Grant Agreement Funding Opportunity for Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized) in Nebraska | USDA NRCS NE MULTI 24 NOFO0001341

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NRCS NE MULTI 24 NOFO0001341

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is offering a competitive grant opportunity for federally recognized Native American tribal governments in Nebraska under Funding Opportunity Number USDA NRCS NE MULTI 24 NOFO0001341 (CFDA 10.902). The program is structured as discretionary grant agreements intended to leverage NRCS resources, respond to local natural resource concerns, promote collaboration, and build Tribal and community-level conservation leadership across the state. NRCS notes that this Notice of Funding Opportunity was released ahead of final fiscal year 2024 appropriations and apportionment, meaning the final availability and total funding level could change depending on federal budget actions such as continuing resolutions or an enacted appropriations bill.

Projects may run for up to three years and must align with one of two main initiative areas. The first is Tribal Food Sovereignty and Food Production Grants. In this context, tribal food sovereignty is described as the right of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians to produce traditional foods on their own lands in order to sustain individuals, families, and communities. NRCS is looking for projects that strengthen food sovereignty in Nebraska by supporting best practices that expand conservation-based production of food, fiber, wildlife, and forestry products in ways that support American Indian culture and sovereignty. This category also supports work that creates or strengthens sustainably produced and processed food markets, along with conservation education, traditional food production education, stewardship, and broader natural resource management training and leadership.

The second initiative area focuses on reaching out to historically underserved clients and providing technical and financial assistance. The aim here is to improve the delivery of conservation programs and technical support to underserved communities by identifying cultural and program barriers that make NRCS assistance harder to access. Activities may include targeted outreach and education about NRCS programs and technical materials, hands-on assistance to help underserved clients seek and obtain NRCS support, and planning assistance that helps participants move from interest to implementable conservation actions. In practical terms, NRCS is signaling interest in projects that not only inform communities about available conservation resources, but also reduce real-world access barriers and help people successfully navigate program participation.

NRCS anticipates a total of $500,000 available for fiscal year 2024 to support this program. The notice lists an award ceiling of $100,000 and expects to make around five awards, indicating awards will likely be sized to support discrete, high-impact projects rather than a large number of small awards. Applications will be screened first for completeness and compliance with the notice requirements. Proposals that are incomplete or do not meet the stated requirements will be removed from consideration, and the applicant will be notified of that elimination, so careful adherence to the NFO instructions is a key part of remaining competitive.

Applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on April 12, 2024. Applicants who are new to Grants.gov are directed to follow the setup steps described in Section D of the full notice, since account registration and related prerequisites can take time. For technical problems with Grants.gov itself, applicants must contact Grants.gov Applicant Support (1-800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov), because NRCS program staff cannot help troubleshoot Grants.gov accounts or submission issues. For questions about the content of the NFO, applicants are directed to the federal awarding agency contact listed in Section G, but questions are limited to clarifying specific items in the notice such as dates, page references, or discrepancies. The agency will not respond to inquiries about whether an applicant is eligible or whether a particular project idea is likely to be selected.

NRCS estimates it will make selections by May 12, 2024, with awards expected to be executed by September 15, 2024, though the notice emphasizes these dates are estimates and may change. Overall, this opportunity is designed to fund Tribal-led conservation and food systems work in Nebraska, especially efforts that combine resource stewardship with cultural priorities, local capacity-building, and improved access to NRCS conservation assistance for historically underserved communities.

• The Natural Resources Conservation Service in the agriculture, education, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Grant Agreement Funding Opportunity for Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized) in Nebraska" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.902.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-02-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-04-12. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $100,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized).

Apply for USDA NRCS NE MULTI 24 NOFO0001341

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