an email. The SBA has confirmed that as long as an applicant sees the status "submitted" or "in review" or "in final review" in the SVOG portal, their application was successfully submitted and is in the review process.
There have been many challenges for those in the Priority One grant category as the award announcement process started, including conflicting guidance on correcting the Form 4506-T tax return request, inaccurate applicant designations on the Do Not Pay list, and unintentional connections of applicants' tax identification numbers to those listed on the federal death registry. The SBA reports that it is addressing all of these issues and hoping to streamline the award process for remaining applications.
Please stay in contact with TCG (lbaskin@tcg.org) as your application moves through the SBA review process to report any problem areas, as we remain in continued dialogue with SVOG administrators at the SBA.