Tito’s Vodka is officially old enough to rent a car. The well-loved spirits brand, known for being a critical ingredient in many a vodka soda and Moscow Mule, is using its birthday this summer as an opportunity to donate cash to entrepreneurs with budding new businesses.
To celebrate the benchmark, the brand is helping startups and small businesses to get their foot in the proverbial door. While Tito’s is worth billions today, the company famously started with 19 credit cards and a mountain of debt.
As part of the brand’s other charitable pursuits, the “Love, Tito’s Small Business” grant program provides individual $25,000 grants to assist small business owners in the United States.
Tito’s is collaborating with the Accion Opportunity Fund to provide a total of 10 grants to business owners across nearly any industry, except for businesses included on the brand’s industry list. After an online application process, candidates will be invited to participate in interviews.
The application process opened on June 1 and will be accessible online through the end of the month. Funds will be available to grant awardees later this summer, in August 2022.
In order to qualify for the grant, a business must be owned by the applicant, be at least one year old, earn less than $1 million in revenue, and cannot be in a category on the brand’s list of restricted industries, such as banking, gambling or tobacco. Unfortunately, that also means that alcohol-related businesses are not able to apply for the grant. Womp, womp, womp.
More information on the grant as well as application steps, can be found on the Accion Opportunity Fund’s website. This grant program joins other “Love, Titos” initiatives from the company, including donations to environmental organizations, animal rescues, hurricane relief programs and more.