Small businesses in the Bay Area suffering during the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders will receive grants from Facebook totaling $15 million, the company said.
Across the U.S., the Menlo Park social media giant’s grant program will focus to a large extent on investments in businesses that Facebook believes are under especially dire threat from the outbreak, an executive said Tuesday.
“We are prioritizing 50% of grants to eligible minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses due to the disproportionate negative impact that COVID-19 will have on these businesses, their employees, and the communities that they serve,” Facebook’s global chief diversity officer Maxine Williams said in a statement.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf both praised the promise of grants, which Facebook said are part of a $100 million world-wide investment in 30,000 small businesses affected by coronavirus “in over 30 countries where our employees live and work.”
