| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Process Stage | Better, Better Yet, or Better Still | Idea | Best Practice | Lead Agency | Partners/Resources |
2 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better | Idea 1: Develop a single State or Federal “Meaningful Community Engagement Protocol,” inclusive of a plan for cultural competency training for agency staff | EPA Meaningful Community Involvement Protocol; CARB's Community Engagement Model | ||
3 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better | Idea 2: Develop and compensate an advisory group or focus groups to provide feedback during the design of programs | DOE SCEP focus groups with local and tribal thought leaders; CPUC Equity, Engagement, and Education Grants | ||
4 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better | Idea 3: Solicit feedback on eligible activities as well as funding deployment approach and application process | N/A POC by knxbrennp AND NathanAccacio-mor1arty | ||
5 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better | Idea 4: If revising a recurring program, seek to get feedback from past applicants or awardees, as well as those that started the process (e.g. Notice of Intent) but didn’t ultimately submit an application | SGC Catalyst Model: Iterative and Inclusive Program Design notes that “guidelines should not be changed year over year without sufficient justification.” CARB’s Sustainable Transportation Equity Program (STEP) debriefed with applicants to learn how to improve its processes. | ||
6 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better | Idea 5: Make clear who is the single point of contact at an Agency for local and Tribal governments to contact directly. Ideally those staff members should be experienced and trained on local and tribal processes, and State should make efforts to reduce turnover for these key positions as these relationships are highly valuable to communities and take a lot of time to rebuild. | CPUC Tribal and Local Government Liaisons | ||
7 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better | Idea 6: State agencies coordinate State communications to communities on the back end to make it easier to navigate programs and participate in input opportunities. | N/A | ||
8 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better | Idea 7: Coordinate with trusted partner organizations to help distribute notice of guidelines, workshops or comment period | CCEC | ||
9 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better | Idea 8: Avoid comments periods less than 60 days and holiday deadlines | N/A | ||
10 | Better Yet | Idea 9: Preserve agency and applicant capacity by not changing guidelines for long-standing, recurring grants each cycle. | SGC's Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program kept guidelines for recent rounds of funding the same to help DACs apply. | |||
11 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better Yet | Idea 10: Conduct a listening session through existing local or tribal channels if possible | Many agencies have done this through CCEC’s LERN. Tribal consortiums exist like Tribal Energy and Climate Collaborative (TECC) and Tribal Chairman’s Associations. | ||
12 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better Yet | Idea 11: Consolidate agency standing bodies (e.g. DAC Advisory Groups) to serve issue areas across agencies where possible | N/A | ||
13 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better Yet | Idea 12: Conduct or commission a comprehensive assessment of real/current community needs (not program by program), with specific attention to the needs of different types of hard to reach communities | California Tribal Gap Analysis | ||
14 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better Yet | Idea 13: Track and share input received across State agencies, and gain insights on needs from recent grant applications, rather than asking the same questions. | N/A | ||
15 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better Yet | Idea 14: Obtain or combine substantial funding sources to establish a non-competitive climate block grant for local and tribal governments to support core staffing and priorities | Colorado Energy Office used EECBG funding to offer up to $240,000 for 3 years of staff capacity in individual small cities and counties or awards up to $1 million for regional collaborations. | ||
16 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better Yet | Idea 15: Contract trusted regional entity to design and deploy funding to community | N/A | ||
17 | Pre-Application Engagement - Funding Program Design | Better Still | Idea 16: Streamline and sustain ongoing (not one-way transactional) engagement relationships with key organizations across regions and State agencies. Regularly assess, accumulate, and archive needs and knowledge provided, including help to scope out regional “wish list” of projects. | Consider piloting a regional administrative structure like REACH, and tie to a funding queue (see Ideal Funding Section). | ||
18 | Pre-Application Engagement - Applications From the State on Behalf of Tribal and Local Governments | Better | Idea 17: Coordinate with trusted partner organizations to seek project concepts | CCEC provided input to CEC on its EECBG program. Prosper Sustainably, Schatz Energy Research Center, and other trusted tribal partners helped the CEC scope Tribal projects for the GRIP grant in 2023. | ||
19 | Pre-Application Engagement - Applications From the State on Behalf of Tribal and Local Governments | Better Yet | Idea 18: Track recent grant applications to identify unfunded, already scoped projects that may make good candidates for other funding sources. Share across agencies. | CEC encouraged CARB CPRG Implementation Grant to accept unfunded Tribal GRIP projects. CalOES keeps inventory of unawarded NOIs and applications, organized by hazard type, and alerts jurisdictions when another relevant funding opportunity becomes available. CEC's EPIC program conducts a seminar that allows recipients and unawarded applicants to share projects with other agencies with relevant funding sources. | ||
20 | Pre-Application Engagement - Applications From the State on Behalf of Tribal and Local Governments | Better Still | Idea 19: Collect and help scope an ongoing “wish list” or queue of local or tribal projects, including unfunded grant projects. | Consider piloting a regional administrative structure like REACH (see Appendix C), and tie to a funding queue (see Ideal Funding Section). The Millikin Institute’s 10,000 Communities Initiative is developing a platform for community infrastructure projects. CNRA is developing a CA Carbon Sequestration and Climate Resiliency Project Registry platform that facilitates funding of nature-based and direct air capture projects. CARB’s Clean Mobility Options offers vouchers for mobility projects and needs assessments on a first come first serve basis. Sustainable Land Initiative partners with Cal Poly, RCDs and cBrain to decarbonize agriculture by gathering an inventory of agricultural investment opportunities and helping to secure funding for landowners. | ||
21 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better | Idea 20: Conduct outreach/notices far in advance of solicitation release to give more time for communities to identify possible partners and projects. | Strategic Growth Council (SGC) typically publicly posts a timeline for its grant programs, including when solicitations can be expected (example). CARB’s CCI program recently published a Funding Workbook for All California Tribes | ||
22 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better | Idea 21: Work with outreach partners to increase awareness of grant opportunities | Several State agencies are coordinating with CCEC to share opportunities | ||
23 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better | Idea 22: Ensure FAQs are provided early enough to inform applications. | N/A | ||
24 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better | Idea 23: Allow at least 120 day solicitation windows, and avoid holiday deadlines. Local and Tribal governments often have to receive approval from Council and it can take a long time to get onto a hearing agenda. Applications requiring complex consortiums of partners or technical design details may need six months or longer. | DOE EECBG Formula Grants and EPA Community Change Grants provided a year to apply | ||
25 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better | Idea 24: Create solicitation summary pages with key grant details and an indication or score of difficulty level and probability of award to make it easier for potential applicants to decide whether or not to apply. Key information may include what makes an opportunity desirable or a good fit, such as number, amount, and timing of award. | A presentation in 2024 Catalyst Conference on Choosing the Right Grant suggested the details that would be in a community’s initial scan of a solicitation. CARB’s CCI program recently published a Funding Workbook for All California Tribes, which compiles dozens of data points on CA Climate Investment programs that are relevant to Tribes when deciding whether to pursue funding. | ||
26 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better | Idea 25: If a Notice of Intent or Pre-application is conducted, simplify it to request just enough information for agencies to determine whether the applicant should proceed with an application. Don’t hide full application requirements. | DOE GRIP grant required a short NOI and offered a “encourage” or “discourage” response | ||
27 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better | Idea 26: Provide technical assistance in the form of grant tracking, matching, and application support, inclusive of pre-application vetting and advising to ensure “fit.” Craft blueprints and templates. | DOE EECBG Blueprints ; ILG BOOST; SGC’s Community Readiness Model, SGC’s Transformative Climate Communities, Regional Climate Collaboratives; Just Transition Fund; CalOES Resiliency Branch is building a technical assistance team designed to help communities access funding. | ||
28 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better | Idea 27: Provide contact information for agency staff that can clarify application information and help determine whether an applicant and its proposal will be a good fit. The California Department of Water Resources' Integrated Regional Water Management Grant Programs are able to provide clarifying information to applicants during a solicitation. | CalTrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant Program provides a lead contact list by district. | ||
29 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better Yet | Idea 28: To the extent possible, provide recurring solicitations on a regular schedule to allow local and tribal governments to predictably manage staff time. Regular, recurring awards are what truly build capacity (otherwise hiring is a liability). | BIA Tribal Resilience Program typically becomes available every year in the Summer. | ||
30 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better Yet | Idea 29: Develop a single Statewide funding portal with coordination amongst all relevant agencies. | CCEC has a funding database and links to other databases; CA Grants Portal | ||
31 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better Yet | Idea 30: Provide an easy to access, free TA service with a directory of grant experts from around the State with different types of subject matter and local knowledge. | SDSU’s Center for Community Energy and Environmental Justice (CCEEJ) is an EPA funded consortium of organizations that invites community organizations to request limited support in identifying grants and grant writers. SGC’s Technical Assistance Toolkit provides guidance for State agencies to offer meaningful TA. | ||
32 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better Yet | Idea 31: Fund a subsidized fellow to support both application and administration of grants (should be long term) | The DOE’s EECBG program funds on-site Community Energy Fellows or Clean Energy Coaches to eligible local and tribal governments. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Community Energy Fellows program deploys recent graduates and mid-career clean energy professionals to local and Tribal governments to support their clean energy transition. | ||
33 | Applications - Solicitation Processes & Technical Assistance | Better Still | Idea 32: Direct dollars towards regional technical assistance providers for project scoping, analyses, and grant TA where possible, which already have the proximity, local knowledge, and relationships to best serve local needs and encourage collaboration. TA providers can support multiple applications over multiple years. | SGC’s Regional Climate Collaborative. Consider piloting a regional administrative structure like REACH (see Appendix C). | ||
34 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better | Idea 33: Include governments, NGO, CBO core staffing, administrative and indirect costs as allowable costs. | N/A | ||
35 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better | Idea 34: Allow spending for incentives and food to encourage participation from community partners or members. | N/A | ||
36 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better | Idea 35: Define eligible entities clearly and when criteria is complicated, provided a list or map of eligible jurisdictions. | DOE SCEP's Communities Sparking Investment in Transformative Energy (C-SITE) provides an eligibility map. | ||
37 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better | Idea 36: Encourage spending on “program sustainability” activities, which gives flexibility for staff to pursue other funding sources using the current grant. | N/A | ||
38 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better | Idea 37: Don’t exclude local or tribal governments from project lead eligibility on policy activities, but encourage collaboration with CBOs. | CEC’s Equitable Building Decarbonization allows local governments and CBO applicants and clearly defines what a CBO is. | ||
39 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better | Idea 38 Allow teaming. Local and tribal governments don’t want to compete against each other if avoidable. Being allowed to apply as a coalition potentially under a non-public entity can be a very powerful way to leverage the collective assets of multiple agencies, minimize administrative redundancies, and scale up impact. | DOE EECBG allows “teaming” of multiple formula recipients | ||
40 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better | Idea 39: Explicitly allow advanced planning or pre-construction or implementation scoping and design activities. This critical step is often not funded. | N/A | ||
41 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better | Idea 40: Allow pre-award costs to help communities recover costs scope development, especially if complex technical information is required (e.g. design details or pro-formas for clean energy projects). | N/A | ||
42 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better | Idea 41: Avoid inflexible, overly prescriptive or convoluted eligible projects or activities. | N/A | ||
43 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better Yet | Idea 42: Offer phased grants that can help communities ramp up from the concept stage and prepare technical details needed for scopes of work for implementation funding. Small concept design grants can be a good fit for “start up” programs without much resource to work with | CEC Geothermal Grants offered a Phase 1 grant for local jurisdictions for $100,000 in TA to prepare a full proposal. CARB’s Sustainable Transportation Equity Program (STEP) offers a concept phase and is assessing if the right applications moved forward. | ||
44 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better Yet | Idea 43: Develop an inventory of projects that truly reflects local and tribal needs. Assess which types of communities most need certain types of projects. | IN PROGRESS: CCEC’s “Reaching the Hard to Reach” paper. See Appendix B for a list of examples of projects needed by local and tribal communities. REACH (Appendix C) and the pilot described under “Ideal Funding.” | ||
45 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better Yet | Idea 44: Create specific set asides for local and tribal government | N/A | ||
46 | Applications - Program Eligibility | Better Still | Idea 45: Develop a program specifically designed for local and tribal government energy and climate projects | DOE SCEP's Communities Sparking Investment in Transformative Energy (C-SITE) offers competitive funding and TA for certain local and tribal governments' priority energy projects | ||
47 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better | Idea 46: Shorten and streamline application instructions. Organize all instructions for required application sections in a concise, step by step, easily to follow format. Tie required sections to evaluation criteria and points. Highlight key requirements and place legal provision details into appendices. | CEC's Clean Energy Planning Program was a simple application and solicited on a first come, first serve basis. | ||
48 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better | Idea 47: Bug test an application to ensure consistency from solicitation to templates and online submission platforms. Problems and surprises occur when applicants have to transfer information from desktop to online applications, especially when they don’t match. | N/A | ||
49 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better | Idea 48: Remove waiver of sovereign immunity, CEQA requirements, and reporting requirements on sensitive information for tribes. | CEC Tribal Research Grant | ||
50 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better | Idea 49: Provide guidance for how to streamline compliance with CEQA, NEPA, Buy American, Davis Bacon, and historic preservation requirements | CalOES is developing a environmental historic preservation collaborative to consolidate a repository of regulations and legislative requirements using AI to navigate by geospace so communities better understand permits needed etc. | ||
51 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better | Idea 50: Avoid requiring cost share/match for disadvantaged communities. If match is required, allow greater flexibility where legally feasible in meeting match requirements such as allowing pre-award costs, equipment, travel, or other federal/State sources | CalTrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant Program eliminates match for Native American Tribal Governments. | ||
52 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better | Idea 51: Provide advance pay options for disadvantaged communities, who cannot front the spending associated with a reimbursement model | BIA Tribal Resilience Grant | ||
53 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better | Idea 52: Offer longer, multi-year awards periods (e.g. 3 years) to allow for greater ROI, stability, and success, and can lower the risk associated with hiring more internal capacity | SGC Regional Climate Collaboratives | ||
54 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better | Idea 53: Right size grant applications to grant award amounts, to ensure applications are worth the risk and cost associated with applying. | CalEPA’s Environmental Justice Small Grants solicitation was 22 pages, shorter than many | ||
55 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better | Idea 54: Avoid additional requirements for extensive unfunded planning work (e.g. collaborative community governance or community strength plan), and instead require if awarded. | N/A | ||
56 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better Yet | Idea 55: Convene a cross-agency working group to identify barriers and determine best practices in assistance program design to increase accessibility, equity, and outcomes (e.g. eligibility, cost share, set asides, program periods, recurring funding cycles, standardized application processes, etc). Consider developing a funding best practice protocol or guide. | SLECC, SGC’s State Education Workgroup | ||
57 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better Yet | Idea 56: Develop a single, streamlined "common" application process that allows communities to submit a single project to be considered for funding across groupings of multiple applications within an issue area. | HCD's Super NOFA consolidates four different funding opportunities for housing and infrastructure under one application process. Impact Development Fund's Disaster Recovery Program (a CDFI) manages multiple public and private funding sources and distributes them via one streamlined process. | ||
58 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better Yet | Idea 57: Develop a single cross-agency application portal with profiles for local and Tribal governments to standardize and store core application and T&C information across agencies so it doesn’t have to be reevaluated or repeated | A common application and report form is regularly used in other regions of the country such as the greater New Jersey and New York Metropolitan Area. | ||
59 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better Yet | Idea 58: Hire a user experience consultant to review and streamline State or federal application processes from the applicant’s perspective. This may allow fewer dollars to be spent on technical assistance for overly complex processes. | N/A | ||
60 | Applications - Application and Administrative Requirements | Better Still | Idea 59: Consider alternatives to statewide competitive grants, such as Prizes or allocations to regional contracting entities, where State contracts are selected by regional representatives for certain types of assistance. | DOE Building UP Prize provides flexible cash prizes for the best ideas, but rather than require exact scope delivery, it offers phased awards based on success; Coastal Commission ; Regional Development Agencies; REACH (see Appendix C) and “Ideal Funding” section | ||
61 | Post Award Process | Better | Idea 60: Avoid reducing requested award amounts. Applicants and their partners cannot easily make due with only partial funding and often must chase additional funding sources. | N/A | ||
62 | Post Award Process | Better | Idea 61: Greatly simplify reporting requirements for small awards (e.g. under $1M) or recipients representing disadvantaged communities. | N/A | ||
63 | Post Award Process | Better | Idea 62: For unawarded applications, provide more detailed feedback on what wasn't adequate in application | N/A | ||
64 | Post Award Process | Better Yet | Idea 63: Develop database of all CA applicants and awardees for climate and energy programs (this would be easier if there was a single application portal). Use database to reach out for application and program feedback | N/A | ||
65 | Post Award Process | Better Yet | Idea 64: Target awardees with next phase funding opportunities. | N/A | ||
66 | Post Award Process | Better Yet | Idea 65: Regularly analyze database to understand current landscape of investment needs for future programming | N/A | ||
67 | Post Award Process | Better Yet | Idea 66: Track application burden ($cost to apply) as a program outcome metric | N/A | ||
68 | Post Award Process | Better Yet | Idea 67: Track utilization by community type e.g. % of funds reaching tribes, DACs, etc | N/A | ||
69 | Post Award Process | Better Still | Idea 68: Provide assistance to non-awardees to strengthen projects and match with other opportunities or partners | N/A | ||
70 | Ideal Funding | Investible Climate Communities: Pilot a new approach to funding deployment to gather and incrementally fund local and Tribal government energy and climate projects on a rolling basis (a funding queue) and provide regional-based project scoping TA support (Regional Energy and Climate Hubs (REACH) CA). | NYSERDA Regional Clean Energy Hub; Colorado Governor’s Office Regional Grant Navigators. See all like-minded models in section 3 of the paper. |