With historic levels of funding now available through a range of federal agencies, the Just Transition Fund has launched new programming to help ensure that coal communities can access these resources and advance transition efforts on the ground. In particular, the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) announcement earlier this year of $300 million in new funding for coal communities through the American Rescue Plan represents the federal government’s largest investment ever in coal community economic transition.
We know that navigating a complex grant application process with limited resources and capacity can be daunting. And we’re seeing that communities all around the country—particularly those who need it the most—lack the capacity to access these funds. Since our inception, we’ve helped our partners leverage more than $120 million in public funding. In this moment of critical need and opportunity for transitioning coal communities, we’re committed to supporting organizations through the process of applying for federal funding—every step of the way.
Technical Assistance
Our technical assistance programming is focused on helping coal communities access funding available through the EDA programs. We recently hosted two workshops related to these funding opportunities:
- Our first workshop provided guidance on how to determine which specific EDA funding opportunity to pursue. A recording of that event is available here and the presentation slides are here.
- Our second workshop provided guidance on how to write a strong EDA grant proposal and make your organization’s application as competitive as possible. You can view this workshop here and see the slides here.
Grantmaking
We have also just launched a new grantmaking opportunity to help coal communities develop strong applications for federal funding, including but not limited to funding available through the EDA. Grants of up to $25,000 are available on a rolling basis to support the development of strong federal applications, such as to secure technical expertise and to qualify as matching funds.
Our Request for Proposals (RFP) to support federal applications can be found here. In addition, a guide to the broad range of federal programs available to communities in economic transition is available here.
If you have any questions about our technical assistance programming, please reach out to Rebecca Huenink, [email protected]. If you have any questions about our grantmaking RFP, please contact Sara Sweeney, [email protected].
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