Dear [firstname],

Welcome to my February grants newsletter. It has been a busy month in the federal grants space (to say the least!), and I know that actions by the Trump Administration to freeze federal funding have caused a great deal of anxiety in our communities. Please know that I am working hard every day to fight against these steps and continue delivering for our constituents.

As you know, this is a changing situation and there are various lawsuits ongoing related to the funding freeze. On February 3, a federal judge directed the administration to release the frozen funds, notify agencies of the court’s temporary restraining order, and file a status report on compliance by Feb. 7, 2025.

Due to the confusion and lack of clarity from the Trump Administration, I highly recommend that you follow relevant agency newsletters and grants.gov webpage for your work and grants of interest to see what grants are canceled, paused, or may have changed eligibility criteria. If this has had an effect on you or your organization, please share your information with me here. If you are receiving funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, I recommend you check out this fact sheet on Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds from the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

I am excited to share upcoming grants and federal funding opportunities for local governments, universities, community organizations, businesses, and individuals.

You can find up-to-date information on open federal grants here. This spreadsheet will be updated throughout the month and includes a wide variety of grants related to agriculture, community development, disaster prevention and relief, food and nutrition, transportation, and much more. The grants can be easily sorted and filtered by category to help find grants related to specific needs.

Additionally, you can find an extensive list of funding opportunities for local governments updated regularly by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs here. This user-friendly dashboard includes federal and state funding opportunities and can be filtered by category, program, award type, awarding agency, and eligible applicants.

Upcoming Grants:

This month, there are some major federal grants open around funding for rural communities and fire and disaster mitigation. Below are some of the available federal funding opportunities, listed in order by category and deadline. The following grants are still open and accepting applicants at the time of the sending of this newsletter.

Rural:

The Department of Transportation has opened the Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program, a non-competitive grant program without a local match requirement for rural communities to provide technical, financial, and legal support for a transportation project. The grant is designed to be easier to apply to for smaller communities and can be used to hire staff to carry out a project or to hire a grant writer to apply for another transportation grant. The grant is awarded to all applicants who meet eligibility requirements on a first-come, first-served basis when applications open on March 4, 2025.

The Department of Health and Human Services has an open Rural Residency Planning and Development grant program for rural hospitals, rural community ambulatory patient care centers, and medical schools to develop rural residency programs for medical students. Applicants should apply by April 10, 2025.

The Department of Health and Human Services also has a Rural Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) Planning and Development grant program for local governments, small businesses, and nonprofits to improve health care in rural areas for seniors. Interested parties should apply by April 17, 2025.

Fire and Disaster Management:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has the open Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program, which provides funding for local governments to invest in projects around hazard risk mitigation and preparing for disasters like flooding and wildfire. The deadline to apply is April 18, 2025, and interested parties can also request free technical assistance for the BRIC program here.

FEMA also has an open Flood Mitigation Assistance grant program for local and county governments to carry out risk and damage mitigation projects around flooding. Applicants should apply by April 18, 2025.

Behavioral Health:

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is opening its grant program application for the Rural Emergency Medical Services Program. This grant will provide money to recruit and train new EMS personnel with a focus on tackling substance use disorders. Interested rural emergency medical service agencies should apply by March 20, 2025.

Energy:

The Department of Energy also has a Carbon Utilization Procurement Grant program open for local governments to reduce their energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Interested applicants should apply by April 30, 2025.

Arts, Culture, and the Humanities:

The National Endowment for the Arts has the open Research Grants program (deadline of March 24, 2025). This program provides funding for nonprofits and local governments to carry out arts projects.

Technical Assistance:

Something I often hear when meeting with local governments and organizations is that they are interested in taking advantage of federal funding opportunities but simply do not have the capacity to submit a competitive application. Thankfully, you don't have to go through this process alone. My office has compiled a list of resources provided by state and federal government agencies designed to help grant applicants here.

I often hear from groups who find a grant that interests them but aren’t sure when the grant application will reopen or feel the deadline is too soon for them to write a competitive application. To help groups plan for upcoming grants, my office has compiled a list of past opening and closing dates for major grants here.

Energy:

The Department of Energy provides a technical assistance program called Clean Energy to Communities Learning Cohorts for local governments, nonprofits, and electric utilities to form partnerships, have access to experts, and receive guidance on clean energy projects. Interested applicants can apply here.

Through funding from the Department of Energy, the Energy Ready organization provides free technical assistance to local governments wishing to implement solar and wind energy within their communities as well as electric vehicles charging stations. Interested parties can find more information here and apply for assistance here.

The Colorado Department of Agriculture will provide free technical assistance for Colorado rural businesses and agricultural producers for the USDA’s  Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) program, including free assistance with technical reports and feasibility studies. REAP funding supports energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

Grants on the Horizon:

The Colorado Department of Local Affairs is planning to open a Housing Planning Grant for local governments to develop housing need assessments and housing action plans in April 2025. Interested parties can find more information on this planned funding program here.

Application Tip of the Month:

My office has heard from stakeholders who have started a grant application only to find out that the grant opportunity has been closed as part of the federal funding freeze when they go to apply. With all of the uncertainty around federal funding opportunities right now, I strongly recommend that you check the grants.gov webpage for the grant you are applying for throughout the application process to ensure that the grant fund you are applying to is still open. Please reach out to our office at co07grants@mail.house.gov if you have any questions about a federal grant opportunity. 

Reminders from last month's newsletter:

You can always find a full list of the resources and grants (some of which are still open) from previous grant newsletters on my website here. 

If you know someone who would like to be added to my monthly grants newsletter, they can sign up for the newsletter here.

If you would like to request a letter of support from my office, please email co07grants@mail.house.gov. Please allow at least one week of processing time and include your application materials and a draft letter of support. Letter of support requests within a week of the deadline may not be able to be processed in time.

Please reach out with any questions, letters of support requests, or if you would like my office to keep an eye out for federal funding in specific areas.

Thanks for reading,