The Department of Transportation (DOT), Office of the Secretary (OST), Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) announces the opportunity for business centered community-based organizations, transportation-related trade associations, colleges and universities, community colleges, or chambers of commerce, registered with the Internal Revenue Service as 501 C(6) or 501 C(3) tax-exempt organizations, to compete for participation in OSDBU’s Small Business Transportation Resource Center (SBTRC) program in the West Central Region (Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming).
Donor Name: Department of Transportation
States: Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/30/2023
Size of the Grant: $147,475
Grant Duration: 1 year
Details:
The mission of OSDBU at U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is to ensure the small and disadvantaged business policies and goals of the Secretary of Transportation are developed and implemented in a fair, efficient, and effective manner to serve small and disadvantaged businesses throughout the country. OSDBU also administers the provisions, the Minority Resource Center (MRC), which includes the duties of advocacy, outreach, and financial services on behalf of small and disadvantaged business and those certified under as Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) and the development of programs to encourage, stimulate, promote, and assist small businesses to become better prepared to compete for, obtain, and manage transportation-related contracts and subcontracts.
The national Small Business Transportation Resource Center (SBTRC) program utilizes Cooperative Agreements with chambers of commerce, trade associations, educational institutions, and business-centered community-based organizations to establish SBTRCs to provide business training, technical assistance, and information to DOT grantees and recipients, prime contractors, and subcontractors.
To be effective and serve their target audience, the SBTRCs must be active in the local transportation community to identify and communicate opportunities and provide the required technical assistance. SBTRCs must already have established, or demonstrate the ability to establish, working relationships with the state and local transportation agencies and technical assistance agencies (i.e. the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)Centers; U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) and Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE); U.S. Department of Defense Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs)/APEX Accelerators; and State DOT supportive services contractors in their region. Utilizing these relationships and their own expertise, the SBTRCs are involved in activities such as information dissemination, small business counseling, and technical assistance with small businesses currently doing business with public and private entities in the transportation industry.
SBTRCs must provide outreach to the regional small business transportation community to disseminate information, provide technical assistance, and distribute DOT-published marketing materials, such as Bonding Education Program (BEP) information, SBTRC brochures and literature, DOT’s Procurement Opportunity Forecast, and the Women and Girls in Transportation Initiative (WITI) Program information, along with any other materials or resources that DOT or OSDBU may develop for this purpose. To maximize outreach, the SBTRC may be called upon to participate in regional and national conferences and seminars. When available, quantities of DOT publications for on-hand inventory and dissemination at conferences and seminars will be available from the OSDBU upon request.
Funding Information
- Ceiling: $167,475 per year
- Floor: $147,475 per year
Period of Performance
October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible, an organization must be an established, nonprofit, community-based organization, transportation-related trade association, chamber of commerce, college or university, community college, or any other qualifying transportation-related non-profit organization that has the documented experience and capacity necessary to successfully operate and administer a coordinated delivery system that provides access for small businesses to prepare and compete for transportation-related contracts.
In addition, to be eligible, the applicant organization must:
- Be an established 501 C (3) or 501 C (6) tax-exempt organization and provide documentation as verification. No application will be accepted without proof of tax-exempt status.
- Have at least one year of documented and continuous experience prior to the date of application in providing advocacy, outreach, and technical assistance to small businesses within the region in which proposed services will be provided. Prior performance providing services to the transportation community is preferable.
- Have an office physically located within the proposed city in the designated headquarters state, in the region for which they are submitting the proposal, that is readily accessible to the public.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
