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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
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
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.
Rental Assistance Available Through DOLA
Deadline to apply: Nov. 20 | Details here. The Colorado Dept. of Local Affairs’ November round of rental assistance will open for pre-applications on Nov. 18 and will close on Nov. 20. Emergency rental assistance funding is available for Coloradans who have fallen behind on their rent, meet income limits and other qualifying factors, and are at risk of eviction or displacement.
Energy & Mineral Impact Assistance Fund (EIAF)
Next Deadline: Dec. 2 | Details here. Eligible entities to receive grants and loans include municipalities, counties, school districts, special districts and other political subdivisions and state agencies. Funding to promote sustainable community development, increase livability and resilience of communities through strategic investments in asset-building activities.
Technical Assistance for Establishing Employee Ownership Structure
Applications online here. This is apartnership between Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade to will assist rural businesses by covering 50 to 100 percent of the cost of technical assistance for converting to an employee-owned structure. As more baby boomers retire, many rural businesses struggling to find suitable buyers are at risk of closing. Less than 20 percent of businesses put on the market are sold and only 15 percent are passed on to family members. Companies must be located in designated rural counties and agree to sell at least 20 percent of their business to three or more employees to qualify for the funding.
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
Resources for Small Business Saturday on November 30
Read more here |Two weeks away! Small Business Saturday is November 30, a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities. When your dollars stay in your community, you help small businesses thrive and your neighborhood prosper. Please join SBA and organizations across the country in supporting your local small businesses by shopping at a small business.
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