New RMAP Program to Support Rural Small Business

The Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program is a new program that will make grants to organizations that provide training, technical assistance or make small loans to new and existing rural small businesses. This program will provide grants and loan funds to organizations that provide training, technical assistance and/or small loans to rural small business owners, facilitate access to capital and access to services for rural microenterprises. The funding is channeled to three areas:

• Loans to microentrepreneurs through applicant organizations: Funds to provide fixed interest rate microloans of less than $50,000 to rural entrepreneurs for the development or start-up of successful microenterprises in rural areas.
• Grants to organizations to assist microentrepreneurs (connected to loan funds): Funding to organizations to provide marketing, management, and other technical assistance to microentrepreneurs who received or are seeking a loan from the microenterprise development organization.
• Grants to support microenterprise development (not connected to loan funds): Funding to organizations to provide training, operational support, business planning, market development assistance, and other services to rural entrepreneurs.

The Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program program will be administered as a national program through USDA Rural Development’s Business Programs Office.

Organizations eligible to apply for funding include nonprofit organizations, public institutions of higher education, and tribal governments that are not served by a nonprofit development organization.

Applicants should have a demonstrated record of delivering services to rural microentrepreneurs or an effective plan to develop such a program. Applicant organizations do not need to be located in a rural area, but they must serve rural entrepreneurs. Microenterprises can be food or agriculture-related but are not required to be.

The farm bill defines organizations meeting the above qualifications as Microenterprise Development Organizations (MDO).

Applications must meet the following standards:

• Federal share of the cost of a project funded by this program shall not exceed 75%
• MDOs must match at least 15% of any grant amount
• Not more than 10% of any grant received may be used for administrative expenses

Definitions:

• Microentrepreneur: an owner and operator or prospective owner or operator of a rural microenterprise unable to obtain sufficient training, technical assistance or credit
• Microloan: a business loan of not more than $50,000
• Rural: any area other than 1) a city or town with 50,000 or greater population, or 2) an urbanized area contiguous or adjacent to a city or town with 50,000 or greater population
• Rural Microenterprise: sole proprietorship or business with no more than 10 full-time equivalent employees
• Microenterprise development organization (MDO): an organization that is a nonprofit entity, Indian tribe (that is not served by an MDO), or public institution of higher education that provides training and technical assistance to rural microentrepreneurs, facilitates access to capital and services to rural microenterprises and has a demonstrated record of delivering services to rural microentrepreneurs or an effective plan to develop such a program.

Funding Opportunity Number: RDBCP-10-RMAP
Current Closing Date for Applications: Jul 16, 2010
Archive Date: Aug 16, 2010
Funding Instrument Type: Grant
Expected Number of Awards: 35
Estimated Total Program Funding: $8,900,000
Award Ceiling: $130,000

Additional Information on Eligibility:
Non-profit entities, Indian tribes, and public institutions of higher education that, for the benefit of rural microentrepreneurs and microenterprises, provides training and technical assistance, makes microloans or facilitates access to capital or another related service, and/or has demonstrated record of delivering, or an effective plan to develop a program to deliver such services.

Eligible MDOs will automatically be eligible to receive technical assistance grants to provide technical assistance and training to microentrepreneurs that have received or are seeking a microloan under the RMAP. These grants are limited to an amount equal to not more than 25 percent of the loan to an MDO under the RMAP. Technical assistance-only (TA-only) grants will competitively be made to MDOs for the purpose of providing technical assistance and training to prospective borrowers. TA-only grants will be made to eligible MDOs that seek to provide business-based technical assistance and training to eligible microentrepreneurs and microenterprises, but do not seek funding for a direct loan under RMAP.

Evaluating Centers for Independent Living, Deadline June 9

This program provides support for planning, conducting, administering, and evaluating centers for independent living (CILs) that comply with the standards and assurances in section 725 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (Act), consistent with the design included in the State Plan for Independent Living (SPIL) for establishing a statewide network of CILs.

Deadline: June 9, 2010

Eligibility
Be a consumer-controlled, community-based, cross-disability, nonresidential, private nonprofit agency.

Amount of funding
$10,229,435 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and $596,334 from the FY 2010 Centers for Independent Living (CIL) appropriation.

Estimated Average Size of Awards: $386,635.

Estimated Number of Awards: 28

You can retrieve an application here:
http://www.ed.gov/fund/grant/apply/grantapps/index.html

You can contact ED Pubs at its Web site, also: http:// www.EDPubs.gov or at its e-mail address: edpubs@inet.ed.gov.

If you request an application from ED Pubs, be sure to identify this program as follows: CFDA numbers 84.400A and 84.132A.

For more information contact:
Sean Barrett, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., room 5016, PCP, Washington, DC 20202-2800. Telephone: (202) 245-7604 or by e-mail: sean.barrett@ed.gov.

Youth Arts & Culture Grants, Due May 8

The retention and community engagement of young people (14-25 years-old)
through arts and culture in Michigan.

Program Objectives: The NLACM want to support the following:
♦ Cool programs or projects young people are already working on to help make them “cooler”
♦ Ideas young people have about how to make their community cool
♦ Projects that use arts and culture to empower young people in Michigan
♦ Projects that involve the creative mentorship of young people

Requirements
♦ The program must be led by a young person or young people... 14-25 years-old
♦ The program must have a 1:1 match, cash or in-kind
♦ Project budget and budget itemization
♦ List of people involved with the project (include leadership and administrative positions, if possible)

Narrative (Questions to be answered in three pages or less)
♦ General: Project description, timeline, desired outcomes (impact on young people), evaluation(ways to determine success), budget
♦ How does this program promote youth empowerment?
♦ How will this program encourage young people to stay Michigan?
♦ How are young people mentored as part of this program?
♦ How are young people involved in the implementation, administration, and/or leadership of this program?

Eligibility
♦ Applicants must be a Michigan Non-profit 501c(3) or other tax exempt organization, proof of tax exempt status must accompany the grant application. Applications may be in partnership with youth based organizations or student groups
♦ Applications must be postmarked no later than May 8, 2010.
♦ The project must occur between June 1 and September 30, 2010.
♦ Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Complete guidelines

ORV Trail Grants Available, Due May 1

2010-11 Off-Road Vehicle Trail Grant Applications Available

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment announced today
that the 2010-11 Off Road Vehicle (ORV) trail grant applications are
available to public agencies, and nonprofit incorporated clubs and
organizations.

Applications are available for grants to maintain existing designated
state ORV trails, routes, and use areas; repair public lands damaged by
inappropriate ORV use; and develop new ORV trails, routes, and use
areas. Grant funds also are available to pay for liability insurance,
leases or easements.

"We currently have 28 trail sponsors that maintain more than 3,300
miles of state designated ORV trails and routes statewide," said Steve
Kubisiak, DNRE Recreation and Trails Program coordinator. "We depend
on these partnerships to maintain the trails, and encourage
participation from all user organizations and other public agencies to
help us maintain Michigan’s great ORV trail system."
Grant applications are prioritized to address existing trail
maintenance and restoration needs on public land. New trail, route, and
scramble area development proposals will also be considered.

Applications must be submitted by May 1, 2010.

Contact us for more information!

Michigan Humanities Council, Underwriting Grants

Arts & Humanities Touring Program Grants (up to 40% of expenses or $3,000)

Michigan’s Arts & Humanities Touring Directory represents 204 of our state’s most talented performing and visual artists and humanities presenters. It provides schools, libraries, museums, civic and service groups, festival organizers, and other Michigan nonprofits a wide variety of cultural programming in the fields of dance, music, storytelling, theater, and traditional and visual arts. The Touring Program grants are available to nonprofit organizations who may request up to 40 percent of presenters’/exhibitors’ fees and travel expenses. Request for a grant may not exceed $3,000 per application, and an organization may not submit more than four grant applications or request more than $4,000 in a fiscal year. Applications are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

As of January 28, 2010, applications will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis for programs April 1, 2010 through September 30, 2010. Funding is pending approval by the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs.

Deadline: Grants are first come-first served until funding is exhausted.

Questions? Contact Phyllis Rathbun at 517-372-7770.

Pipeline Safety Grant Program, Deadline Jan 18

Applicants for Technical Assistance Grants must be local communities or groups of individuals (not including for-profit entities) relating to the safety of pipeline facilities in local communities, other than facilities regulated under Public Law 93-153 (43 U.S.C. 1651 et seq.). Eligible applicants include cities, towns, villages, counties, parishes, townships, and similar governmental subdivisions, or consortiums of such subdivisions. A nongovernmental group of individuals is eligible for a grant under the Technical Assistance Grant program if the group’s members are affected or potentially affected individuals who are, or are willing to become, incorporated as a non-profit organization in the state where they are located.

Agency Name
Pipeline &Hazardous Material Safety Administration
Description
The Technical Assistance Grants (TAG) program, first authorized in the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-355, codified at 49 U.S.C. 60130), offers new opportunities to strengthen the depth and quality of public participation in pipeline safety matters. Section 9 of the Act, titled: “Pipeline Safety Information Grants to Communities” authorized the Secretary of Transportation to make grants to local communities and organizations for technical assistance relating to pipeline safety issues. The TAG program was then amended by Section 5 of the Pipeline Inspection, Protection, Enforcement, and Safety Act of 2006. However, FY 2009 was the first year in which PHMSA has received appropriations to fund the grant program. These grants will allow communities and groups of individuals to obtain funding for technical assistance in the form of engineering or other scientific analysis of pipeline safety issues and help promote public participation in official proceedings. For purposes of grants eligibility, local communities are defined as cities, towns, villages, counties, parishes, townships, and similar governmental subdivisions, or consortiums of such subdivisions. A nongovernmental group of individuals is eligible for a grant under the TAG program if its members are affected or potentially affected by pipeline safety issues.

Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Due Jan 29

Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Request for Proposals
Announcement Number: EPA-R5-GL2010-1

This Request For Proposals (RFP) [PDF 583Kb, 79 pages] solicits proposals from eligible entities for grants and cooperative agreements to be awarded pursuant to a portion of the $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative included in Public Law 111-88, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 which is in furtherance of President Obama’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (the “Initiative”) announced in February 2009.

The President and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in conjunction with 15 other federal agencies, have made restoring the Great Lakes a national priority. The Initiative builds on the prior efforts of agency, business, public interest, and other leaders which resulted in the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy (GLRC Strategy) and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan now being developed. This RFP represents EPA’s major competitive grant funding opportunity under the Initiative and is one of several funding opportunities described in the Initiative’s Interagency Funding Guide. A portion of the funding will be through the U.S. Fish and wildlife Service. This RFP, in conjunction with other funding opportunities under the Initiative, will be used to competitively provide funding to address the most significant Great Lakes ecosystem problems and efforts in five major focus areas:

Toxic Substances and Areas of Concern
Invasive Species
Nearshore Health and Nonpoint Source Pollution
Habitat and Wildlife Protection and Restoration
Accountability, Education, Monitoring, Evaluation, Communication and Partnerships

Due Date for Submissions: Proposals must be received by EPA by noon Central standard time on January 29, 2010.

$120M Available, 300 Awards Anticipated