Deadline: 03-Jul-2020
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services (OCS) will award approximately $13.6 million in Community Economic Development (CED) discretionary grant funds to Community Development Corporations (CDC) for well-planned, financially viable, and innovative projects to enhance job creation and business development for individuals with low-income.
The CED program provides funding for projects aimed at business development opportunities and creating employment for individuals with low incomes located in geographic areas with a demonstrated need for the proposed project. To accomplish this, the program requires that all created businesses and positions support a service area with unemployment and poverty rates that are at or above the state or national levels. The CED program also seeks to fund projects that address the personal and community barriers that must be overcome to help individuals with low incomes become self-sufficient.
Program Goals
The CED program is built on the premise that nonprofit CDCs know their communities and are poised to efficiently and effectively create new community economic development projects in their communities. The objective of the program is to support businesses that develop new products, services, and commercial activities that result in new positions for individuals with low incomes. These positions should:
- Be ready to implement at the time of award;
- Lead to increased self-sufficiency for individuals and families with low income;
- Create businesses and jobs in low-income communities that improve the livelihood of not only those who obtain those jobs but also the community itself; and
- Attract additional public and private funds to increase investment and quality of life in low-income communities.
Eligible Activities
CED funds may be used for the start-up or expansion activities of participating businesses, as consistent with the cost principles, as implemented in 45 CFR Part 75, Subpart E, provided that the expenditures result in the creation of positions that can be filled with individuals with low incomes. This includes start-up capital for operating expenses, such as salaries, facilities, and equipment that will be replaced by projected earnings. Further, OCS recognizes that many businesses supported with CED funds in the past have been put in jeopardy due to the COVID19 pandemic. For the purposes of this FOA, job creation efforts include the re-creation or restoration of full-time, full-year positions that were lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These flexibilities are only applicable for the FY 2020 funding opportunity announcement. The training and placement of individuals in positions existing prior to the start of the project, even positions guaranteed to individuals with low incomes through a formal agreement with an employer, is not considered job creation.
Many projects use grant funds to provide loans to identified, viable, participating businesses, and/or as an equity or stock investment. Regarding the equity/stock investment, grantees can convey grant funds to third parties to help finance participating businesses creating jobs for eligible program participants. In exchange for a percentage ownership (via stock purchase or equity) specified in a third-party agreement (contract), a participating business receives cash needed to buy, start, or expand a business, provided they agree to specified CED program terms and conditions, including reporting jobs and other benefits to grantees. If there is no third-party business and the grantee is the sole owner of the business creating jobs, funds are typically conveyed to the grantee’s for-profit subsidiary via a loan or purchase of 100 percent of the stock in the participating business. Grant funds can be used to support one or multiple project strategies
Ineligible Activities
CED grant funds may not be used for:
- Projects that include the reimbursement of pre-award costs.
- Projects that provide subawards/pass-throughs.
- Projects that use funding to capitalize loan loss reserve funds.
- Project that use funds for loan(s) with balloon payments.
- Projects that use CED funding to provide loan(s), where re-payment of all loans funded with CED funds does not begin during the course of the funded project period.
- Projects that create or expand microenterprise business training and technical assistance centers.
- Projects that focus primarily on job training, job placement, and technical assistance. Limited job training and job placement activities can be supported in the context of modest training that may be provided specifically for the new positions created. For example, funds can be used to train a cashier for a specific position that has been created, but cannot be used to operate a general job training and placement program.
- Projects that do not create new jobs that did not exist prior to the proposed CED project.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Funding: $13,600,000
- Expected Number of Awards: 17
- Award Ceiling: $800,000 Per Project Period
- Award Floor: $100,000 Per Project Period
- Average Projected Award Amount: $750,000 Per Project Period Anticipated Project Start Date: 09/30/2020
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for the CED program, an applicant must meet the following three conditions:
- Applicant must be a private, nonprofit CDC with 501(c)(3) status;
- Applicant must have articles of incorporation or bylaws demonstrating that the CDC has as a principal purpose the planning, developing, or managing of low-income housing or community economic development activities; and
- The Board of Directors must have representation from each of the following: community residents, business leaders, and civic leaders.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=321641