October 21, 2021
Dear Arts Action Fund Members,
SVOG UPDATE
The SBA reports that it continues to experience calculation problems with its Salesforce database in issuing SVOG Supplemental Award invitations and disbursements. They believe the problem has now been worked out and a new round of Actionable items should begin being sent out tomorrow, October 22nd.
On October 20th, the SBA posted two updated sets of FAQs to their website:
- SVOG Post-Application FAQs has a significant amount of new information that addresses many burning questions that current awardees have, including guidance on the following:
- What triggers an audit and what kinds of audits are required for governmental/nonprofit organizations compared to for-profit entities.
- All applicants who receive an initial grant and a supplemental will need to put a new budget together of how the combined funds will be used. Remember, you can move things between allowable categories as much as you want without permission as you later administer the grants in real time.
- Introduction of Reconsideration 2.0, a new opportunity to allow all existing grantees to correct mistakes made during their SVOG application process, which resulted in a smaller award than what they could have qualified for. This will be administered after all initial applications, appeals, award amount reconsiderations, and supplemental grants are awarded and if there are still available funds, which is likely. This new opportunity will really help those who made calculation errors in their original application because of a misunderstanding of “earned” vs “gross income.” It could mean higher initial awards and/or eligibility to receiving a supplemental award. Details on this program will come out later this fall with the invitation likely to arrive in December.
- SVOG Closeout process and timeline are described in detail.
- Types of evidentiary materials to save and submit with Expense Reports. All awardees are required to save payroll receipts for 4 years and all other expense receipts for 3 years.
- Introduction of a randomly-selected SVOG Monitoring Process is described in the document.
- SVOG Program FAQs had only one change made in this important document. SBA deleted FAQ #207, noting that it was now “No longer relevant.” The now deleted question #207 used to read as follows:
"What should a talent representative count as their gross and earned revenues? Talent representatives should claim the commission income they earned from an artist’s fee and any retainers paid to the talent representative. They should not claim payments passed through to the artists they represent."
Additionally, while not described in either of the SVOG FAQ updates, SBA has informed national stakeholders that they will be offering webinars and office hours later this fall to help awardees confidently administer their awards.
Latest SVOG data and list of awardees as of October 18, 2021:
ZOOM OFFICE HOURS TOMORROW @ 11:00am ET
If you have federal COVID-19 relief questions, please join me at my weekly Zoom Office Hours tomorrow on Friday, October 22nd @ 11:00 am ET.
To read an archive of Arts Action Fund federal updates and more, visit COVID-19 Arts Resources Page.
