Grant Opportunities

• Federal Funding Sources for Municipal Sustainability and Climate Action
   
• Don't Miss New Infrastructure Grants Coming Soon
  
  
• Congress Gives Cities More Flexibility for Recovery Funds
   
• ​​​​​​Best Infrastructure Grants for Small Citites 
   
• Thinking Holistically and Regionally: Implementing Federal Funding for Utilities
   
• Understanding and Accessing Federal Funds Available to Public Power Utilities
   
• 10 Tips for Understanding Grants

Local Infrastructure Hub

The Local Infrastructure Hub is a national program that was created to help local leaders navigate federal infrastructure funding opportunities and to provide resources to help cities successfully apply for funding. It includes a tool for searching funding opportunities targeted to communities.

Grants.gov

Grants.gov is the federal government's central location for grant seekers to fund and apply for federal funding opportunities. The website also handles grant application submissions to many federal agencies.

Grants.gov also contains helpful training resources and videos, including step-by-step explanations of registering and setting up your application workspace, a self-help knowledge base, and links to other help.

American Recovery Act of 2021 (also called the COVID-19 Stimulus Package or the American Rescue Plan)

A $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill to speed up the country’s recovery. Many of these funds went directly to households, businesses, and specific plans, but state and local fiscal recovery funds were also sent to states and allocated by various entities or state legislatures.

Cities serving a population of < 50,000 are considered non-entitlement units (NEUs) and receive their funds from the State. More information is available here.

• Self-service resources

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021-2022

This law will invest billions in our national infrastructure and provide opportunities specific to rural communities for broadband, transportation, roads and bridges, water, airports, electric vehicle charging, energy, and resiliency.

This Technical Assistance Guide identifies programs, processes, and resources to support communities seeking to access and deploy federal funding.

Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (also called the Build Back Better bill)

This legislation is a $750 billion package addressing healthcare, energy and climate, and tax reform supporting these priorities. Here is a summary of the energy and climate investments contained in the bill. More details are available in this IRA Guidebook.

Many of the Inflation Reduction Act’s benefits come in the form of tax credits for businesses or individuals and guidance can be found here.

1. Click here for a summary of competitive federal opportunities from the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office.  This summary includes links to program pages with further details, FAQs, application portals and more.
   
   This program also includes Smart Grid Grants, which includes AMI and how that investment will support grid resiliency and innovation.  See this Smart Grid Fact Sheet which include DOE’s priority investment areas.
    
2. Under the Grid Resilience State and Tribal Formula Grants Program (BIL Sec 40101(d)), federal money will flow to states, and each state will administer funds for distribution in their state, with their own application timelines and procedures. Select your state below for more information:
   
   Colorado
   Colorado Electric Grid Resilience Funds (Note: this includes a sign up to receive future program announcements)
   
   Kansas
   Formula Grant for Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid
    

   Nebraska
   Nebraska Electric Grid Resilience Grant Program:
   Nebraska Grid Resiliency Presentation
   Electric Resilience Grant Summary

   Subscribe to the Nebraska Grid Resiliency Information LIstserv:
   Send an email to listserv@listserv.nebraska.gov with "SUBSCRIBE NDEE-GridResiliency" followed by your name - in the body of the message (leave the subject line blank). Example: Subscribe NDEE-GridResiliency Jane Doe. You will receive an e-mail requesting you to confirm your request. Confirm by clicking the link. For more information, contact NDEE at (402) 471-2186 or NDEE.gridresiliency@nebraska.gov
   
   Iowa
   Iowa Grid Resilience Fund
   
   North Dakota
   North Dakota Transmission Authority
   
   Wyoming
   State Energy Program Grants

To learn more about developing the infrastructure needed to charge electric vehicles, click here.

Communities interested in electric vehicle charging grants have two potential opportunities:

1. A competitive federal Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program that includes two funding categories: 1) Community Charging and Fueling Grants (Community Program); and 2) Alternative Fuel Corridor Grants (Corridor Program), as designated by the Federal Highway Administration. To the extent possible, all applications will be considered for both the Community and the Corridor Program, regardless of which grant is applied for.
    
2. Grant funds also flow to the states through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program. In order to receive the funds, each state has developed a State EV Infrastructure Deployment Plan, which will likely continue to evolve over five year. Each state establishes its own priorities/criteria for distribution of charging infrastructure funds. Click on the links below to learn more about your state’s plan and opportunities:

• Colorado
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Nebraska
• North Dakota
• Wyoming

Congratulations to our NPGA communities of Stuart, Neb., and Trinidad, Colo., that were awarded Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) grants in the 2022 round of funding.

The 2023 funding cycle for the Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization Grants opened on May 23, with an application deadline of July 24, 2023.  The link will take you to several additional resources, including the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), evaluation plan, best practices for submitting a grant application, webinars, and FAQs.

Colorado

Colorado Department of Local Affairs Local Community Funding Guide
Colorado Local Match Program (IIJA)

Kansas

Kansas Energy Office

Nebraska

Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy

North Dakota

North Dakota Department of Commerce

Iowa

Iowa Grants
Iowa Energy Office
State Funding Opportunities from Iowa League of Cities

Wyoming

Wyoming Energy Authority

This list from the American Public Power Association is based on reporting from Politico at the end of 2022 and is subject to change. Additionally, some states did not provide an IIJA coordinator name. We will update this information if new information become available.

Click here to download the listing.

What is Justice40 that is associated with many grant opportunities?

Justice40 is an initiative of the Biden administration which directs 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments—including investments in clean energy and energy efficiency; clean transit; affordable and sustainable housing; training and workforce development; the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution; and the development of clean water infrastructure—to flow to disadvantaged communities (DACs). This includes many rural communities.

Interim Implementation Guidance for the Justice40 Initiative provides a definition of disadvantaged communities. The Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) will help Federal agencies identify communities to support everyone receiving the benefits intended from federal programs.