AIMS delivers Facebook’s Small Business Grants Programme during Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic brought an unprecedented level of uncertainty to all sectors and small business owners suddenly found themselves isolated amid an unknown financial future. Many sectors hoped that the philanthropic nature of some organisations could alleviate the pressure.
Facebook saw the need to step up and take a global lead in supporting small businesses at risk. In March 2020, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announced the launch of their Small Business Grants Programme.
Facebook chooses AIMS
Facebook announced that $100m in cash grants and ad credits would be available to help small businesses. They needed a digital partner to deliver this complex project. AIMS Software Ltd’s demonstrable knowledge and experience in grant management software and services is the reason Facebook approached us, to provide a grant administration service for their Small Business Grants Programme across the EMEA region.
“Small businesses are the heartbeat of our communities, and many of the people who run these businesses are heavily affected by the crisis – especially as more and more people sensibly stay home. The longer the crisis goes on, the greater the risk to small businesses and to the livelihoods of their owners and employees.
That’s why today I’m announcing that Facebook is investing $100 million to help 30,000 small businesses in over 30 countries where our employees live and work.”
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg – March 2020
Working in partnership to deliver the best results
We chose to partner with Deloitte to provide full grant administration services to Facebook – encompassing the design, development and full management of a grant programme to provide financial grants to small and medium businesses in 18 countries across the EMEA region. AIMS Software Ltd, in partnership with Deloitte, used the AIMS grant management software platform for all EMEA grant applications, awards, payments, and ad credit awards.
Delivering the time-sensitive programme
The intricate nature of software implementation means that most projects take months to come to fruition. As Covid gripped the world and decimated many sectors, Facebook wanted these grants to be available as soon as possible for small business owners. AIMS used over thirty years’ experience delivering complex projects to live launch the Facebook Small Business Grants Programme in 4 weeks from the start of the contract.
The AIMS team, with Deloitte, were responsible for performing all tasks, functions, services and responsibilities necessary to provide the end-to-end delivery of the grant programme. The particular challenges for the delivery of the programme included large volumes of anticipated applications, multiple currencies and languages, and sprint delivery for rapid deployment on the application process.
The multi-lingual and multi-currency platform that we provided for Facebook reached over 180,000 applicants.
The results
AIMS grant administration services
We work with delivery partners to provide full or partially outsourced administration and operational delivery of your grant programmes. Read more about the grant administration services offered by our expert team.
Working in partnership with experts in their own field, we create bespoke solutions for organisations of all sizes. Whether you need to relieve admin pressure on your team, buy-in our expertise, or create an arms-length programme for accountability purposes, we are here to help.
