southeast small business grant available
Canton for All People is now leasing available commercial space connected to My Community Health Center and Sommers Discount Market at 1318 Gonder Ave. SE Canton, Ohio. To give the opportunity for new local emerging businesses to start, we are offering $20,000 small business grant to help new entrepreneurs get started. Applications will be accepted from January 1st, 2025 – March 15th, 2025.
This program is intended to assist community residents in opening a small business at Gonder Place SE to promote entrepreneurship and job creation in the area. The goal of the grant program is to help small businesses grow in Canton’s Southeast Neighborhood. To ensure results are achieved, companies are required to report annually for three years following the grant award on their “metric commitments,” which includes reporting on jobs, total payroll and new investment in the project. The company annual reports are confidential and not shared with the public. The project, including job and investment commitments, are discussed and agreed upon before the grant is awarded.
Grant decisions are based on several project factors, including but not limited to applicant’s residency, company ownership, jobs created and/or retained, and project fixed asset investment. Support is intended for small-sized companies.
To qualify, businesses must be:
- registered as a for-profit entity in the State of Ohio and in good standing with the Ohio Department of Taxation.
- Additional points are given on an application if the applicant’s business is at least 51% minority-owned (African American, Hispanic, Asian-Pacific and Native American), woman-owned, veteran-owned or owned by an individual with a disability. (See scoring Criteria for full details)
- Eligible businesses must have a portion of their sales and revenue generated by selling products, services, or software to other businesses; a business-to-business (B2B) company. The business may also sell direct to consumers, however the grant must support expansion or growth of the B2B side of the company. Investments in retail operations are not eligible, however some back-office distribution or e-commerce businesses may qualify.
Grant funds may be used for:
- Site and building improvements, including construction, expansion or renovation, and soft costs associated with site “build-out.
- Information technology needs, including hardware components (servers) or industry specific software.Some qualified training costs, typically related to industry process or software, maintenance or skilled trades, or quality management.
- Other costs agreed upon by Canton for All People and the applicant.
Steps to receiving a small business grant for Gonder Place Southeast
1) Determining Eligibility. If you think you may be eligible for the Gonder Place SE Small Business Grant, fill out the interest form on our website.
2) Connect with Canton for All People. Set up a call or meeting with our community organizer Gino Haynes (gino@cantonforallpeople.org) to discuss your project in more detail.
3) Agree on metric commitments. If your project meets the eligibility requirements, Canton for All People will reach out to collect additional information and discuss job and payroll commitments, in addition to the amount you will invest in the project over the next three years. These commitments will be included in the grant agreement, so it’s important to be realistic in your projections.
4) Receive an invitation to present your project to our Southeast Resident Committee. Our Southeast Advisory Team will score eligible projects based on several project factors, including but not limited to owners residency, company ownership, jobs created and/or retained, project investment, type of business, and demonstrated need for funding in order for the project to move forward.
5) Accept the grant. If selected, you will receive a link to review and complete the application, which is pre-populated with the information already provided. You will also be asked to provide historical financial statements (tax returns are acceptable if annual financial statements are not available), a copy of your IRS Form W9, and an electronic signature on the document to verify the information being provided is correct.
6) Review and sign grant agreement. Canton for All People will generate a grant agreement based on the information provided in the application. You will be emailed a copy for review, and if there are no changes, confirm with the Canton for All People team and the agreement will be sent to you for signature.
Scoring Criteria (55 points total)
Applicant’s Residency (10 points) – Applicant is a resident of Canton’s 4th Ward-10 points. Applicant is a resident of the City of Canton (7.5 points)
Number of Employees – Full-time Payrolled Employees (not 1099) + Part-time Payrolled Employees 10% o 1 point per full-time employee (business owner is included as an employee). o ½ point per part-time employee. o Maximum 10 total points.
Complete Application Submitted (5 points) Application required follow up but, met minimum criteria – 2 points. Complete application submitted, with no follow up needed – 5 points.
Southeast Advisory Committee (Score 15 points)
Sustainability (15 points)
Spaces Available
There are two spaces available located at 1318 Gonder Ave. SE. Proposals can be submitted for either of them or both of them combined.
Schedule your appointment today at Canton’s Newest Health Center
My Community Health Center on Gonder Ave. SE will be opening February 5th, 2024! Appointments can be scheduled now for the Gonder location by calling 330-639-1071.
Are you interested in serving your community as a member of the My Community Health team? There are positions available now. Apply today!
sommers market se canton is open!
Sommers Market will be opening a location on Gonder Ave. SE in Canton. The market is looking for people to join the SE Market team. If you’re interested, apply here.
Store Hours
Monday – Saturday 10am-5pm
Our mission is to create a one-of-a-kind shopping experience by offering excellent service and value on our products, while giving our employees the opportunity to grow and use their strengths to serve each other and our customers.
At Sommers Discount Market you’ll find a lot of groceries that you wouldn’t find in a typical grocery store. We sell groceries that most big box stores would consider to be unsellable due to a number of factors including dents or tears in packaging, near or past expiration dates, or products being discontinued.
While these products are often damaged or near their expiration date they are still completely safe for consumption. We process every product, checking the dates and quality of the packaging to make sure they meet our standards, before putting them on our shelves.
Unlike traditional grocery stores we don’t do our buying based on our inventory levels. We buy products when we find great deals that allow us to bring amazing value to our customer. Because of this, we generally can’t reorder the same products. A new deal frequently replaces the old ones so our customers keep coming back to see what we might have in stock.
We are grateful that a number of community organizations and the City of Canton have helped to bring this commodity dream to a reality. The major funders for this project include:
The City of Canton
The East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church
The Hoover Foundation
The Sisters of Charity
The Stark Community Foundation
The North Canton Medical Foundation
The Lemmon Family Foundation
We are extremely excited that a number of United Methodist Churches have made 10-year financial commitments to the operation of this facility becoming sustaining partners for this initiative. What that means is that all revenue generated in the market, after overhead is covered, will be used for the future development of the facility and new an emerging projects for our Southeast Neighborhood:
Mt. Olive Baptist Church
Church of the Lakes Global Methodist Church
Faith United Methodist Church
The Tuscarawas District of the United Methodist Church
