Deluged by more than 4,000 requests for financial assistance, the city of St. Paul is seeking donations from everyday residents to help everyday families and small businesses.

On Wednesday evening, the city began accepting applications for its $4 million “Bridge Fund” — a lottery-based grant program that provides $1,000 in housing assistance to low-income families with a minor child at home who have lost income due to the pandemic.

Families earning no more than 40 percent of area median income — or $40,000 for a family of four — are eligible. Grants of $7,500 will be directed to impacted business owners whose annual gross revenues are under $2 million.

By Friday, the city’s website had applications from 3,000 families and 1,200 small business owners.

In response, the St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation has set up a GiveMN donation website at givemn.org/story/Kk597g.

The foundation will grant donated funds to the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority for the St. Paul Bridge Fund.

The city’s HRA has contributed $3.25 million and foundations have added roughly $750,000 to the fund. The philanthropies include the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Bush Foundation, the Ecolab Foundation, the Securian Fuondation, Minnesota United FC, the Minnesota Wild, the St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation, Xcel Energy, the Baird Foundation and the Whaley Foundation.