Welcome to the official Illinois Made maker newsletter.
Hi, , As one of our Illinois Made makers, you are one of the amazing, hard-working small businesses who help Illinois thrive. We understand that it's more important than ever to highlight and promote all the incredible work your business does every day.
Here's the latest news
and updates from the Illinois Made program.
Welcome New Makers
This week we announced our Fall 2020 Illinois Made inductees, featuring the most women-owned businesses to ever be included in a single Illinois Made class!
We'd like to take this opportunity to officially introduce and welcome them to the program. Click the links below to learn more about our newest Illinois Made makers
We will soon be announcing our annual Illinois Made Holiday Gift Guide featuring makers that consumers can safely support on Small Business Saturday and throughout the upcoming holiday shopping
season!
New Illinois Made Videos
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, our video production team captured the essence of some of our makers across the state with short documentaries that allowed our artisans to share their inspiring stories in their own words. The videos
are then uploaded on the Enjoy Illinois website, YouTube and our social channels.
The team recently added two videos highlighting incredible women-owned small businesses in the program, Brown Sugar Bakery (shown above) and Phoenix Bean Tofu. We look forward to the day we can safely shoot more Illinois Made videos
and add to our growing collection. Until then, please share our videos using the hashtag #IllinoisMade!
As you know, the Illinois Made program was designed to celebrate the makers, creators and artisans of Illinois. We're always looking for more unique and thriving Illinois businesses for the program. If you know of one, let them know what to do! We accept new Maker submissions all year-round.
During continued restrictions and uncertainty due to COVID-19, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) understands that continued support for small businesses is needed.
The Business Interruption Grant (BIG) program is a $636 million program developed by Governor Pritzker and the Illinois General Assembly to provide economic relief for small businesses hit hardest by COVID-19. Funding may be used to help businesses with working capital expenses, including payroll costs; rent; utilities; PPE; and more.
Applications for the second round of funding are now live. A total of $220 million will be made available for small businesses of all types in Illinois, with a particular focus on businesses downstate, in DIAs, and for heavily impacted industry and regions – representing businesses that have been unable to reopen or operating at a severely diminished capacity since the spring.
Applications for Round 2 are open now. For more information, eligibility criteria and application checklists, visit the official DCEO website.
