To qualify for an Equity Loan, applicants must have completed the following:
- Applied for a City of Oakland Cannabis permit; the permit does not have to be issued for an applicant to apply for an Equity Loan.
To apply for a City of Oakland Cannabis Permit, start here: https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/cannabis-permit-process-step-by-step
- Received an email from the Special Activity Permits Division verifying the Applicant’s equity status.
To obtain your equity status confirmation email, please contact cannabisapp@oaklandca.gov.
- Identified a location to operate the cannabis business for which they are applying for a loan, and received a City of Oakland cannabis permit inspection card for this identified site.
To obtain your permit inspection card for your identified site, please contact cannabisapp@oaklandca.gov.
- The equity qualified individual(s) of the Applicant must be enrolled in GRASS business coaching found here.
- Have completed and received a certificate from the Oaksterdam prerequisite training course found here.
- Provides Qualified Equity Individual legal identification (Driver’s license, Passport, Government ID)
- For those who own more than 20% of the business, provides legal identification (Driver’s license, Passport, Government ID)
- Provides bank statement first page with the name of the party that the loan check should be made payable to (either to Verified Equity Applicant as an individual or to a Business of which the Verified Equity Applicant owns 50% or more)
- If it has been more than eight years since the initial verification of the applicant’s equity status, provides tax returns for the most recent past two years which demonstrate that the Applicant had an annual income at or less than eighty (80) percent Oakland average median income (AMI) adjusted for household size.
- Provides number in household as declared on tax return
Completed a business plan, 12-month monthly financial projections, and a sample budget/use of proceeds statement.
Click here for sample business plan questions