PENDLETON — In light of a worldwide pandemic and mandated shutdowns, many businesses are surviving off grants right now. But not all assistance is coming from the Paycheck Protection Program.

The Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corp. recently received a $50,000 grant from the Oregon Community Foundation, a sum of money Executive Director Susan Christensen said would help the economic development nonprofit stay afloat.

As businesses have struggled to keep up with expenses during COVID-19, so has the Pendleton-based GEODC, which provides services to several Eastern Oregon counties, including Umatilla and Morrow counties.

One of the GEODC’s primary sources of income is through administering development loans from federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Economic Development Agency.

With clients ranging from florists to restaurants to RV parks, Christensen said the nonprofit has allowed businesses to defer payments during the crisis, but it’s come at a price of thousands of dollars in lost income.

The grant from the Oregon Community Foundation will help cover operational costs for the GEODC, which has kept busy during the pandemic.

Christensen said the organization’s three-person staff has been busy updating its website, answering questions on loan deferrals, and even clarifying to other businesses that GEODC is not a lender through the Paycheck Protection Program.

Although the GEODC now has money to keep it operating in the short term, Christensen said she couldn’t say how long the grant would continue to keep the nonprofit going.