Technical Assistance and Training Grant Program in the US

Deadline: 31-Dec-21

The Rural Utilities Service’s Technical Assistance and Training (TAT) Grant Program is designed to assist communities with water or wastewater systems through technical assistance and training provided by grant recipients to rural water and wastewater organizations.

The TAT Grants Program is designed to help qualified, private nonprofit organizations provide technical assistance and training to identify and evaluate solutions to water and waste problems, help applicants prepare applications for water and waste disposal loans/grants, and assist associations with improving the operation and maintenance of water and waste facilities in eligible rural areas.

Funding Information

Estimated Total Program Funding: $40,000,000

Eligibility Criteria

Entities eligible for grants must be private nonprofit organizations with tax exempt status, designated by the Internal Revenue Service. A nonprofit organization is defined as any corporation, trust, association, cooperative, or other organization that:
- Is operated primarily for scientific, education, service, charitable, or similar purposes in the public interest.
- Is not organized primarily for profit.
- Uses its net proceeds to maintain, improve, and/or expand its operations.
Entities must be legally established and located within a state.
Organizations must be incorporated by December 31 of the year the application period occurs to be eligible for funds.
Private businesses, Federal agencies, public bodies, and individuals are ineligible for these grants.
Applicants must also have the proven ability, background, experience (as evidenced by the organization's satisfactory completion of project(s) similar to those proposed), legal authority, and actual capacity to provide technical assistance and/or training on a regional basis to associations. To meet the requirement of actual capacity, an applicant must either:
- Have the necessary resources to provide technical assistance and/or training to associations in rural areas through its staff, or
- Be assisted by an affiliate or member organization which has such background and experience, and which agrees, in writing, that it will provide the assistance, or
- Contract with a nonaffiliated organization for not more than 49 percent of the grant to provide the proposed assistance. Eligible Projects. Grants may be made to organizations to enable such organizations to assist associations to:
Identify and evaluate solutions to water problems of associations in rural areas relating to source, storage, treatment, and/or distribution
Identify and evaluate solutions to waste problems of associations in rural areas relating to collection, treatment, and/or disposal
Prepare water and/or waste disposal loan/grant applications
Provide technical assistance/training to association personnel that will improve the management, operation, and maintenance of water and waste facilities
Pay the expenses associated with providing the technical assistance and/or training authorized.