Grant opportunities for Fayetteville and Cumberland County, North Carolina:

Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG) (February 28, 2023)
This program is designed to provide technical assistance and training for small rural businesses. Small means that the business has fewer than 50 new workers and less than $1 million in gross revenue. Rural Business Development Grant money must be used for projects that benefit rural areas or towns outside the urbanized periphery of any city with a population of 50,000 or more.

Agriculture Innovation Center Grant Program (March 6, 2023)
The purpose of this program is to establish and operate Agriculture Innovation Centers (Centers) that provide technical and business development assistance to Agricultural Producers seeking to engage in developing and marketing of Value-Added Agricultural Products. Matching funds are required for at least one-third of the total project budget.

FY 2023 Competitive Funding Opportunity: Areas of Persistent Poverty Program (March 10, 2023)
To create new opportunities for those experiencing poverty, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced a new Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to help improve transit in areas experiencing long-term economic distress. The $20 million in competitive grant funding through FTA’s Areas of Persistent Poverty (AoPP) Program provides more resources to underserved and disadvantaged communities seeking to expand or improve transit.

Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (UAIP) Competitive Grants Program (March 27, 2023)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), under the OUAIP, is soliciting applications from eligible entities to host the UAIP Competitive Grants pilot project. The primary goal of the UAIP pilot project is to support the development of urban agriculture and innovative production. The two types of UAIP grants being made available for application under this NFO are Planning Projects and Implementation Projects. Planning Projects are projects that will initiate, develop, or support the efforts of farmers, gardeners, citizens, government officials, schools, members of tribal communities, and other stakeholders in areas where access to fresh foods are limited or unavailable. Implementation Projects are for accelerating existing and emerging models of urban and/or innovative agricultural practices that serve multiple farmers or gardeners. Innovation may include new and emerging, as well as traditional or indigenous, agricultural practices.

Energy Improvements at Public K-12 School Facilities – Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) – Renew America’s Schools (April 21, 2023)
The activities to be funded under this FOA support BIL section 40541 and the broader government-wide approach to support projects that enable replicable and scalable impacts, create innovative, sustaining partnerships, leverage funding and economies of scale, focus on disadvantaged communities, improve student, teacher, and occupant health, enrich learning and growth, assist schools that serve as community assets (e.g., neighborhood cooling centers or disaster recovery shelters), and are crafted thoughtfully within the context of public school facilities (e.g., procurement restraints, construction windows, etc.).

Major Collaborative Archival Initiatives (May 3, 2023)
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission seeks projects that will significantly improve public discovery and use of major historical records collections. All types of historical records are eligible, including documents, photographs, born-digital records, and analog audio and moving images. Projects may focus on broad movements in U.S. history, such as law, politics, social reform, business, military, the arts, and other aspects of the national experience, or on the papers of an individual or figures in American history. Collections that center the voices and document the history of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color are especially welcome.

Partners for Fish and Wildlife FY23 (Rolling, until September 30, 2023)
The Partners for Fish and Wildlife (PFW) Program is a voluntary, incentive-based program that provides direct technical assistance and financial assistance in the form of cooperative and grant agreements to private landowners to restore and conserve fish and wildlife habitat for the benefit of federal trust resources. The PFW Program is delivered through more than 250 full-time staff, active in all 50 States and territories. Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program staff coordinate with project partners, stakeholders and other Service programs to identify geographic focus areas and develop habitat conservation priorities within these focus areas. Geographic focus areas define where the program directs resources to conserve habitat for federal trust species.

Community Heart and Soul Seed Grant (Ongoing)
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.

Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (Rolling, first-in, first-out basis)
Eligible entities may be live venue operators or promoters, theatrical producers, live performing arts organization operators, museum operators, motion picture theatre operators, and talent representatives, per the Economic Aid Act. Additionally, entities of these types owned by state or local governments (for example, museums or historic homes) are eligible to apply if the governmentally-owned entity also acts solely as a venue operator, museum, etc. and not also include other types of entities. For example, a city parks and recreation department that operated a bandstand in a public square along with running various nature parks would not qualify as an eligible entity for an SVOG. Finally, each subsidiary business owned by an eligible entity that also meets the eligibility requirements on its own rights will qualify as an eligible entity.

Building Reuse – State Rural Grants (Ongoing)
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 health care entities that will lead to the creation of new, full-time jobs.

Demolition – State Rural Grants (Ongoing)
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 (Ongoing)
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 (Ongoing)
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 (Ongoing)
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 (Ongoing)
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 (Ongoing)
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 (Ongoing)
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 (Ongoing)
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.