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Funding & Technical Assistance
NWCCOG Regional Grants Navigator
NWCCOG has a Regional Grants Navigator on staff to assist with identifying appropriate grant opportunities, reviewing grants prior to submission, or helping to gather letters of support. Feel free to reach out to him for assistance: Jonathan Godes, NWCCOG Regional Grants Navigator - jgodes@nwccog.org.
Federal Opportunities
People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) Program | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Deadline: Feb. 21 | Details here. Program highlights the use of scientific principles in creating innovative technology-based projects that achieve the mutual goals of improved quality of life, economic prosperity, and environmental protection. P3 encourages interdisciplinary collaborations to devise innovative solutions to environmental and public health challenges in the U.S., including those in small, rural, tribal, or underserved communities. Research areas include clean and healthy air, clean and safe water, safeguarding and revitalizing communities, and ensuring safety of chemicals.
Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC)
Deadline: Feb. 29, 2024 | Details here. Grant program for hazard mitigation activities. FEMA will extend financial assistance to eligible BRIC applicants for a range of activities, including capability and capacity-building initiatives to enhance workforce expertise, hazard mitigation projects that bolster public safety and resilience against a variety of natural hazards, and management costs, which help offset administrative expenses associated with mitigation measures and projects.
Grants for Arts Projects Program
Deadline: Feb. 15 | Details here. National Endowment for the Arts. Program supports opportunities for public engagement with the arts and arts education, for the integration of the arts with strategies promoting the health and well-being of people and communities, and for the improvement of overall capacity and capabilities within the arts sector. The program funds arts projects in the following disciplines: artist communities, arts education, dance, design, folk and traditional arts, literary arts, local arts agencies, media arts, museums, music, musical theater, opera, presenting and multidisciplinary arts, theater, and visual arts.
State Opportunities
Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) Funding
Deadline: March 14 | Details here. The next round of Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) funding, which is a program designed to help rural communities comprehensively diversify their local economy and create a more resilient Colorado, opens up on February 14th, 2024, and closes on March 14, 2024. The most successful applications to this program are those from counties with less than 50,000 people, and from communities with fewer than 25,000 people. Projects that will be funded include plans, construction, programs, and capacity building. Projects should fall into one or more of the following categories: Job creation and retention; Capacity building; Economic resilience; Supports entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Colorado Creates Grant
The Colorado Creates Grant 2024 (FY25) will open March 1 through May 29. This grant provides two years of funded general operating support for arts nonprofits in Colorado. Grant awards are flat amounts based on your organization’s cash operating revenue for your most recently completed fiscal year. If you have questions, please email Emma Acheson at emma.acheson@state.co.us.
More Housing Now Initiative
Deadline: April 1 | Details here. This is a funding set-aside through the Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance (EIAF) program for local governments to adopt land use and other strategies to increase opportunity for affordable and attainable housing development.
Main Street LIVE
Deadline: April 1 | Details here. This is a funding set-aside through the Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance (EIAF) program for place-based development, redevelopment, and housing on downtown Main Streets that are critical to a robust and active economy, local government fiscal health, and sustainable and strategic growth development patterns. Main Street LIVE will fund planning, design and engineering, and construction of Main Street public infrastructure and facilities as Livability Investments for Vibrant Economies. This grant program aims to reinvest in our core main street downtowns and enhance long-term sustainability, support the development of housing, and attract workforce to create a more vibrant and livable commercial core.
Crime Prevention through Safer Streets Grant Program
Deadline: March 1 | Details here. Offered through the Office of Adult and Juvenile Assistance (OAJJA). The goal is to allow the department and local governments to evaluate and design safer streets and neighborhood models that discourage crime, revitalize community image, and establish place-specific crime prevention strategies that account for geographic, cultural, economic, and social characteristics of the target areas.
Other Funding & Technical Assistance Opportunities
AARP Community Challenge Grants
Deadline: March 6 | Details here. Provides small grants to fund quick-action projects that can help communities become more livable for people of all ages—especially those age 50 and older. In 2024, the AARP Community Challenge will accept applications for three grant opportunities: Flagship Grants of $500 to $50,000 focus on improving vibrant public places, transportation and mobility, housing, digital connections, community resilience, and community health and economic empowerment. Capacity-Building Microgrants of $2,500 plus additional resources support bike audit, HomeFit modification, and walk audit projects. Demonstration Grants, usually in the range of $10,000 to $20,000, support projects that encourage the replication of promising efforts in digital connectivity to prepare and respond to disasters, equitable engagement to reconnect communities divided by infrastructure, and housing choice design competitions. Nonprofit organizations and government entities may apply. Other organizations will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Laura Jane Musser Fund: Rural Arts Initiative and Environmental Initiative
Deadlines: March 7 for the Rural Arts Initiative; March 14 for the Environmental Initiative. Rural Arts Initiative grants range up to $12,000. Environmental Initiative grants range up to $8,000 for planning and up to $35,000 for implementation. The Rural Arts Initiative provides general operating support to nonprofit arts organizations in rural communities to develop, implement, or sustain exceptional artistic opportunities for adults and children in the areas of literary, visual, music, and performing arts. The Environmental Initiative assists public and nonprofit entities to initiate or implement projects that enhance the ecological integrity of publicly owned open spaces, while encouraging compatible human activities. The goal is to promote public use of open space that improves a community’s quality of life and public health, while also ensuring the protection of healthy, viable, and sustainable ecosystems.
Startup Colorado: Entrepreneur Grant Program
Details here. This grant awards $2,500 to startup founders and small business owners seeking access to education, technical assistance, and networking opportunities.
Startup Colorado: Community Funding
Details here. Entrepreneur meetups, workshops, and startup weeks are integral to building a vibrant startup ecosystem. Startup Colorado supports events of all shapes and sizes across the state. Whether you’re a business support organization launching a networking power hour or a community organizer welcoming remote workers into the community, this opportunity is for you. Apply for a community funding sponsorship of up to $2,500 to elevate your startup events and networking initiatives.
Resources
Colorado Municipal League’s 2024 State of Our Cities and Towns Survey
Read report here. CML administered this survey from October to November 2023, which explores the fiscal and operational impacts of public liability from claims, lawsuits, and unfunded state mandates on municipalities across Colorado. Rising insurance premiums and state mandates related to technology accessibility, body-worn cameras for law enforcement, and wastewater quality emerged as the primary budgetary challenges for cities and towns.
Spotsurfer: A Colorado-based parking management marketplace
Spotsurfer is a Colorado-based parking management marketplace that partners with property owners to let day drivers book and rent through its app a parking spot for the day in ski resorts, and mountain communities. Spotsurfer was created by Coloradans as a solution to solve the traffic congestion in Eagle and Summit counties. Sporturfer is rapidly growing, providing complete parking management solutions to resorts, garages, parking lots, HOAs, lodges, office buildings, schools, and private residences.
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