Funding opportunities topic of presentation hosted by LVCC

The Lincoln Valley Chamber of Commerce worked with Heart of the Rockies Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture and the Montana Business Assis-tance Connection to host an Oct. 18 presentation on grants, loans and funding opportunities that rural businesses can take advantage of get up and running, or expand and improve.

"One of the primary roles of the Chamber of Commerce is to provide access to valuable resources and to support economic development in the community," LVCC president Laurie Welty said.

The two-hour presentation drew nearly 20 people from businesses and organiza-tions, covered a broad array of possible funding opportunities - primarily through the USDA - and touched on the ways funding from different programs can be packaged together for more impact.

Lea McGiboney, an area specialist for rural development from the Great Falls USDA area office, and Lad Barney, the business & cooperative programs direc-tor for USDA Rural Development, provided information and answered questions related to the Department of Agriculture programs designed to help rural busi-nesses and ag producers.

"We work across the state on rural projects," Barney said. On the business side they work with partners and lenders to help fill the needs of rural businesses owners and entrepreneurs.

Eric Seidensitcker, the community development director for Montana Business Assistance Connection, provided insight into how his organization, the economic development agency for Lewis and Clark, Broadwater and Meagher Counties, works with businesses and organizations to help them take advantage of those programs.

"We do a lot with grant writing; we work with cities and counties. We do a lot to do with housing, helping with long term planning for cities and counties," he said. "We have a $10 million loan portfolio. We work in participation with banks and help entrepreneurs get access to capital."

Despite covering a lot of funding sources throughout the discussion, much of the presentation focused on the Rural Business Development Grant, the Rural Ener-gy for America Program and touched on other USDA programs such as Busi-ness & Industry Loan Guarantees and Intermediate Re-lending Program.

The RBDG program has been around since the 2014 Farm Bill consolidated a pair of other grant programs. Rural Business Development Grants are designed to help small rural businesses with fewer than 50 workers and less than $1million in revenue. Though they're designed to help private businesses, McGiboney ex-plained the grants themselves must be applied for by an intermediary, which could be a governmental body such as the county, a rural co-op or a non-profit corporation like MBAC or Heart of the Rockies.

The grants can be used in a straightforward way for things like feasibility stud-ies, business plans, job creation and retention, or workforce, leadership, and en-trepreneur training. McGiboney said feasibility studies and business plans in par-ticular are important to help businesses secure further funding through a lender.

"I like to think of grants as preparing businesses for the next phase of financing," Barney said.

Locally, Envision Lincoln worked with Heart of the Rockies in 2020 to secure an RDBG grant to further develop the in-town trails plan. That grant also funded an interactive public lands trail map hosted on the Lincoln Valley Chamber of Com-merce website.

RBDG funds can also be used for things like land acquisition, construction, or equipment, but McGiboney said there's a caveat. "The only problem you're going to run into if you do anything real estate or equipment-wise, is that the interme-diary that's applying for you has to own that property," she explained. "Then they have to lease it to the business."

Otherwise, intermediaries like MBAC can provide the RBDG funds through a re-volving fund loan. "They will loan the money to you and rates and terms that are agreeable between the of you. Then you pay that back" McGiboney said. "When they get the funds back, they can loan it out to someone else."

McGiboney said the Rural Energy for America Program is for ag producers and small business owners, to help defray the cost of their energy consumption. "This can be through a renewable energy system like solar panels, wind, geo-thermal, that sort of thing."

REAP can provide grants for up to 25 percent of eligible project costs, loan guarantees through lenders - or combined grant and loan guarantees - up to 75 percent of project costs.

The energy efficient improvement category is really, really broad, McGiboney said. It can include windows, energy efficient doors, more insulation, better HVAC systems, stoves or ranges in restaurants, coolers in restaurants and gro-cery stores or washers and dryers in laundromats. "Anyplace you can show that your energy can be decreased through that improvement."

While the presentation dealt with various other funding programs available through state and federal agencies, it also emphasized that the programs can be flexible. For example, businesses can work with lenders and intermediary organ-izations to plan in advance for any deferrals for the repayment of loans.

The presentation seemed to be something most of the business owners who at-tended saw quite a bit of value in.

At the outset of the presentation, Shane Lindsay, the manager at the Lincoln branch of Citizen's Alliance Bank, thanked the organizations for putting on the meeting and for the interest in Lincoln. He said they don't deal with USDA and government programs every day. "Our knowledge is in traditional lending, so it's always great to have all these other people on hand when we look at a deal."

As the get-together wrapped up, Lindsay said for his money, it was worth every year's worth of membership fee they've made.

"Thanks to the chamber and all the presenters and all the folks who showed up today," he said. "We may not always agree with each other, but there's obviously a bunch of passionate people in this room who just want to see Lincoln suc-ceed."

For more information on USDA grant and loan programs visit https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/business-programs.

To learn more about MBAC loans go to https://www.mbac.biz/loans/