Merchant Maverick Opportunity Grants

Since 2009, Merchant Maverick has specialized in the creation of fair, evaluative content. We work hard to equip small businesses with accurate information and create consistently positive outcomes for our readers. Our content is free and available to all, and our primary objective is clear: to guide and empower business decision-makers with honest, accurate, and actionable information. In short, we make small business easy.

The Merchant Maverick Opportunity Grants Program is an integral part of our mission to drive positive change in the B2B space. Its sole purpose is to extend financial opportunities to business owners who otherwise have trouble accessing traditional financing.

We look at many different factors when determining where to issue grants. Many marginalized groups find it difficult to obtain traditional bank lending or venture capital investment. New businesses and startups also lack adequate funding opportunities, as do nonprofits and businesses in certain industries, like mental health and wellness. As the name would suggest, our grant program is about creating opportunities for those who have fewer options.

To be eligible, your foodservice business must be for-profit and 51% owned by an American citizen who is also of AAPI descent. The business must also sell food directly to customers from a physical location. The following businesses are automatically eligible:

• Full-service restaurants
• Quick-service restaurants & fast food establishments
• Food trucks
• Food carts
• Mall kiosks that sell food
• Market stalls
• Grocery stores
• Butcher shops
• Fishmongers
• Bakeries
• Cafes
• Bars or wineries that also sell food

The following businesses are ineligible for the grant this year:

• Bars or wineries that do not sell food
• Mail-order food companies
• Food packaging businesses
• Food manufacturers & distributors
• Wholesalers

If you are interested in applying for a Merchant Maverick Small Business Opportunity Grant, and you aren’t sure if your business is eligible, please contact us so that we can be of assistance in determining eligibility to apply. 

Beyond the requirements listed above, there are no other restrictions on which businesses are eligible. You don’t need to have been in business for any specific amount of time, nor does it matter how many employees you have or if it’s just you running the whole show. We’ve kept the eligibility requirements to a minimum to open this opportunity up to as many businesses that meet our criteria as possible and because we want this money to be as accessible as possible.

We’re not placing a lot of restrictions on the use of these grants. As long as you use the money to keep your business afloat, we will consider that a proper use. Grant money can be used for the following things:

• Rent for the restaurant space
• Utilities for the restaurant
• Payroll for self or employees
• Repayment of business loans
• Equipment for business, such as freezer, stand mixer, cutlery, etc.
• Office supplies
• Payment of business taxes
• Business travel expenses
• Renovations to restaurant or food cart
• Advertising or marketing for your business
• Business software subscriptions

The grant evaluation and selection period opens on January 3, 2022, and will close on March 1, 2022, or upon receipt of 5,000 applications, whichever comes first. Grant funds will begin to be disbursed on May 1, 2022, via checks sent through the US Postal Service.

Congratulations, you’ve been selected to receive a Merchant Maverick Small Business Opportunity Grant! There’s so much to do now, what with getting the funds into your bank account and then kicking your goals and projects for those funds into high gear, and it’s all terribly exciting. But you might also be wondering: Now that I have this grant, what are my legal responsibilities? After all, you want to do the right thing and make sure you dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s. So let’s take a look at what the law has to say. 

The first important thing you should know is that a grant is not a contract. That means a grant is not legally binding. Grants are asked for and given in the hope and anticipation of specific projects being completed and the accompanying goals met. Let’s say that you gave it a go, but for whatever reason, either you weren’t able to carry through with the project, or your stated goals weren’t met. While it might make the grantmaker hesitant to work with you in the future, they cannot sue you in civil court for breach of contract. If you make no effort to work on the proposed project, the grantmaker could ask for the funds to be returned to them. Even then, though, they cannot sue you for breach of contract. 

Because grants are not legally binding, they have more flexibility than contracts do. If you get into your project and find that you need to adjust your scope, budget, or outcomes, let us know what’s going on, and we’ll work with you.

The second important thing to be aware of is the various forms of grant fraud because these are the things that will get you into trouble. Grant fraud typically takes one or more of the following forms:

• Embezzlement/Theft: Keeping the money for yourself instead of for the business. 
• Bribery: Using the money to get somebody to do a favor for you.
• False Statements: If you deliberately lie about something. (For example, you say in your proposal that you’re a business owner, but you’re not.)
• False Claims: Billing for a service that either you didn’t provide or that you submit to multiple sources for payment (that last part is called double-dipping).
• Mail/Wire Fraud: Mail fraud is using the US Postal Service or a private or commercial interstate carrier (e.g., FedEx or UPS) to commit one of the fraudulent acts listed above. Wire fraud is using electronic transmission methods (via a phone call, fax, email, text, or social media) for the same reason. These are the big ones that can get you into a lot of hot water with the federal government.

In general, the IRS considers most grants received for business purposes to be taxable income. To what degree a grant impacts your business at tax time depends on your business’s structure. How you pay taxes as a sole proprietor is not the same as how you pay taxes as an LLC, an S corporation, a partnership, etc. 

However, you can use grant funds to purchase tax-deductible business items. These can include office equipment, insurance, advertising and marketing, just to list a few. Bench, a company that provides bookkeeping services to small businesses, created this handy list of small business tax deductions that you can refer to.

Also, be aware that there is still some ambiguity surrounding language in the tax code since it specifies corporations as opposed to other business structures. To be on the safe side, you should consult with a tax attorney and/or an accountant about whether or not your business needs to pay taxes on grant funds, as well as what deductions you can take for items purchased with those funds.

In addition to complying with all federal, state, and local laws regarding the use of the funds, each Merchant Maverick Opportunity Grant recipient will have one additional requirement: Meet with a writer on a regular basis to share their business journey. With scheduled interviews throughout the year, Merchant Maverick would like to take readers inside the stories of real small business owners and their experiences  — trials and triumphs, seasonal challenges, observations and insights, industry-related issues, and more.

Grant recipients will be required to meet with a writer a minimum of six times (start and end of the year and once a quarter) for an interview and agree to provide photographs of the business/business owner for use on the website.