OpportunityTitle: Multistate Conservation Grant (MSCG) Program
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: Eligible applicants are the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, or a State or group of States, for the purpose of carrying out the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. The State governments&amp;#8217; designation refers to Agencies with lead management responsibility for fish and wildlife resources in each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia (Sport Fish Restoration only), Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, or a group of these agencies.  Eligible proposals must benefit: (a) at least 26 States; (b) a majority of the States in a region of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service; or (c) a regional association of State fish and wildlife departments.  Any nongovernmental organization that applies for a grant shall submit with the application a certification that the organization will not use the grant funds to fund, in whole or in part, any activity of the organization that promotes or encourages opposition to the regulated hunting or trapping of wildlife, to recreational shooting activities, or to the regulated taking of fish.
Description: The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) and the Service work cooperatively to manage T-MSGCP and R3-MSGCP. Administratively, both programs function similarly, with AFWA providing the Service with a priority list of projects to be considered for award and the Service administering the program and managing the awards. This Funding Opportunity Announcement provides application guidance for both of these competitive programs. Eligible grant proposals are shared with the AFWA National Grants Committee (NGC) for review and ranking to aid in the selection process. Proposals must address eligible activities in one or more of the selected AFWA Strategic Priorities to be considered. Strategic Priorities are annually selected by AFWA to establish the State, Commonwealth, and Territory fish and wildlife agencies&apos; (States&apos;) conservation priorities (under T-MSCGP) or national recruitment priorities (under R3-MSCGP), and they are used to guide proposal development and grant selection for the programs. The primary goal of both programs is to provide grant funds to address regional or national priority needs of the States and their partners that are beyond the scope and capabilities of a single State. Projects selected and awarded are annually published in the Federal Register. Lists of past awards are also available from the Service and AFWA (see Section G, Federal Awarding Agency Contacts). Recipients awarded grants under T-MSCGP may use the funds for sport fisheries and wildlife management including research projects, boating access development, hunter safety and education, aquatic education, fish and wildlife habitat improvements, and other purposes consistent with the enabling legislation. Recipients awarded grants under the R3-MSCGP can only use the funds for designing or implementing hunter recruitment and recreational shooter recruitment projects that promote a national hunting and shooting sports recruitment program, including related communication and outreach activities. FY 2022 Strategic Priorities for MSGCP funding: Strategic Priorities FY 2022 Strategic Priorities for the MSCGP 1. Conservation &amp; Science A. Large Landscape Systems &amp; Species B. Climate C. Wildlife Disease Including Connections with Human Health (&#8220;One Health&#8221;) D. Data E. Human Dimensions &amp; Social Science F. Invasive Species 2. Relevancy &amp; Inclusion &amp; Participation A. Enhancing Conservation Through Broader Engagement B. Communication Programs that Further Regional &amp; National Conservation Efforts C. Implementing and/or Expanding Internal and External Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts 3. Coordination, Capacity Building &amp; Fish and Wildlife Agencies Support A. Leadership Development B. Conservation Education C. Coordination of International, National &amp; Regional Conservation Efforts &amp; Policies D. Integration of Law Enforcement 4. Trust Fund Stewardship A. Research that Informs &amp; Supports Conservation Efforts B. Trust Fund Education &amp; Promotion of North American Model of Conservation (&#8220;Legal Strategy&#8221;) C. Conservation Law Education 5. AFWA Priorities Identified in AFWA Funding Principles (submitted by ExCom) A. Management Assistance Team B. Management of MSCGP Program C. CITES and International Conservation Programs and Their Impact of State Agencies D. Coordination of Conservation on National Scale 6. Recruitment, Retention, Reactivation (R3)* *The category was recently developed in response to the Pittman Roberson Modernization Act and includes up to an additional $5 million for R3 projects focused specifically on hunting and shooting sports. The Association is also requesting R3 projects focused on fishing through this category although they will be funded through the Traditional MSCGP program using available Sport Fish Restoration funding. a. Monitoring and Evaluation (Wildlife Restoration Only) Description: Development of tools, trainings and technologies that allow R3 practitioners to document the influence of R3 effort implementation on the target participants&#8217; or populations&#8217; initiation into and/or increased avidity in hunting and/or recreational target shooting. Potential projects might include: Development of tools to support data collection methodologies, data dashboards, and resources that increase R3 staff competency and capacity to evaluate, manage, and interpret data in order to benefit decision making. Creation of R3 effort outcome indicators measurement and collection systems that allow participant and license sales data to be summarized and compared at regional or national scales. b. Marketing Description: Identification, development and implementation of strategic marketing tools and resources (with defined and measurable R3 outcomes) intended to 1) maximize social support for (from increasing broad societal awareness and acceptance, to connecting prospects with opportunities) and to 2) increase participation in hunting and/or recreational target shooting. Projects will also be considered for fishing participation under this category using funds from the Traditional MSCGP. Potential Projects might include: Market research; best marketing practices; development of marketing toolkits; strategies to form regional or national marketing campaigns; or increase community-wide engagement and implementation of marketing tactics. c. Mentoring Description: Identification and evaluation of elements of successful mentoring programs as well as current mentor/mentee motivations and application of that knowledge to expand and promote effective mentoring or instructional efforts from the current base of hunting and/or recreational target shooting participants. Projects will also be considered for fishing participation under this category using funds from the Traditional MSCGP. Potential projects might include: Development of program guidance to increase effectiveness, capacity, scalability, and collaboration of partners; efforts to increase involvement and marketing to current participants to become mentors; efforts to increase understanding and engagement of potential mentees; and efforts to facilitate effective brokering of mentoring or instructional experiences within populations of mentors/instructors and prospective mentees/students. d. Engaging New Audiences Description: Assist organizations and R3 efforts with targeting new or underserved audiences by further defining likely new and efficient audiences, and then identifying effective pathways and tools to create targeted R3 efforts to engage those new and diverse audiences. Proposals focused specifically on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives are encouraged. Potential projects might include: Development of tools to increase the effectiveness of targeted R3 efforts; evaluation of adoption and effectiveness of existing toolkits; research projects to understand potential target audiences; development of additional toolkits or trainings to increase organizations&#8217; effectiveness and capacity in retaining new hunting and target shooting participants. Projects will also be considered for fishing participation under this category using funds from the Traditional MSCGP. e. R3 Capacity and Infrastructure Description: Assist the R3 community in increasing capacity and infrastructure to address regional and national R3 threats and barriers; and provide for the unification of strategic and effective R3 efforts by state and federal fish and wildlife agencies, NGO and industry partners to yield measurable outcomes. Potential projects might include: Development of resources to help organizations improve effectiveness in R3 efforts; projects that increase partners&#8217; (industry, NGO, regional associations, etc.) capacity to work on collaborative R3 efforts; development of tools that foster effective communication, planning, coordination, and networking at all levels on R3 efforts; facilitation of strategic efforts to unify the R3 community in its pursuits.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program
GrantorContactText: Lori Bennett&lt;br/&gt;Lori_Bennett@fws.gov
CloseDateExplanation: Applying for funding through the T-MSCGP and R3-MSCGP requires a two-part process that is managed in partnership with AFWA. Please specify which program you are applying for in your application. In part one, applicants submit their Initial Proposal by May 17, 2021 for review. Initial Proposal requirements and deadline (May 17, 2021) information is available from the AFWA MSCGP webpage. Initial Proposals are required to address one or more of the AFWA Strategic Priorities. Applicants must submit the Initial Proposals through the AFWA MSCGP portal. In part two, AFWA will invite the best Initial Proposals to submit a Final Proposal package through the AFWA MSCGP portal as well as through GrantSolutions or Grants.gov.  These sites have all required Federal grant forms.  Full grant proposals will only be considered for funding if the applicant submits an initial proposal by the deadline of May 17, 2021, AFWA invites the applicant to submit a full proposal for the relevant project, and the applicant submits the full grant proposal for the relevant project by the deadline of July 23, 2021 to both the AFWA MSCGP portal as well as either GrantSolutions or Grants.gov.