Grow Your Business Online: Quick facts

Grow Your Business Online will help smaller, retail businesses digitize and take advantage of e-commerce opportunities. Eligible businesses will receive micro-grants to help with costs related to adopting digital technologies, as well as support and advice from a network of youth digital advisors.

The aim of Grow Your Business Online is to help Canadian small businesses adopt e-commerce digital technologies, and to provide training and work opportunities for youth.

Funding for Grow Your Business Online will flow through the terms and conditions established under the Canada Digital Adoption Program.

Grow Your Business Online will award funding to regional and national not-for-profit organizations that can support small businesses in developing and implementing new technologies, as well as hire, train, and place young people as youth digital advisors with small businesses to help them implement their plans (a young digital advisor will support more than one business).

Eligible applicants must be Canadian incorporated not-for-profit organizations such as:

• A business and entrepreneur support organization;
• A research/innovation hub;
• An Indigenous organization;
• A Provincial/Territorial Crown corporation, agency or other entity created by a provincial/territorial government or provincial/territorial ministry;
• A business accelerator or incubator; or,
• A consortia of not-for-profit and for-profit organizations/entities where the not-for-profit organization is the lead proponent.

For-profit organizations are ineligible to apply for Grow Your Business Online. However, a for-profit organization can be a partner in an application, but cannot be the lead partner.

Eligible activities are those that support small businesses in developing and implementing their e-commerce strategies.  Through these activities, Grow Your Business Online seeks to increase digital adoption and business competitiveness for Canadian small businesses. To view the eligibility criteria, please consult the Application Guide.

Eligible costs are those that are necessary to support small businesses  in developing and implementing their e-commerce strategies. For a list of examples, please consult the Application Guide.

For a list of examples, please consult the Application Guide.

Capacity building is the process by which organizations obtain, improve, and retain the skills, knowledge, tools, equipment, and other resources needed to do their jobs competently. It allows individuals and organizations to perform at a greater capacity (larger scale, larger audience, larger impact, etc.).

Based on the CDAP eligible costs the following capacity building costs are admissible:

Intermediary:

• Professional development for management and administrative staff;
• IT requirements; and,
• Marketing/promotion.

Youth Digital Advisors:

• Recruitment, training, and deployment to small businesses; and,
• Costs that support the use of tools and products for skills development (amortized on a per-youth digital advisor basis over the period of use).

Please see the application guide for details.

The application process will last 4 weeks and close on August 6, 2021 at 17:59 (Pacific Daylight Time).

The documents required to support your application are provided in a checklist within the Application Guide. You may also attach any other documents that you find relevant to your application.

The Application Form is an electronic Adobe PDF form that can only be opened using Adobe Reader. We recommend that you download the PDF, save it locally, and open it using Adobe Reader. The Internet Explorer browser is usually able to open this type of PDF form, but other browsers will likely not allow you to see this PDF because specific browser configurations are needed. These other browsers will still allow you to download the PDF locally, where you can work with Adobe Reader.

Downloading and opening PDF files for PC users:

• Find the link of the file you want to save (you may need to go back to the previous page to find it);
• Right-click the link;
• Select "Save target as" or "Save link as";
• Choose the location on your computer where you would like to save the file;
• Select "Save";
• Use Windows Explorer to get to the location where you saved the file;
• Right click on the PDF file;
• Select "Open with";
• Select "Choose program";
• Select "Adobe Acrobat Reader";
• Make sure to check the box that says, "Always use this program to open these files"; and,
• Select "OK".

Once the form is completed, attach the required additional documents to it, and electronically submit by clicking on the "Submit" button at the bottom of the application form.

Eligible organizations may submit only one application package.

Yes. Applicants may submit their application documents in either English or French.  However, services to Canadian small businesses will need to be provided in both official languages.

Once you submit an application, our goal is to acknowledge the receipt of a completed and signed application package within 48 hours of receiving it (during working days). We will respond to general inquiries within 48 hours (during working days).

The deadline of August 6, 2021 at 17:59 (Pacific Daylight Time) is firm. All applicants are encouraged to download the Application Form and Guide ahead of time and ensure that they are finalized and submitted well before the deadline. Technical issues within the last 24 hours of the close of the call for proposal do not constitute reasonable grounds for not meeting the deadline. If you need assistance with the Application Form please email digitaladoption-adoptionnumerique@ised-isde.gc.ca a minimum of 24 hours prior to the close of the deadline.

We do not anticipate another intake for CDAP at this time.

Any costs associated with submitting an application to CDAP are not reimbursable, as outlined in the Application Guide.

An organization that is acting as the lead applicant in one application may be a supporting partner in another application. In fact, collaboration among organizations at the regional level is encouraged, and may lead to a stronger application. It should be noted that each organization's responsibility for each milestone in each proposal must be plainly stated, as they may vary between projects.

Funding decisions are expected to be announced this summer. All applicants will be notified in writing if their application has been approved or rejected. 

An initial screening will be conducted. Applications will all be assessed to ensure that they are complete and that they met the eligibility requirements. Incomplete applications – that is, those that do not follow the published application guidelines or do not meet the eligibility requirements – will be screened out and not advance to the assessment stage. In addition, applications that do not respond to the priorities outlined in the applicant guide will be screened out. Applications responding to the priorities will be assessed against the assessment criteria published in the Application Guide.

Preference will be given to applicants that:

• Have multi-regional (more than 2 provinces or territories) or national reach;
• Demonstrate significant experience in delivering digital adoption activities;
• Are seeking to amplify existing service offerings in digital adoption; and,
• Have the capacity to start service delivery by early Fall 2021.

All applicants whose applications have been approved will have the opportunity to adjust the project start and end dates. However, projects cannot have an end date later than March 31, 2025.

Funding decisions are final. There is no appeal mechanism.

The number of successful applicants will be determined based on the number of organizations that apply and the availability of funding.

Non-repayable contributions will be allocated over a four-year period to selected projects via the Call for Applications process.  Successful applicants will enter into a contribution agreement with the Government of Canada.

The total amount requested may not exceed $45,000,000 per applicant.

Any costs incurred before an application is approved and a contribution agreement is signed are not eligible for reimbursement.  The applicant will need to absorb these costs.

Applicants should submit a proposal with a target start date of early Fall 2021 and end by March 31, 2025.

The $2,400 micro-grant cannot be used for training for the small business. However, the small business may use these funds to cover consultation services to help achieve e-commerce proficiency that cannot be offered through the youth digital advisor.

The funding of $7,300 per youth digital advisor can be used to cover youth digital advisor-related costs, including: salaries and benefits (including, at minimum, a salary based on your province's minimum wage); recruitment, training, and deployment to small businesses; cost of equipment or tools used by the youth digital advisor (amortized on a per-youth digital advisor basis over the period of use); and source deductions. Youth digital advisor training and work opportunities must be linked to support for small businesses in the development and implementation of their e-commerce strategies.

As an example of the amortization of the cost of equipment or tools used by the youth digital advisor: If a piece of equipment costs $1,000 and is used by 10 youth digital advisors during the fiscal year, then the cost per youth digital advisor for the fiscal year is $100.

The funding amount of $7,300 per youth digital advisor was determined through a Government of Canada program-design process in light of available funding. This process considered various factors such as salaries, benefits, recruitment, training, equipment, tools, and source deductions. Because the program parameters are set and limited, additional funds per youth digital advisor are not available. Note that a youth digital advisor can return as a youth digital advisor in subsequent fiscal years and access a second round of funding.

Total Canadian government assistance for all eligible costs under CDAP – Grow Your Business Online, including federal, provincial/territorial and municipal governments, cannot exceed 100% of total eligible costs funded.

Further, funding recipients under CDAP – Grow Your Business Online are subject to a maximum level of total Canadian government (municipal, provincial/territorial, federal) funding, or "stacking limit," authorized for any one activity, initiative, or project. Recipients are obligated, as set out in the Contribution Agreement, to disclose all Canadian government financial assistance that they have requested and/or received towards eligible activities under the Contribution Agreement.

In the event that the recipient exceeds the stacking limit, the Government of Canada will adjust the Contribution Agreement accordingly to respect the above mentioned limit.

Financial reporting will be required with each request for reimbursement of expenditures, in addition to year-end accounting and other financial information, as required. In addition, progress and performance reports outlined in the Contribution Agreement will also be required.  The Government of Canada will report on this initiative as part of the regular reporting processes established through the Estimates Process.

Both streams of the CDAP will comply with all applicable official language requirements, as per the Official Languages Act and related regulations.