More grant opportunities can be found here.

Webinars, Blogs, Funding Guides, and More:

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched a new tool “Build for the Future Funding Navigator” which can be used to discover and review upcoming funding opportunities focused on climate resiliency, energy efficiency, renewable energy integration, healthy housing, workforce development, environmental justice, and community transportation. Funding is available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Ongoing Grant Opportunities:

Community Heart and Soul Seed Grant
The Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant Program provides $10,000 in startup funding for resident-driven groups in small cities and towns to implement the Community Heart & Soul model. Grant funding requires a $10,000 cash match from the participating municipality or a partnering organization.

Building Reuse – State Rural Grants
Develop older buildings in your community into assets to attract new or expanding businesses with the state’s Building Reuse Program. This program provides grants to local governments, using three categories of funding for:

• The renovation of vacant buildings;
• The renovation or expansion of a building occupied by an existing North Carolina company wishing to expand in their current location
• The renovation, expansion or construction of healthcare entities that will lead to the creation of new, full-time jobs.

Demolition – State Rural Grants
The Demolition Grant Program provides grants to local governments to support the demolition of a vacant building to encourage site rehabilitation and site availability for economic development purposes. Eligible applicants are units of local government located in either a Tier 1 or Tier 2 county, or a rural census tract in a Tier 3 county. You can find more about the state’s tier designations elsewhere on our site. In Tier 1 or Tier 2 counties, priority will be given to towns or communities with populations less than 5,000.

Demolition – Federal CDBG
Under the authority of Title I of the U. S. Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (as amended), the CDBG demolition program in North Carolina is designed to demolish vacant dilapidated industrial buildings and properties under the elimination of slums and blight national objective. The demolition activity is expected to create a site at which it can reasonably be expected new jobs and private sector investment will locate. Since the demolition activity is qualified under the slums and blight national objective, new job creation with a private employer does not require a legally binding contract. Jobs creation during the demolition phase of the grant should be collected for CDBG reporting purposes.

Community Housing Grants: Neighborhood Revitalization – Federal CDBG
The North Carolina Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NC Neighborhood) will offer a non-entitlement municipality or county the opportunity to tailor a project to meet the community development needs specific and most critical to their locality, primarily for their low- and moderate-income residents. The NC Neighborhood Program incorporates several previous Rural Economic Development Division (REDD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) programs and activities such as Scattered Site Housing and Supportive Housing. North Carolina received approximately $45 million in CDBG funds for 2018. Of this amount, approximately $10 million will be made available for the NC Neighborhood Program. The state makes these funds available by awarding grants to non-entitlement governments throughout North Carolina. The NC Neighborhood Program will support the three livability principles that help guide sustainability and resiliency throughout areas that receive funding. Regardless of the program activity that local governments pursue, NC Neighborhood Program projects must incorporate at least one of the following three livability principles as an area of focus:

• Promote equitable, affordable housing. Expand location and energy-efficient housing choices for people of all ages, incomes, races, and ethnicities to increase mobility and lower the combined cost of housing and transportation.
• Support existing communities. Target federal funding toward existing communities – through strategies like transit-oriented, mixed-use development, and land recycling – to increase community revitalization and the efficiency of public works investments and safeguard rural landscapes.
• Value communities and neighborhoods. Enhance the unique characteristics of all communities by investing in healthy, safe, and walkable neighborhoods – rural, urban, or suburban.

Community Housing Grants: Neighborhood Stabilization – Federal CDBG
The U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocated $3.92 billion to all states and particularly hard-hit areas trying to respond to the effects of high foreclosures. HUD’s new Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) will provide targeted emergency assistance through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA). These targeted funds will be used to purchase foreclosed homes at a discount and to rehabilitate or redevelop them in order to respond to rising foreclosures and falling home values. Neighborhood stabilization funds may be used for activities that include, but are not limited to:

• acquiring land and property
• demolishing or rehabilitating abandoned properties
• offering down-payment and closing-cost assistance to low- to moderate-income homebuyers
• creating “land banks” to assemble, temporarily manage, and dispose of vacant land for the purpose of stabilizing neighborhoods and encouraging re-use or redevelopment of urban property
• Eligible entities include entitlement cities and non-entitlement counties in target areas, non-profits, community development corporations, councils of government, public housing authorities, and public finance agencies.

Infrastructure – State Rural Grants
The Economic Infrastructure Program provides grants to local governments to assist with infrastructure projects that will lead to the creation of new, full-time jobs. Eligible projects include but are not limited to:

• Upgrades or repair of public drinking water or wastewater treatment plants
• Upgrades, extensions, or repair of public water or sewer lines
• Extensions of publicly owned natural gas line (with an executed Pipeline Construction, Operating and Resale Agreement
• Installation or extension of public broadband infrastructure
• Construction of publicly owned access roads not funded or owned by the NC Department of Transportation
• Construction of public rail spur improvements.

Eligible applicants are units of local government with priority given to the counties that have the 80 highest rankings under N.C.G.S.143B-437.08. The rankings can be found on the county tier designations page.

Rail Industrial Access Program
As part of a statewide effort to attract new industry to North Carolina, the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Rail Industrial Access Program uses state funds to help build or refurbish railroad tracks that a new or expanding industry needs. This funding helps ensure that companies have safer, modernized railroad tracks so freight can deliver their goods and services more effectively and efficiently. Funding for the projects is contingent upon application approval prior to the industry making its decision to locate or expand a facility in North Carolina, and matching funds from private and or local sources. Local governments, community development agencies, railroad companies, and industries are eligible to apply. Approval of requests is based on the project’s economic benefits, including the number of potential new jobs, the amount of capital investment, rail use, and the area’s economic conditions.

Golden LEAF Open Grants Program
The Open Grants Program is designed to make it easier for applicants to submit a proposal to Golden LEAF and to make funding opportunities available throughout the year. Eligible applicants are governmental entities and 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organizations. This program is for Economic Development projects in the priority areas of Job Creation and Economic Investment; Workforce Preparedness; Agriculture; and Community Competitiveness, Capacity, and Vitality. Golden LEAF accepts applications from all communities in North Carolina; however, funded projects must benefit tobacco-dependent, economically distressed, and/or rural communities. Applicants can strengthen their proposals by identifying the direct positive effect(s) the project will have on those target communities.

Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program
This program provides affordable funding to develop essential community facilities in rural areas. An essential community facility is defined as a facility that provides an essential service to the local community for the orderly development of the community in a primarily rural area, and does not include private, commercial, or business undertakings.