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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
ARPA Funds Obligation Deadline: Dec. 31, 2024
The obligation deadline for ARPA funds is December 31, 2024. By this date, all ARPA funds must be obligated—committed through contracts, sub-awards, interagency agreements, or similar transactions. If funds are unobligated by the start of the new year, they will need to be returned.
USDA Wildfire Mitigation Grants
Deadline: January 22, 2025 | Details here. The FY25 State Fire Capacity Wildfire Hazard Mitigation program supports wildfire mitigation activities that clearly focus on identifying and creating fire-adapted communities by reducing hazardous fuels in the wildland urban interface, developing and implementing community wildfire protection plans, providing prevention and mitigation education, and achieving fire-adapted community and firewise programming and other community hazard mitigation activities.
RAISE Grant Submissions
Please let the NWCCOG Regional Grants Navigator Jonathan Godes (jgodes@nwccog.org) know if your community submitted RAISE grants either for the recent deadline or the upcoming one at the end of January. Senators have requested this information so they can help advocate for these applications.
Federal Contracting Delays
If your community is experiencing delays due to federal awards currently stuck in contracting at the federal agency level, please let NWCCOG Regional Grants Navigator Jonathan Godes know (jgodes@nwccog.org). Senators are working to expedite contract execution before the new administration takes over, so having a clear understanding of any delays is crucial.
USDA Rural Business Development Grant Program
Deadline: Feb. 28, 2025 | Details here. Funds can be used to provide technical assistance and training for small rural businesses. However, individual businesses are not eligible to apply. Funding is instead provided to public entities such as municipalities and nonprofits, and used to benefit rural areas. This is an extremely flexible program that can support a wide variety of economic development projects.
National Endowment for the Arts: Big Read Grant Program
Deadline: Jan. 23, 2025 | Details here. NEA Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, is a national program that offers matching grants of up to $20,000 to support community-wide reading programs in the United States.
Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Grant Program
Deadline: Jan. 13, 2025. The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Discretionary Grant program funds projects that will improve safety; environmental sustainability; quality of life; mobility and community connectivity; economic competitiveness and opportunity including tourism; state of good repair; partnership and collaboration; and innovation.
National Maternal and Child Health Leadership Program
Deadline: Jan. 3, 2025 | Details here. The purpose of the Partnership for National Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Leadership program is to support organizations in building the capacity of MCH programs, Healthy Start programs, and maternal, infant, and early childhood home visiting programs to achieve the long-term goal to improve national MCH health outcomes and reduce associated disparities by better serving specific populations and awardees.
PROTECT Discretionary Grant Program
Deadline: Feb. 24, 2025 | Details here. The Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT) Discretionary Grant Program, a competitive grant program created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help make surface transportation more resilient to natural hazards, including climate change, sea level rise, flooding, extreme weather events, and other natural disasters.
Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas Funding
NOFA to be released soon | Details here. U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) for up to $400 million to spur innovative, community-focused clean energy solutions in rural and remote areas across the United States. The anticipated funding plans to support energy technologies that provide clean, resilient, reliable, affordable power, while also aiming to increase local economic development.
State Opportunities
CEO Energy Code Adoption and Enforcement Grant
Deadline: Dec. 20, 2024 | Details here. The Colorado Energy Office Energy Code Adoption and Enforcement Grant helps municipalities and local governments offset the cost of adopting updated energy codes.
Community Accelerated Mobility Project (CAMP)
Deadline: Jan. 10, 2025 | Details here. Community Accelerated Mobility Project (CAMP) funding for community-led e-mobility projects; applications for the next Technical Readiness Planning Phase grant funding round are open.
Local Planning Capacity Grant (LPC)
Deadline: March 14, 2025 | Details here. An informational webinar for prospective applicants is scheduled for Thursday, January 9, 2025 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. This grant program provides funding to increase Planning Departments’ capacity to advance local affordable housing goals, and implement the fast track requirement in Prop 123.
CPW Fishing is Fun Grant Program
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2025 | Appy here. The program supports projects such as stream and river habitat improvements, access improvements, perpetual easements for public access, pond and lake habitat improvements, fish retention structures, development of new fishing ponds and amenity improvements such as shade shelters, benches and restrooms. This program provides matching grant funds annually to local and county governments, park and recreation departments, water districts, angling organizations and others for projects to improve angling opportunities in Colorado.
Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI)
Deadline: March 12, 2025 | Details here. The Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) program is geared towards rural counties and communities to fund plans, construction, programs, and capacity building for economic development and resilience projects that create or retain jobs.
Advance Colorado Broadband Grant: Advance-Local Program
Details here | Colorado Broadband Office (CBO) announces a new program under the Advance Colorado Broadband Grant Program called Advance-Local which will award money from a state-funding program called the High Cost Support Mechanism (HCSM) Fund to middle mile, last mile, short-term, and digital equity projects. Advance-Local will award about $14 million from HCSM funding to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), nonprofits, cooperatives, electric companies, municipalities, ISP partnerships, and city-owned ISPs.
Other Opportunities
Eagle County Lodging Tax Funding Available to Eagle County Non-Profits and Businesses
Deadline: Jan. 20, 2025 | Details here. Applicants must fall into one of the following categories: 501(C)(3 or 6), a for-profit, independently owned local business, or a special district or authority that does not collect lodging tax. Funding is intended to enhance marketing efforts. These dollars are intended to benefit unincorporated Eagle County. The focus is on tourism, recreation, and cultural events. The committee welcomes innovation and collaboration among organizations. Applications may be accessed on the Lodging Tax Marketing Committee website.
Resources
SBA Launches AI for Small Businesses Resource Hub
SBA’s first AI Small Business Summit, held in conjunction with Georgia Tech and in collaboration with leading technology companies, innovators, and investors, highlighted the launch of SBA’s AI for Small Businesses Resource Hub – a space for small business owners to learn about AI and AI innovators to learn about the resources available to them at the SBA and across the federal government.
New Report: Older Adults and Economic Development
The United States is experiencing rapid population aging, which is reshaping regional labor markets, healthcare demands, consumer spending patterns, housing needs, and public services. Our region’s communities can play a critical role in addressing these challenges and enabling older adults to age in place. This report explores the various regional impacts of population aging, as well as the roles that communities can and have filled to ensure people and economies are able to thrive. Read the report here.
How destination management organizations can balance the amenity trap
Read more from Headwaters Economics here. Towns across the United States that are popular with tourists, like Bend, Oregon, are experiencing the amenity trap. The very qualities that make Bend a popular tourist destination—natural beauty, abundant outdoor recreation—have also led to rapid growth and accompanying challenges like skyrocketing housing costs, traffic congestion and an overall concern that the local quality of life is eroding. Read more here
Future-proofing the outdoor recreation economy
Read report from Headwaters Economics here. Communities with outdoor recreation economies are rich in natural assets such as mountains and rivers, but their proximity to these resources also puts them on the front lines of natural hazards such as wildfire and flooding. Outdoor recreation communities often experience disproportionate economic and social impacts from disasters because of their reliance on natural assets. Damage to infrastructure such as roads or water systems can keep away the visitors that keep local businesses operating. Read more here…
Updated Template Land Development Code is Now Available
DOLA/Division of Local Government's Community Development Office (CDO) has released an updated Template Land Development Code (formerly known as the Model Land Use Code). This template can be used as a unified development code that integrates all of the basic land use regulatory tools available to Colorado towns/cities and counties or as a source of recommended best practice approaches to specific topics – such as accessory dwelling units, telecommunications facilities, or parking requirements. Last revised in 2008, there are now four versions of the code, which include two standard versions for counties and municipalities and, by request, two streamlined versions that are easier to implement by smaller counties and municipalities. The CDO has also developed a companion guidebook to work with when developing or updating a code.
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