Is your round 1 application ready?

1) Are you active and in good standing with the Minnesota Secretary of State? What is your Registration File Number? mblsportal.sos.mn.gov/Business/Search
*Unless a Sole Proprietor.

2) Does the name on your State or Federal-issued ID match the name on your application?

3) Is this the same identification that you used for your Plaid identification session?

4) Is your business located in an eligible area of Minneapolis or St Paul?
Visit mnpromiseact.org/eligibility to verify.

5) Do you have a proof of your business operating address? This must be one of these FOUR accepted proof of address documents below. These are the only documents that will be accepted. Note: a MN Secretary of State listing is will not be accepted.

• Most recent year of filed tax documents

• Utility bill

• Business or professional licensure

• Current lease or mortgage (signed, dated)

6) ] Do you know the year that your organization first filed taxes?

7) Do you have your full, filed tax returns for your business in electronic PDF form?

• 2021 and 2022

  OR

• 2021 and 2023 (if your 2022 taxes show revenue of more than $750,000)

• If nonprofit, you must be able to upload the 990 or 990EZ as part of your return. A 990 postcard will not be accepted

8) Do you know your gross annual revenue in each of those three tax years?

9) Do you know your net income in each of those three tax years?

10) Was your business revenue $750,000 or less in 2021?

11) Was your business revenue $750,000 in the most recently completed tax year?

12) Will you be able to provide a bank-provided voided check with your business name pre-printed on it? If it is determined you will receive an award, this is the only way we can distribute the funds. There are no exceptions. This must be a US Bank account. Funds can't be distributed into an international account. We cannot accept a direct deposit form or ACH document for this requirement

13) Will you be able to download, sign, and re-upload all pages of the Grant Agreement Letter as a PDF?

14) Will you be able to download, sign, and re-upload the entire Certificate of Grant Recipient as a PDF?

15) Will you be able to download, complete, and re-upload your ACH document? The account and routing number must match the numbers entered on your grant application. Your business name should be listed on the beneficiary line.

16) Will you be able to download, complete, and re-upload your W9 document?

17) Have you uploaded your full, filed 2021 business tax returns?

18) If you are a nonprofit organization, do you meet one of these criteria?
In addition to the general eligibility guidelines

• Definition A: Nonprofit organization that earns 30% or more of their revenue on an ongoing basis through a non-tax-deductible sales or dues in a fee-for-service model similar to for-profit businesses.

• Definition B: Nonprofit organization that earns 10% or more of their revenue on an ongoing basis through a non-tax-deductible sales or dues in a fee-for-service model similar to for-profit businesses AND demonstrate they maintain ongoing customer-facing operations at a permanent physical location at which some of those sales take place.

19) Do you know how your organization is structured, and do your tax documents support this?

• Sole Proprietor

• Single Member LLC

• Limited Liability Company filing as a corporation

• Business Corporation

• Cooperative

• Limited Liability Partnership

• Limited Partnership

• Nonprofit Corporation

20) Does the name on your taxes match the name on your grant application? Unless you are a Sole Proprietor, your taxes should match the business name on your application. If a Sole Proprietor, the name on your taxes should match your first and last name on your application.

21) Do you know if your business received funds from any of the programs listed below that when added together totaled more than $10,000? Minnesota Small Business Emergency Loan Program, Minnesota Small Business Relief Grants, Minnesota County Relief Grants to Local Businesses, Minnesota Movie Theater and Convention Center Grant?*

22) Do you know your Federal Employee Identification Number?

23) Are there additional business owners who own at least 20% of the business? If so you will need to list their names, dates of birth, and upload the IRS Form 1065 along with your taxes

24) What is the NAICS for your organization?

25) Are you authorized to sign grant documents (binding, legal contracts) for your business?

26) Do you have ONE email address to apply and communicate about your application? Do you check it regularly? Using multiple email addresses will cause significant delays in response

Required Documents

You should have the following documents in electronic format to upload to the grant portal. PDFs are strongly preferred.

• 2021 Tax returns (complete and filed)

• Tax returns (complete and filed) from the two most recently completed years

• One of the FOUR accepted proof of address documents (Only the listed documents will be accepted)

• Current (not expired) State or Federal-issued ID (driver’s license, state identification, passport or passport card)

• Bank-provided voided check from your business bank account

• ACH document from the same bank account

• W9

• Grant agreement letter

• Certificate of Grant recipient