Conservation Collaboration Grants Agreements Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Announcement for Program Funding – SOUTH DAKOTA | USDA NRCS SD CCG 21 NOFO0001099

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NRCS SD CCG 21 NOFO0001099

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offered this South Dakota-specific funding opportunity in FY 2021 to support conservation projects that make strong use of partnerships and local leadership. The overall intent is to leverage NRCS resources to tackle locally important natural resource concerns, strengthen collaboration among organizations working in conservation, and build conservation leadership at the state and community level. Projects proposed under this notice must be located in South Dakota, and the funding is positioned as competitive, meaning applications are evaluated against each other and ranked for possible award.

The opportunity is structured as discretionary funding made available through grant agreements, with projects expected to run between one and three years. NRCS indicated an award ceiling of up to $1,000,000 per award, and projected approximately 16 awards, depending on funding availability. While the notice references multiple CFDA program authorities (10.069, 10.902, 10.912, 10.924, 10.931), the practical takeaway is that final funding decisions depend both on application ranking and on what funds are actually available through the underlying NRCS program sources connected to those CFDA numbers.

Eligible applicants include a broad mix of public entities, tribal governments, and nonprofit and higher education institutions. Specifically, NRCS invited proposals from state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, and nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) organizations and nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status, in both cases excluding institutions of higher education). This mix signals that NRCS was looking for collaborative, community-based conservation efforts that can be led by government partners, education institutions, or nonprofit organizations with the capacity to deliver projects on the ground.

Applications had to be submitted through Grants.gov, with a firm deadline of June 11, 2021, by 11:59 pm Eastern Time. NRCS also made clear that proposals would be screened first for completeness and compliance with the notice requirements. Any application that was incomplete or did not follow the instructions could be removed from consideration without being scored, and applicants would be notified if their submission was eliminated on that basis. For proposals that passed the initial screening, NRCS planned to score submissions as they were received and place eligible projects onto a ranked list used for funding consideration throughout the fiscal year. Final award selections were to be made by the NRCS State Conservationist for South Dakota, using the ranking results and taking into account the availability of funds tied to the relevant NRCS programs.

In short, this notice (Funding Opportunity Number USDA NRCS SD CCG 21 NOFO0001099, created April 11, 2021) was a statewide call for partner-led conservation projects in South Dakota, emphasizing practical natural resource problem-solving, cross-organization collaboration, and development of durable conservation capacity at the community level, with awards made competitively for 1- to 3-year efforts and selected on a rolling, ranked basis through FY 2021.

• The Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service in the agriculture, environment, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Conservation Collaboration Grants Agreements Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Announcement for Program Funding – SOUTH DAKOTA" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.069, 10.902, 10.912, 10.924, 10.931.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 11, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 11, 2021 Applications must be received by 1159pm Eastern Time. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 16 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for USDA NRCS SD CCG 21 NOFO0001099

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