§689g Operational Assistance Grants

Summary

The Administrator may give grants to New Markets Venture Capital companies and other authorized groups to pay for operational help for small businesses they have funded or expect to fund. Grants can last for multiple years but not more than 10 years and can include other conditions the Administrator sets. The Administrator can also award grants to specialized small business investment companies to help businesses they finance after the effective date of the New Markets Venture Capital Program Act of 2000. Those grants must be used only for operational help tied to equity investments made with capital raised after that Act’s effective date in businesses located in low-income areas, and the company must send the Administrator a plan for how it will use the grant. A grant to a New Markets Venture Capital company must equal the resources (cash or in kind) the company raised under section 689c(d)(2). Grants to other entities must equal the resources they raised under the same rules in section 689c(d)(2). If there is not enough money to pay these amounts, the Administrator must reduce each grant proportionally. The Administrator may also give supplemental grants for extra operational help and can require recipients to match a supplemental grant with equal resources (cash or in kind) from sources other than the Administrator. None of the grant money may be used for the grantee’s overhead or general administrative expenses.