How can municipalities identify grant opportunities at the local level?

To identify grant opportunities at the local level, municipalities should consider taking the following steps, among others:

1. Assess and compile a list of community needs.
2. Develop a system to aggregate and process information from multiple sources.
3. Identify the relevant grant opportunities that fit the municipalities’ needs.

Assess and Compile a List of Community Needs

A first step a municipality seeking access to grant programs at the local level should consider is to analyze community needs and compare them to available grant programs. A list of community needs can be compiled by reviewing various sources, including budgets, planning documents, stakeholder engagement activities, and notes from discussions with internal staff. Capital Improvement Plans (“CIP”), Comprehensive Land Use Plans, Hazard Mitigation Plans (“HMGP”) and Transportation Plans often form the core information included on the community needs list.

Municipalities can then compare the list to available funding opportunities. Funding matches can then be prioritized for potential action considering factors such as application requirements (prerequisite studies or plans), program evaluation and scoring criteria (how likely a potential project is to be funded), availability of required nonfederal match, and capacity to complete the application (to be determined by evaluating internal and external resources).

Develop a System to Aggregate and Process Information from Multiple Sources

Finding grant opportunities to match identified needs may begin with developing a system to aggregate and process information from multiple sources. This is important as information relevant to certain grant opportunities can be in multiple places. As an example, there is no single source that provides all necessary information on the hundreds of programs contained within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“IIJA”).

Identify Relevant Grant Opportunities that Match the Municipalities’ Needs

There are numerous funding streams available to municipalities looking to identify grant opportunities at the local level, each with its own requirements, prerequisites, deadlines, and award processes. Below are several sources of information municipalities can use to guide their search.

The White House build.gov website provides useful survey-level information in the form of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Guidebook and an accompanying workbook provide general program overviews but do not address specific application requirements or deadlines.[1]  Detailed information for programs can be found on the Grants.gov portal or through the Grants.gov mobile app. More extensive information on grant programs is generally only uploaded once a Notice of Funding Opportunity (“NOFO”) has been released. Individual agency websites are usually the most timely and comprehensive sources of information on IIJA programs, including NOFOs, Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”), fact sheets, and webinars.

Professional and advocacy organizations can provide municipalities and general audiences with information about funding opportunities. For example, one resource, the Local Infrastructure Hub, is a partnership between the United States Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, Results for America, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, which may assist municipalities in their research on infrastructure funding opportunities.[2] 

Single agency websites can make finding information about other types of funding streams more straightforward. For example, if a municipality is interested in a Hazard Mitigation Grant, searching the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (“FEMA”) Hazard Mitigation Grant Assistance page for FEMA HMA Grants would provide the best possible information on the grant opportunity.[3] Similarly, if a municipality is interested in Transportation grants, monitoring the U.S. Department of Transportation Funding Opportunities website[4] or the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Grant Programs website[5] would provide additional information on potential grant opportunities.

Last Updated: February 27, 2023