Breaking Down the American Rescue Plan Act, Part 3: Shuttered Venue Operators Grant

Continuing our series Breaking Down the American Rescue Plan Act, we’ll be going over the changes made to the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG). This program was established under the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act, and it was amended by the American Rescue Plan Act. Let’s walk you through it.

Eligibility & Funding

Entities eligible to apply for the SVOG include theatrical producers, live venue operators or promoters, live performing arts organization operators, museum operators, movie theater operators (including owners), and talent representatives. All businesses must have been in operations as of February 29, 2020, and venues or promoters who received PPP loans on or after December 27, 2020 will have the SVOG reduced by the PPP loan amount.

The grants will be administered through the Small Business Administration’s Office of Disaster Assistance, and over $16 billion is available in grants. If you’re eligible, you may qualify for grant awards equal to 45% of your gross earned revenue. The maximum amount available for a single grant is $10 million, and $2 billion is reserved for applications with up to 50 full-time employees.

Application Process

Applications will be processed based on economic loss, with those who have suffered the greatest losses being processed first. Priority is as follows:

• First priority —first 14 days of grant awards for entities that suffered 90% or greater gross revenue loss between April and December 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic
• Second priority —next 14 days of grant awards for entities that suffered 70% or greater loss
• Third priority—28 days after first and second priority awards made for entities that suffered 25% or greater loss between one quarter of 2019 and the corresponding quarter of 2020
• Supplemental funding —available after all priority periods have passed for recipients of first, second, and third priority rounds who suffered 70% or greater revenue loss for most recent calendar quarter (as of April 1, 2021 or later)

The SVOG application portal reopened at the end of April. For more information about the SVOG, you can visit the SBA website.

If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us at SDA. We’ll be happy to talk you through it.

-Kelly & Stanley