The Equitable Development Initiative (EDI) fund is an opportunity for Community-based organizations working in Seattle on anti-displacement strategies, responding to creating new economic opportunities, improving educational outcomes, and other forms of community development.
Donor Name: Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD)
City: Seattle
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/24/2023
Size of the Grant:
- Capacity-Building: $75,000
- Capital: $2 million
Grant Duration: 2 years
Details:
The 2023 EDI open funding round is available to organizations working on anti-displacement efforts in high displacement risk neighborhoods, with a continued emphasis on serving BIPOC communities that have been targeted by systemic and institutional racism. The funds will be used for organizational capacity building, property acquisition, and capital expenses.
The City’s purpose for the Equitable Development Initiative (EDI) fund is to support projects that address displacement and lack of access to opportunity for historically marginalized communities in Seattle.
Distinctive features of the EDI fund
- Organizations that are interested in applying to the EDI fund are eligible to access capital funds as the project progresses, subject to the needs of their project and fund availability.
- Funding is limited to organizations/coalitions led by impacted communities, working on advancing economic and racial equity in high risk of displacement communities.
- EDI funds are intended to be targeted towards communities that are experiencing, or are at highest risk of experiencing, displacement pressures as a result of Seattle’s growth. Additionally, priority goes to communities that have historically experienced specific policies that limit the opportunity of people of color.
- EDI generally assumes that engagement with partners will involve a multi-year process of building capacity, developing a project, and overseeing implementation and reporting.
- It aims to distribute funds broadly among communities that are impacted by displacement and historic disinvestment.
- EDI may recommend alternative funding strategies for projects that are able to access existing resources in order to maximize the amount available to communities. EDI funds are intended to complement existing funding sources and address gaps identified by communities in the resources available to them.
Funding Information
The Equitable Development Initiative has funding available for new and returning projects. Projects that do not use their funds and extend beyond the two-year period will be required to reapply for the remaining awarded funds to ensure that projects are still active.
Funding Caps
- Capacity-Building: $75,000
- Capital: $2 million
Applicants can request both Capacity-Building and Capital awards (up to $2.075 Million total).
Eligible Uses
- Capacity-building
- Capacity-building funds are intended to help partner organizations deliver successful outcomes. Funding agreements will require that awardees demonstrate specific deliverables and benchmarks that show how the additional capacity will be able to assist them in delivering the proposed outcomes of the EDI project. EDI staff will negotiate contract specifics with awardees based on the particular needs of the organization. Organizations are strongly encouraged to include coalition partners in the uses of funds.
- Predevelopment
- Predevelopment funding requests must show a preliminary Sources and Uses budget for the overall development. EDI funds will need to be shown as a source within the budget along with each potential line item to be funded. EDI staff may reject proposals that clearly violate criteria for other public funders that would be involved in the project.
- Acquisition
- Acquisition financing is focused on land/property for non-residential uses. EDI funds can be used to reimburse all reasonable related costs associated with the property transfer. The City may require covenants and deed restrictions to be placed on the property to ensure that the site is used for the proposed public benefits. EDI staff may reject proposals that clearly violate criteria for other public funders that would be involved in the project. EDI funding for acquisition of occupied spaces will likely trigger relocation requirements for both residential and commercial tenants that must be paid by the project.
- Construction
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- EDI funds may be used for hard construction costs. In mixed-use projects, construction financing is prioritized for non-residential uses. EDI will require applicants to comply with all relevant state and local statutes. EDI staff may reject proposals that clearly violate criteria for other public funders that would be involved in the project. EDI funding for construction will likely trigger prevailing wage requirements that need to be anticipated in the construction cost estimate.
Eligibility Criteria
The EDI fund is intended to support anti-displacement strategies and promote economic development opportunities by supporting community-initiated solutions that are designed and implemented by communities that are subject to displacement as the region grows. As such, the EDI fund will prioritize applicants who are best able to demonstrate a thorough organizational commitment to equitable development as both practice and outcome in the relationship between their organization and the community whose interests they seek to represent.
Priority will be given to organizations that best meet most of the following criteria:
- Is the applicant incorporated as a nonprofit in the State of Washington?
- If not, does the organization have a fiscal sponsor and does the fiscal sponsor limit sponsor fees to 10 percent of the funding award or less and have a clear strategy to support the organization’s long-term capacity-building work?
- EDI may make exceptions where a for-profit organization can demonstrate extraordinary accountability to impacted communities and where requiring non-profit status or fiscal sponsorship would add unnecessary costs and inefficiency to the project.
- The proposal must do work that primarily serves City of Seattle residents.
- The applicant must be in good standing with any other open City of Seattle contracts, grants, and/or loans.
- The project addresses at least three of the Equity Drivers from the Implementation Plan. Proposals should focus on only the three drivers that best fit the project concept.
- Projects that have previously received capacity-building awards must answer the Supplemental Questions. This does not apply to organizations that received one-time funding from the 2020 RFP.
Underwriting Restrictions
- Multiple applicants may apply for the same geography, but EDI staff may work with applicants to match-make organizations that share interests and priorities.
- Awards not spent within a 2-year period will be re-evaluated annually to determine whether the award should remain active.
- Capital requests should be in line with cost per unit and/or per square foot restrictions from other funders involved in the project budget.
- EDI staff will coordinate with other public funders to ensure that proposals are not seeking duplicative funding for the same deliverables.
- Approvals and final contracts may include conditions on funding to ensure the project meets legal requirements and adequately addresses potential risks to public funds.
- Contracts may impose restrictions on consultant expenses for capacity-building grants in cases where the applicant may be over-reliant over a long period on outside expertise.
- EDI staff may impose restrictions or decline funding where risks and rewards in development partnerships are not equitably shared between partner organizations.
- EDI staff may collaborate with other funding agencies to identify alternative sources where there is a path for project success that does not rely on EDI funds.
For more information, visit City of Seattle.
