LiftFund launched the 2026 Flood Rebuilding Grant Program, a $5 million fund offering grants of up to $50,000 to small businesses and nonprofits damaged in the July 2026 Hill Country floods, according to an Aug. 3 news release from the San Antonio-based nonprofit lender. The program, funded by the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, will provide long-term recovery money to physically damaged businesses in Kerr County and Comfort.
The grants form the small business pillar of an $18 million recovery commitment the Community Foundation announced for communities hit by the July floods, which also includes at least $11.3 million for housing recovery, more than $1.6 million in emergency financial assistance distributed through four nonprofit partners, and continued long-term recovery work building on investments made after the 2025 floods, according to a news release from the foundation.
“When a small business reopens, the impact reaches far beyond its front door. Employees return to work, customers regain trusted local services and neighborhoods begin to recover,” LiftFund President and CEO Amy Hereford said in the release. “That’s why investing in rebuilding small businesses is an investment in the future of the entire community.”
To qualify, applicants must be located in Kerr County or Comfort, have sustained physical damage in the July 2026 floods, have been registered and operating on or before July 1, 2025, expect to remain open locally for at least 18 months after receiving an award, and demonstrate they lack sufficient resources to stabilize operations without grant help, LiftFund said.
Applications are open until 5 p.m. CT on Aug. 20 at LiftFund’s website, with reviews, award notifications, and funding expected between Aug. 21 and Sept. 30. The lender’s business experts are also offering free guidance, workshops, and educational resources to affected entrepreneurs, and supporters can contribute to its flood-relief efforts at donate.liftfund.com.
“The needs following these floods are immediate, but recovery will take years,” said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, in the foundation’s release. “Our priority is to connect families, businesses and communities with the resources they need today while continuing the long-term work of rebuilding.”
Speaking in Kerrville, Dickson noted the region is not starting from scratch — recovery systems built after the 2025 Independence Day floods allowed organizations to respond faster this year — but he warned that nearly all of the $18 million comes from donations made last year and that more giving is needed, according to reporting from KXAN. “We cannot simply free up last year’s funding to meet the needs,” Dickson said. “There is not enough money to do that by a long shot.”
No state-funded grant program exists for flood-damaged small businesses — not for this year’s disaster, and not for the July 2025 floods before it. The state’s role has centered instead on disaster declarations, damage reporting through the Texas Division of Emergency Management’s iSTAT system, and requests for federal help, according to a funding guide published by the Kerr County Lead, which noted that the largest potential source of recovery money — federal disaster aid — remains pending presidential approval.
Governor Greg Abbott has formally requested a Presidential Disaster Declaration covering 28 counties, which would unlock U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loans of up to $2 million plus economic injury loans for working capital, the guide reported. The pattern mirrors last year, when grant relief came from philanthropy while the SBA provided federal disaster loans to Kerr County businesses.
The wait for federal aid has drawn urgency from local officials, KXAN reported, with a Kerr County commissioner writing the White House to cite 384 homes destroyed or sustaining major damage, more than 1,600 property damage reports, and damage to nine of the county’s 11 bridges.
Flood survivor Juliet Weldin, whose home is being rebuilt after the 2025 flood, told the station the recovery system is better organized this time and urged all Texans to keep giving: “Please help us again.”