The King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) is pleased to announce the opportunity to apply for a 2024 RainWise Outreach Grant.
Donor Name: King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD)
State: Washington
County: King County (WA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 10/01/2023
Size of the Grant: $75K
Details:
The RainWise program is a King County WTD effort to address combined sewer overflows and stormwater pollution by offering rebates to private property owners for the installation of rain gardens and cisterns. This program is a team effort with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU).
Program Areas
The RainWise Outreach Grant Program is seeking proposals that help accomplish goals in the five Program Areas below:
Goal 1: Conduct innovative and effective outreach and customer support (in-person and/or virtual) to interested residential property owners in eligible King County basins resulting in installations of RainWise rain gardens and cisterns (~75K)
- The overall goal of this effort is to recruit, encourage and engage eligible property owners to participate in RainWise by implementing a variety of marketing, outreach, and customer support efforts. Activities could be in-person, virtual or both. Specific areas of emphasis may include:
- Encourage and support residential property owners to become RainWise by conducting creative outreach and involvement campaigns. Plan, promote, implement, and evaluate these efforts.
- Plan and implement in-person and/or virtual RainWise events, including but not limited to workshops, webinars, virtual tours, etc.
- Participate in relevant opportunities offered by other community groups or campaigns (i.e. participation in Green Home Tour, Seattle Night Out, Tilth Alliance Edible Plant Sale, etc.).
- Prepare communication pieces including mailings, case studies, promotional materials, contractor rosters, etc.
- Assist in generating content for digital media. This may involve creating homeowner stories, virtual tours, self-guided walking tours, or educational aspects of RainWise.
- Maintain RainWise Info box network.
- Recruit and manage RainWise Ambassadors.
- Conduct maintenance checkups with previous RainWise customers.
- Provide customer support when needed to help property owners navigate the RainWise process.
- Conduct surveys and other evaluation strategies and report back on RainWise customer experience, barriers, and potential solutions to increase program participation.
- Explore new platforms and opportunities to keep RainWise’s virtual presence fresh
- Assist with both RainWise and King County’s GSI content on the 700milliongallons.org website
- Assist with social media presence – evaluate areas of improvement or new processes
- Provide communications and analytical/strategic support.
Goal 2: Coordinate extensive outreach and customer support in newly opened and/or reopened King County basins (~40K)
- The overall goal of this effort is to, through a variety of outreach efforts, recruit, encourage and engage eligible property owners in newly opened basins and/or basins that recently reopened as a part of strategic WTD efforts. Activities could be in-person, virtual or both. Specific areas of emphasis may include:
- Create public involvement plan for King County basins that are new to the RainWise program or are reopening to meet compliance metrics
- Conduct on-the-ground outreach and customer support (i.e. doorbelling/canvassing, pop-up tabling throughout the community, living room presentations, etc.) to encourage and support residential property owners to become RainWise by conducting creative outreach and involvement campaigns. Plan, promote, implement, and evaluate these efforts.
- Engage in participation tracking for new and/or reopened basins and recommend adjustments to outreach strategies to support meeting performance targets within these basins
- Plan and coordinate RainWise events – in-person and/or virtual
- Represent RainWise at events hosted by community members and/or groups
- Recruit and manage ambassadors as champions within their neighborhoods
- Propose and develop new ideas and opportunities
Goal 3: Embed equity and social justice in RainWise outreach and program delivery (~75K)
- King County is committed to providing equitable programs and services and they endeavor to put the County’s strategic plan into action with the RainWise program.
- They seek organization(s) with diverse networks and relationships, and multi-lingual and culturally appropriate skills to provide outreach support to increase the number of RainWise installations in King County basins and the total square footage of the roof area captured by these installations. They expect this will require extra assistance for low-income and multicultural customers and contractors to take advantage of this program by providing information and support in multiple languages. They also appreciate the expertise of successful grantees to identify and suggest barriers to participation and to explore new tools and strategies that could help the RainWise program be more equitable. Below are two specific areas that proposals can cover.
- Multicultural Outreach, Marketing, and Customer Support for RainWise
- Diverse RainWise Contractor Outreach and Recruitment
Goal 4: Execute outreach, marketing, and customer support to RainWise Big Roof property owners, including community centers, faith-based centers, schools, businesses, multi-family residences and apartment buildings (~30K)
- The overall goal of this effort is to recruit, encourage and support eligible non-residential private property owners to participate in RainWise. The King County RainWise Big Roof Campaign defines Big Roofs as non-SFR (single family residential) roofs generally over 2,000 square feet and often much larger. There are currently over 60 Big Roof projects which include schools, places of worship, apartment buildings, businesses, and a sorority. Specific areas of emphasis may include:
- Conduct analysis, outreach, and recruitment of Big Roof opportunities through efforts such as GIS analysis, email, phone calls, site visits, presentations, events, and other creative means.
- Provide coordination and customer support with Big Roof property owners and other related responsible parties such as Facilities Director, Green Teams, Landscaping staff, and facility advocates.
- Cultivate and maintain relationships with partners with multiple properties including community centers, faith-based centers, schools, multi-family residences and apartment buildings
- In coordination with utility staff, communicate with contractors on Big Roof opportunities and maintain a Big Roof roster and assist in connecting interested property owners and contractor pool.
- Leverage and maximize the outreach potential of these projects by promoting RainWise through the institution’s affiliations, newsletters, social media, on-site interpretive signage and RainWise information signs; holding celebratory events such as groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings, hosting volunteer maintenance parties, conducting walking tours, and more.
- Work with King County staff to develop interpretive signage, case studies or other media to promote the demonstration sites.
Goal 5: Develop resources and provide support for Green Stormwater Infrastructure education and job training (~30K)
- Contractor capacity, especially in south Seattle is a significant limiting factor for RainWise. The overall goal of this effort is to provide resources and support for GSI job training and skills to potential and existing RainWise contractors using RainWise and other GSI installations as learning opportunities. Areas of emphasis may include:
- Provide training in the design, construction, and maintenance of RainWise and other GSI installations using actual projects in the pipeline.
- Function as a maintenance resource for teaching about and fixing RainWise installations needing maintenance and repairs.
- Create videos and other virtual tools to create educational modules and an advanced skillbuilding library to help ALL RainWise contractors build up their skills (i.e. cistern installation, piping, plant selection modules).
- Inform and invite RainWise contractors to participate in specific opportunities and advanced skill-building sessions.
- Coordinate with the RainWise program staff to offer skill-building sessions for new contractors following Contractor Orientation sessions (typically November and March).
- Develop a program providing mentoring assistance for interested RainWise contractors with specific skill development.
- In coordination with the utilities, support design and facilitation of RainWise contractor affinity spaces to advance professional development of existing and new contractors in the program
- An active GSI Workforce Development cohort is being headed up by the Nature Conservancy. Outside funding may be available for training a new cohort. If this is the case, up to $10K from this grant can be used as matching funds for helping to fund a GSI Workforce Development effort provided it includes RainWise specific training on installation of rain gardens and stormwater cisterns.
Funding Information
$250,000 has been allocated for this effort.
Criteria
These grants fund community-based organizations, non-profit organizations, and small businesses with King County Small Contractor and Supplier (SCS) certification to help with outreach and promotion of the RainWise program in King County combined sewer overflow (CSO) basins.
For more information, visit WTD.
