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Click here to return to this month's Article Index The Cutting Edge™ - September 2004Public PolicyWMMA® Member Earns Federal Government Matching Funds Grant through an Article read in The Cutting Edge In the February 2004 issue of the WMMA® The Cutting Edge newsletter, Harold Zassenhaus had written about an available federal government grant program with the Economic Development Administration of the Department of Commerce. U.S. manufacturers could qualify for a matching funds grant of up to $75,000 by showing economic harm from foreign competition. The last three years have been economically challenging to U.S. machine tool builders, especially with competition from Japan, Taiwan, and China. Accu-Router decided last March to apply for this grant program. Many communications, forms, phone calls, and finally meetings with a southeastern coordinator led to a submission in late May. We were initially approved in mid-July. A final report submission was sent to DOC which was approved on August 11, 2004. Accu-Router was approved for the full program amount of $75,000 in matching funds or a total payout of $150,000 ($75,000 from Accu-Router). We will have up to three years to spend the matching funds which are subject to funding availability. The matching funds grant is designated for projects such as new advertisement creation, new product literature, web site expansion, sales rep recruiting, new product flysheets, new trade shows, third party R & D, market research, training for new software, etc. The focus of these projects is to help expand sales and market share. Accu-Router did provide specific project expense projections to aid in the submission. These very projects will be undertaken with this program. The very first matching fund released was associated with the IWF 2004 Show. Accu-Router is thrilled to be able to participate with this federal matching funds program. This will provide a direct economic boost to our company. It will allow for more aggressive marketing services and personnel recruiting than would have been otherwise scheduled. This grant award comes directly from information gained through being a member of WMMA®. Other WMMA® member companies could also benefit from this E.D.A. program. We are certainly glad we did. Sincerely,
Note: You can look into receiving federal grants for your company, too. There is no one central source of all government grants - each federal agency has its own grant opportunities and they are divided into "issue" areas. There are some dedicated websites, however.
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