“Not having those available grants will slow us down in our growth.”
Todd Wilson is the founder of Grand Rapids’ Perfect Circle Recycling.
It’s one of more than 300 small businesses receiving financial services from Northern Initiatives which was awarded a federal grant through the Minority Business Development Agency.
Recently nearly $2 million in those grants was terminated.
“We’re disappointed to hear a lot of funding for circularity and sustainability have been cut. I guess we’ll have to look at different options.”
Elissa Sangalli is the CEO of Northern Initiatives.
On April 17, she was notified that the federal grant was cancelled.
It had been designed specifically to support socially and economically disadvantaged individuals launching and growing small businesses around the state.
“The letter states that it is not part of the Trump administration's priorities and there was an executive order signed by the president on March 14. That's about scaling back the department that this came from. It’s the Minority Business Development Association, which is part of the Department of Commerce.”
In 2023 Northern Initiatives was the only community development financial institution in Michigan awarded the $3 million grant over four years.
Now more than half of that won’t be coming, and hundreds of small business owners won’t receive the planned assistance.
“We’ll be scaling back our efforts. There are things that we had planned like Boot Camp and cohorts and business planning classes as well as one-on-one technical assistance that now won't happen because that funding has gone away.”
Sangalli says they are working with state attorneys exploring legal options and turning to philanthropic partners for additional program support.
