OpportunityTitle: LWCF State Assistance Formula Grants - Construction - FY21 Cycle I
CategoryExplanation: Outdoor Recreation - Acquisition and Development
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: In accordance with 54 U.S.C. &amp;#167; 200305(a), only the State lead agency for LWCF may submit applications in response to this announcement, whether on behalf of itself or another entity.  In this context a &amp;#8220;State&amp;#8221; includes the 50 U.S. States, as well as American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Marianas Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  The grants may be sub-awarded to other state or territory agencies, local political subdivisions, and Indian tribes.  Local political subdivisions include: county, municipality, city, town, township, parish, local public authority, school district, special district (such as a park district), intrastate district, council of governments (whether or not incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under State law), any other regional or interstate government entity, or any agency or instrumentality of a local government.  Individuals, nonprofit organizations, and private organizations are generally not eligible, although exceptions may be made for nonprofit organizations that are publicly-chartered under state or local law to serve a public purpose, such as managing a park or park district.  In addition, a state must have a current NPS-approved SCORP to be eligible to apply for LWCF grants.  The state lead agency is responsible for: reviewing proposals for completeness and eligibility requirements; ensuring that proposals meet and are consistent with outdoor recreation priorities outlined in the state or territory&amp;#8217;s SCORP; prioritizing proposals according to their Open Project Selection Process, and submitting final applications to the NPS for review and award of funds. For selected projects, the NPS makes financial assistance awards to the lead agency, which will be responsible for ensuring that allocated funds are used for the purposes of and in a manner consistent with this program, including any funds awarded to eligible sub-applicants.  As the primary grantee for any sub-awarded grants, the lead agency is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day implementation of the grant and the supported activities to assure the project&amp;#8217;s compliance with the LWCF Act and Manual, other applicable Federal requirements, and that performance goals are being achieved.  The NPS cannot make grants to entities other than the state lead agency; applications submitted to this funding opportunity announcement by an entity other than the state lead agency will be automatically eliminated.
Description: The LWCF State and Local Assistance Program was established in 1964 to assist in preserving, developing and assuring accessibility to present and future generations of U.S. citizens and visitors &#8220;such quality and quantity of outdoor recreation resources as may be available and are necessary and desirable for individual active participation in such recreation and to strengthen the health and vitality of the citizens of the United States.&#8221; This is accomplished in part by authorizing and providing grants to States, and through States to local units of government and Indian tribes, for projects that acquire lands and waters for parks and other public outdoor recreation purposes, as well as develop new or renovate existing outdoor recreation facilities. Land acquisition and development grants may be in support of a wide range of outdoor recreation uses, such as community parks, playgrounds, picnic areas, campgrounds, trails, swimming pools, and sports fields; as well as for certain indoor infrastructure that supports these activities such as restrooms. Outdoor recreation areas and facilities must be publicly owned as well as open to the general public and not limited to special groups. The process for applying for a grant begins at the State or Territory level; entities interested in applying for an LWCF grant must contact their State&#8217;s lead agency to find out details about the availability of funds, timing of grant process, State program priorities, funding criteria, etc. A list of agency contacts can be found at: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/lwcf/contact-list.htm. The lead agency is responsible for soliciting project proposals from other State agencies, local units of government, and Indian Tribes and conducting competitions to identify the projects that can best advance the goals or meet the needs identified in the State&#8217;s SCORP. The top ranked projects, within the funds available, are nominated to the NPS for consideration and final decision, as well as the actual award of a grant.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: elisabeth_fondriest@nps.gov
GrantorContactText: Elisabeth Fondriest&lt;br/&gt;elisabeth_fondriest@nps.gov
CloseDateExplanation: Applicants are responsible for their proposals being submitted to the National Park Service. To be processed in this funding cycle, complete applications must be received by Friday, April 30, 2021, 11:59 PM ET.  Applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov. Applications sent by facsimile, email, or mail delivery will not be accepted. Applications submitted to Grants.gov after the deadline will not be accepted.  The receipt date and time stamp given by Grants.gov will establish whether the application met the deadline.  An applicant&apos;s failure to meet an eligibility criterion by the time of the application deadline may result in the application being excluded from consideration during this cycle.  This includes but is not limited to late and incomplete application packages.  You are encouraged to submit the application well before the deadline and not wait until the last minute.  The uploading and transfer process can take a while, especially when Grants.gov is getting heavy use. In addition, after the application is submitted it gets validated before it is forwarded to the NPS.  Normally this happens within a few minutes to a couple of hours, but it can take Grants.gov up to a day or two to validate or reject an application.  You can monitor your application&amp;#8217;s status by email.  You will receive four (4) emails from Grants.gov in the submittal process:  the first confirms successful receipt and contains a Grants.gov tracking number; the second confirms that the application has been validated; the third confirms the application was &amp;#8220;received&amp;#8221; by the agency, and the fourth assigns an NPS tracking number.  If you do not get the first email, you should assume the application did not successfully submit to Grants.gov.  If you do not receive all four emails, you should assume the application was not actually forwarded to NPS, notwithstanding the email about receipt, in which case you should let your NPS program officer know.  Sometimes there are glitches that prevent actual transmission, for example, applications that exceed 25mg in size do not get forwarded to the DOI system.  Most problems occur at the validation step so you should always check the second email; if there was a problem it should be described in this email.  Technical difficulties with application submittal should be directed to the Grants.gov help desk. NPS staff can confirm receipt of submission, but cannot resolve issues with Grants.gov or extend the application deadline due to difficulties with submission via Grants.gov.