The SBA is now offering low-interest, long-term federal disaster relief loans for working capital to organizations suffering significant economic injury as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. All Wisconsin and Minnesota businesses are eligible for these loans.
Loans are available to the following organizations directly affected by the disaster:
- Small businesses within the SBA Size Standards (https://www.sba.gov/size)
- Small agricultural cooperatives and aquaculture businesses
- Private non-profit organizations (regardless of size)
Organizations ineligible to receive an EIDL loan include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Religious organizations
- Charitable organizations
- Gambling concerns (e.g. businesses that derive more than 1/3 of their annual gross revenue from legal gambling activities)
Loan Terms
- Eligible entities may qualify for loan amounts of up to $2 million
- Interest rates are 3.75% for small businesses and 2.75% for non-profit organizations
- Terms of up to 30 years are available with the first payment due 12 months after funds are issued.
Loan Purpose
- These are working capital loans that may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills that could have been paid had the disaster not occurred.
- Economic Injury Disaster Loans help entities state afloat during the declared disaster, ready to “restart” their operations once circumstances allow.
- EIDLs are NOT mean for business expansion.
General Loan Approval Criteria
- Credit History: Applicants must have a credit history acceptable to the SBA
- Repayment Ability: The SBA must determine that the applicant business has the ability to repay the Economic Injury Disaster Loan.
- Eligibility: The applicant business must be physically located in a disaster-designated are and have suffered working capital losses due to the declared disaster
Collateral Requirements
- Economic Injury Disaster Loans of over $25,000 require collateral
- The SBA takes real estate as collateral when it is available
- The SBA will not decline a loan for lack of collateral, but requires borrowers to pledge what is available.
- Given the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts, the SBA will make reasonable efforts to work with applicants toward a favorable decision.
Application Process
It is STRONGLY suggested that once you register, you should download and/or print out the application forms, familiarize yourself with what information is required, complete the forms manually, and then submit your application packet online. Links to paper documents are listed below. The SBA urges everyone to have a complete application up front before submitting online.
Apply for Disaster Assistance
If your application packet is incomplete, it will be set aside. You will be notified of what is missing and your application will stay in suspense until all the necessary information is received. You will then go to the end of the queue.
Questions: disastercustomerservice@sba.gov
800-659-2995 (7 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST)
Hard-of-hearing customers can call 800-877-8339
Forms that will need to be completed
Guidelines
- When filling out the application online, SAVE YOUR DATA FREQUENTLY!
- If you encounter trouble with the system:
- Make sure you entered your state and county correctly
- Sole proprietorship is the first option under organization type (this is often missed!)
- Only click on EIDL under “Are you applying for”, otherwise please wait and try again as the system attempts to manage unprecedented activity levels.
- If you encounter problems uploading your forms, try using a different web browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, etc.)