Opportunities for Funding

What does this program do?

This program provides funding for clean and reliable drinking water systems, sanitary sewage disposal, sanitary solid waste disposal, and storm water drainage to households and businesses in eligible rural areas.

Who may apply?

This program assists qualified applicants who are not otherwise able to obtain commercial credit on reasonable terms. Eligible applicants include:

Most state and local governmental entities
Private nonprofits
Federally-recognized tribes
What is an eligible area?

Areas that may be served include:

Rural areas and towns with populations of 10,000 or less -- check eligible addresses
Tribal lands in rural areas
Colonias
What kinds of funding are available?

Long-term, low-interest loans
If funds are available, a grant may be combined with a loan if necessary to keep user costs reasonable.
How may the funds be used?

Funds may be used to finance the acquisition, construction or improvement of:

Drinking water sourcing, treatment, storage and distribution
Sewer collection, transmission, treatment and disposal
Solid waste collection, disposal and closure
Storm water collection, transmission and disposal
In some cases, funding may also be available for related activities such as:

Legal and engineering fees
Land acquisition, water and land rights, permits and equipment
Start-up operations and maintenance
Interest incurred during construction
Purchase of facilities to improve service or prevent loss of service
Other costs determined to be necessary for completion of the project
See 7 CFR Part 1780.7 and 1780.9 for a complete list
What is the loan term and rate?

Up to 40-year payback period, based on the useful life of the facilities financed
Fixed interest rates, based on the need for the project and the median household income of the area to be served
Contact us for details and current interest rates applicable for your project

Are there additional requirements?

Borrowers must have the legal authority to construct, operate and maintain the proposed services or facilities.
All facilities receiving federal financing must be used for a public purpose.
Partnerships with other federal, state, local, private and nonprofit entities that offer financial assistance are encouraged.
Projects must be financially sustainable.

NOTE: California is currently participating in a pilot program that increases the program limits. Grants are available up to $10,000 (up from $7,500) and loans are available up to $40,000 (up from $20,000) with a maximum of $50,000 (up from $27,500) assistance. Contact our staff to learn more.

What does this program do?
Also known as the Section 504 Home Repair program, this provides loans to very-low-income homeowners to repair, improve or modernize their homes or grants to elderly very-low-income homeowners to remove health and safety hazards.

Who may apply for this program?
To qualify, you must:

Be the homeowner and occupy the house
Be unable to obtain affordable credit elsewhere
Have a household income that does not exceed the very low limit by county
For grants, be age 62 or older
What is an eligible rural area?
Utilizing the USDA Eligibility Site you can enter a specific address for determination or just search the map to review general eligible areas.

How may funds be used?

Loans may be used to repair, improve or modernize homes or remove health and safety hazards
Grants must be used to remove health and safety hazards
How much money can I get?

Maximum loan is $40,000
Maximum grant is $10,000
Loans and grants can be combined for up to $50,000 in assistance
What are the terms of the loan or grant?

Loans are termed for 20 years
Loan interest rate is fixed at 1%
Full title service is required if the total outstanding balance on Section 504 loans is greater than $25,000
Grants have a lifetime limit of $10,000
Grants must be repaid if the property is sold in less than 3 years
Is there a deadline to apply?

Applications for this program are accepted through your local RD office year round

What does this program do?

This program provides funding for clean and reliable drinking water systems, sanitary sewage disposal, sanitary solid waste disposal, and storm water drainage to households and businesses in eligible rural areas.

Who may apply?

This program assists qualified applicants who are not otherwise able to obtain commercial credit on reasonable terms. Eligible applicants include:

Most state and local governmental entities
Private nonprofits
Federally-recognized tribes
What is an eligible area?

Areas that may be served include:

Rural areas and towns with populations of 10,000 or less -- check eligible addresses
Tribal lands in rural areas
Colonias
What kinds of funding are available?

Long-term, low-interest loans
If funds are available, a grant may be combined with a loan if necessary to keep user costs reasonable.
How may the funds be used?

Funds may be used to finance the acquisition, construction or improvement of:

Drinking water sourcing, treatment, storage and distribution
Sewer collection, transmission, treatment and disposal
Solid waste collection, disposal and closure
Storm water collection, transmission and disposal
In some cases, funding may also be available for related activities such as:

Legal and engineering fees
Land acquisition, water and land rights, permits and equipment
Start-up operations and maintenance
Interest incurred during construction
Purchase of facilities to improve service or prevent loss of service
Other costs determined to be necessary for completion of the project
See 7 CFR Part 1780.7 and 1780.9 for a complete list
What is the loan term and rate?

Up to 40-year payback period, based on the useful life of the facilities financed
Fixed interest rates, based on the need for the project and the median household income of the area to be served
Contact us for details and current interest rates applicable for your project

Are there additional requirements?

Borrowers must have the legal authority to construct, operate and maintain the proposed services or facilities.
All facilities receiving federal financing must be used for a public purpose.
Partnerships with other federal, state, local, private and nonprofit entities that offer financial assistance are encouraged.
Projects must be financially sustainable.

What does this program do?
Also known as the Section 504 Home Repair program, this provides loans to very-low-income homeowners to repair, improve or modernize their homes or grants to elderly very-low-income homeowners to remove health and safety hazards.

Who may apply for this program?
To qualify, you must:

Be the homeowner and occupy the house
Be unable to obtain affordable credit elsewhere
Have a household income that does not exceed the very low limit by county
For grants, be age 62 or older
What is an eligible rural area?
Utilizing the USDA Eligibility Site you can enter a specific address for determination or just search the map to review general eligible areas.

How may funds be used?

Loans may be used to repair, improve or modernize homes or remove health and safety hazards
Grants must be used to remove health and safety hazards
How much money can I get?

Maximum loan is $40,000
Maximum grant is $10,000
Loans and grants can be combined for up to $50,000 in assistance
What are the terms of the loan or grant?

Loans are termed for 20 years
Loan interest rate is fixed at 1%
Full title service is required if the total outstanding balance on Section 504 loans is greater than $25,000
Grants have a lifetime limit of $10,000
Grants must be repaid if the property is sold in less than 3 years

The purpose of this NOFO is to provide grants on a competitive basis for projects that seek to strengthen surface transportation to be more resilient to natural hazards, including climate change, sea level rise, heat waves, flooding, extreme weather events, and other natural disasters through support of planning activities, resilience improvements, community resilience and evacuation routes, and at-risk coastal infrastructure.

The vision of the PROTECT Discretionary Grant Program is to fund projects that address the climate crisis by improving the resilience of the surface transportation system, including highways, public transportation, ports, and intercity passenger rail. Projects selected under this program should be grounded in the best available scientific understanding of climate change risks, impacts, and vulnerabilities. They should support the continued operation or rapid recovery of crucial local, regional, or national surface transportation facilities. Furthermore, selected projects should utilize innovative and collaborative approaches to risk reduction, including the use of natural infrastructure, which is explicitly eligible under the program. Also called nature-based solutions, these strategies include conservation, restoration, or construction of riparian and streambed treatments, marshes, wetlands, native vegetation, stormwater bioswales, breakwaters, reefs, dunes, parks, urban forests, and shade trees. They reduce flood risks, erosion, wave damage, and heat impacts while also creating habitat, filtering pollutants, and providing recreational benefits. Projects in the PROTECT Discretionary Grant Program have the potential to demonstrate innovation and best practices that State and local governments in other parts of the country can consider replicating.

AmeriCorps improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. AmeriCorps brings people together to tackle some of the country’s most pressing challenges through national service and volunteerism. AmeriCorps members serve with organizations dedicated to the improvement of communities and those serving.

AmeriCorps grants are awarded to eligible organizations that engage AmeriCorps members in evidence-based or evidence-informed interventions to strengthen communities. An AmeriCorps member is a person who does community service through AmeriCorps. Members may receive a living allowance and other benefits. After successful completion of their service, members earn a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award they can use to pay for higher education expenses or apply to qualified student loans.

For this funding opportunity, AmeriCorps will prioritize consideration from organizations that:
Serve Communities:
• Serve communities with concentrated poverty, rural communities, tribal communities, and historically underrepresented and underserved individuals. These may include people of color, immigrants, refugees, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with arrest or conviction records, religious minorities, etc.;
• Implement programs for or expand access to high-quality youth mental health and substance use recovery services and prepare AmeriCorps members to enter behavioral health careers. These may include individuals with lived experience with substance use and mental health challenges to support youth mental health efforts and continued AmeriCorps work on the opioid epidemic;
• Focus on improving the quality of life for veterans, active-duty members of the Armed Forces, and their families by recruiting veterans, military spouses, and their older children into national service;
• Promote environmental stewardship to help communities (especially underserved households and communities) to be more resilient by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving land and water, increasing renewable energy use and improving at-risk ecosystems;
• Support civic bridgebuilding programs and projects to reduce polarization and community divisions; and providing training in civic bridgebuilding skills and techniques to AmeriCorps members;
Benefit AmeriCorps Members:
• Provide benefits to AmeriCorps members aimed at enhancing member experience and bolstering member recruitment and retention such as paying more than the minimum living allowance, transportation, housing, food, etc.; Create workforce pathways for AmeriCorps members, including deliberate training, certifications, and hiring preferences or support;
• Enhance and expand services to second chance youth and/or engage those youth as AmeriCorps members;
• Develop and train the next generation of diverse public health leaders through service while addressing pressing community health challenges. Review Public Health AmeriCorps Priority in the Mandatory Supplemental Information for eligibility information;
Use Evidence
• Utilize reports from the AmeriCorps Evidence Exchange on programs assessed as having Moderate or Strong evidence to scale, replicate, or adapt the intervention;
Faith-Based
• Organizations that are faith-based; and
American Climate Corps
• Please note that applicants may propose projects to be affiliated with the American Climate Corps (ACC), which is a federal government national service and workforce development initiative focused on training young people for the clean energy and climate resilience workforce. Applicants who are interested must demonstrate that their project funds ACC eligible positions meeting the following criteria:
o The position has verifiable climate or environmental impact.
o The position is temporary (term-limited), and the term length is at least 300 hours.
o The position includes skills-based training as part of the program and provides a pathway to employment.
o The position must receive a living allowance and, in some cases, may receive additional member benefits.

Applicants submitting a workforce development project to qualify for affiliation with the ACC should note that in their application. Successful applicants will be notified if they are part of the ACC and may be subject to additional reporting requirements.

To receive priority consideration, applicants must show the priority area is a significant part of the program focus and intended outcomes. Priority consideration does not guarantee funding.

OVERVIEW
Founded in 1999, the Sundt Foundation was created to give Sundt employee-owners a way to give back to the communities where they live and work. Today, the Sundt Foundation remains true to its original mission, fostering a sense of connection and belonging in our local communities. The Sundt Foundation provides volunteer and grant opportunities to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations in its regional areas.

The Sundt Foundation’s grants are made to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations located in its regions: Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico); South (Texas, Alabama), West (California); Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington); Intermountain (Utah, Idaho); Southeast (Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky).
Funding for the Foundation comes primarily from contributions made by employee-owners of Sundt Construction, Inc., matched by the company.

GIVING GUIDELINES
Employee-owner committees are responsible for Foundation grantmaking designated in the areas of youth development, hunger & nutrition, basic needs & social services, and military & veterans.

Grants are reviewed by committees who make recommendations to the board, which meets quarterly. The committee evaluates each grant application with the following considerations:
• The organization’s mission is aligned under one of the Foundation grantmaking areas.
• The organization has been in operation for at least one year.
• The organization’s administrative expenses are less than 30% of its annual budget.
• The organization has an annual operating budget of $100,000 or more.
• The organization has not received funding from the Sundt Foundation in the last year.
• The organization has a physical office or presence in the local giving area.
• The funding request is between $2,500 - $25,000.
• The application demonstrates a clear funding need for a specific program.

FUNDING EXCEPTIONS
In general, the Sundt Foundation does not provide financial support for:
• Grant requests greater than $25,000.
• Multi-year pledges.
• Costs of fundraising events, such as dinners, golf tournaments, etc.
• Construction projects that will provide administrative facilities.
• Event sponsorships.
• Grants that would be used, in any way, to teach or promote any religious belief.
• Political candidates, parties, campaigns, or causes.
• Activities outside of the United States.

The intent of this funding opportunity is to support the establishment of temporary bridge rental/loan/cost-share programs with States and federally recognized Indian Tribes to protect water resources and reduce water quality degradation during forestry-related operations. This program is funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and up to $17.6 million is available. The program is open and available for response with rolling applications due on April 27, 2024, August 30, 2024, and December 27, 2024. Funding decisions will be made within 30 days of the due dates. For more information, please contact Jeff High at jeffrey.c.high@usda.gov. More information and recent recipients are located at Temporary Water Crossing | US Forest Service (usda.gov).

The Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance provides funding may be used to provide support for facilities that purchase and process byproducts of ecosystem restoration projects. This includes applications to establish, reopen, retrofit, expand, or improve a sawmill or other wood-processing facility in close proximity to federal or Indian lands that need ecosystem restoration and will generate byproducts. The emphasis is on areas of unnaturally severe high fire or insect or disease infestation with high or very high priority for ecological restoration. This program is funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The deadline to apply for financial assistance is 5:00PM local time on December 18, 2024. Contact Adam Smith adam.smith5@usda.gov for more information.

The USDA Forest Service is announcing the availability of $20 million to provide financial assistance to facilities that purchase and process byproducts from ecosystem restoration projects in areas at risk of unnaturally severe wildfire or insect or disease infestation through funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The intent is to substantially decrease the cost of conducting restoration projects involving vegetation removal on federal and Tribal lands and invest in surrounding communities. These ecosystem restoration byproducts could include trees and woody biomass harvested through timber sales, thinning, hazardous fuels reduction treatments, or other restoration management activities.

Funding priority will be to provide financial assistance to an entity seeking to establish, reopen, retrofit, expand, or improve a sawmill or other wood-processing facility that will utilize the byproducts from projects on federal land, Tribal forestland, and Tribal rangeland that have been identified as at risk for fire, insect, or disease and a high priority for ecological restoration. To be eligible for funding, the project facility must be in close proximity to federal or Tribal lands and procure significant percentages (approximately 50% or greater) of raw materials from federal or Tribal lands. Successful applicants will address how financial support will enable increased utilization of byproducts from ecosystem restoration projects on federal or Tribal lands that are in close proximity to a wood products processing facility and how this assistance will help reduce restoration costs.

The grants and agreements awarded under this announcement will support the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Pub. L. 117-58 (11/15/2021), Sec. 40804(b)3.

The Community Wood Grant Program, launched in 2020, provides funding for grants to install thermally led community wood energy systems or to build innovative wood product manufacturing facilities. The Forest Service expects renewable wood energy systems installed under this program to use the most stringent control technologies. The program places extra emphasis on assisting sawmills in economically challenged areas to retool or add advanced technology. The deadline to apply for financial assistance is 5:00 pm local time on December 18, 2024. Contact Sabina Dhungana sabina.dhungana@usda.gov for more information.

The USDA Forest Service is delivering the Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Program (Community Wood) to support the Rural Revitalization Technologies 7 U.S.C. Sec. 8113 and Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 Pub. L. 115-334 Sec. 9013, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) Pub. L. 117-58 Div. J Title VI which directly support the installation of thermally led community wood energy systems or development and expansion of innovative wood product facilities. The intent of the Community Wood is to support forest health and stimulate local economies by expanding renewable wood energy use and innovative wood products manufacturing capacity.

The Forest Service solicits proposals for projects that will achieve the following:

Expand thermally led community wood energy or innovative wood product opportunities;
Improve Forest health; and
Stimulate local economies.
This funding opportunity is intended for shovel ready projects that will not require additional funding or time to complete after the award period.

Examples of eligible projects include, but are not limited to:

Install a thermally led community wood energy system for heating, cooling, and/or electricity that replaces fossil fuels such as coal, oil, propane, or natural gas.
Purchase and install manufacturing equipment at a mass timber production facility.
Expand a sawmill to add higher value production lines that incorporate innovative technologies and cost cutting measures.
Purchase and install equipment at a new facility to produce biofuels from forest residues.
All awards are based on funding availability. The Forest Service plans to award up to $6 million in total awards under this announcement. The maximum for each award is $1 million to pay for up to 35% of total capital costs. The Forest Service may consider awarding up to $1.5 million (for up to 50% of total capital costs) for a proposal that warrants special consideration, especially for projects located in areas of high unemployment.

Matching funds are not required; however, leveraging is required. Applicants must contribute the remaining funds (leveraged funds) necessary to complete the project above and beyond the requested Forest Service funding. For example, if an applicant requests Forest Service funding for 35% of the total capital costs of the project, then the applicant must commit to providing 65% of the total capital costs of the project. In this example, the 65% of the total capital costs are considered the required leveraged funds. Even though leveraged funds have a lower reporting burden and fewer legal requirements than matching funds, applicants must adhere to requirements for leveraged funds.

Leveraged funds must be from non-federal sources and be committed within the grant timeframe. Moreover, if third-party organizations contribute to the leveraged funds requirement, then applicants must submit with their proposal package commitment letters from the third-party organizations confirming the amount of leveraging being committed.

A pre-recorded webcast that presents information on applying for this funding opportunity can be found at FY25 Community Wood Program Informational Webcast

Additional details on the funding opportunity can be found at Wood Innovations Homepage

Instructions on how to apply for funding and the official application can be downloaded at the following weblinks.

Instructions FY25 Community Wood Program

Application Form (FS-1500-0051) FY25 Community Wood Program