Facebook is opening $100 million in grants. Here's how to apply.

Applications for Facebook's coronavirus grants are opening, rolling out city by city, starting on April 21 with the New York, Seattle, and Bay Areas.

Small businesses across the country are teetering on the edge of collapse because of the novel coronavirus, and Facebook is stepping in to help.

The social network will spend $100 million on grants to support over 30,000 small businesses in 30 countries, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announced in March. The funds will be paid out in a combination of cash and advertising credits to businesses that need help covering operational expenses and in paying rent or their employees, Business Insider's Dominic Reuter reported.

Restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, fitness studios, and cultural institutions across the United States have closed as authorities urge Americans to practice social distancing to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus that has already killed more than 140,000 people across the globe. About 95% of Americans have been ordered to stay home in an attempt to slow the virus' spread.

"We've heard loud and clear that financial support could enable them to keep the lights on and pay people who can't come to work," Sandberg wrote on Facebook March 17. "Whatever happens next, we will be working to help businesses weather this storm."