The Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future is accepting applications for its Community Action Grants to support projects that reduce energy use and costs and/or make their community more resilient to climate change effects, such as flooding, extreme weather, drought, and public health impacts.
Donor Name: Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future
State: Maine
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/29/2024
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
Community Action Grants can support two categories of climate action by communities:
- actions from the List of Community Actions, an approved list of climate mitigation and adaptation activities that align with the strategies of Maine Won’t Wait, and
- other projects proposed by a community that support capacity building, planning, and implementation projects.
Community Tiers
To ensure equitable access and outcomes by lower capacity communities, the Partnership has adopted a three-tier system classification system that tailors program requirements and incentives to community size.
- Tier 1: Communities with populations less than 4,000.
- Tier 2: Communities with either populations from 4,000 to 10,000 or a state tax assessment of less than $25 million.
- Tier 3: Communities with populations greater than 10,000 and state tax assessments higher than $25 million.
Funding Information
- The Community Resilience Partnership plans to allocate approximately $1,200,000 for Community Action Grants during this grant round. GOPIF may award all, part, or none of this allocation at its discretion.
- Individual communities are eligible for a minimum award of $5,000 and a maximum award of $50,000. Groups of communities applying jointly are eligible for awards of up to $125,000.
Project Period
Contract terms will be up to two (2) years, as specified by the applicant’s proposal.
Eligibility Criteria
There are two (2) eligible types of applicants for the Community Action Grant:
- Individual Communities, a municipal government, Tribal Government, plantation, township, or unorganized territory in Maine, who are enrolled in the Community Resilience Partnership and have not previously been awarded a Community Action Grant.
- For this grant round, only communities that have not previously been awarded Community Action Grant funds are eligible. The next grant round is expected to be open to all enrolled communities.
- Applicants may submit enrollment materials through the enrollment portal simultaneously with submitting their grant application. (Unorganized territories, townships, and plantations are eligible and are strongly encouraged to work with a Service Provider to complete the enrollment process.)
- Multiple Communities may apply jointly for projects that address mutual goals and have interrelated scopes of work.
- All communities participating in the application must be enrolled in the Partnership at the time the grant application is submitted or submit enrollment materials through the enrollment portal simultaneously with the grant application.
- For this grant round, only communities that have not previously been awarded Community Action Grant funds are eligible to apply jointly. The next grant is expected to be open to all enrolled communities.
- Service Providers may apply on behalf of groups of communities only for actions listed in the List of Community Actions (available here). Letters of support must be provided from each community in the proposed group.
- In a multi-community application, the communities are required to designate a lead applicant. Factors to consider might include which community will receive the grant funds and manage the contracting and grant reporting on behalf of the partner communities. The communities may wish to have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that spells out the responsibilities of each community. If an MOU is established, GOPIF may request a copy of the document during the grant contracting phase.
For more information, visit GOPIF.
