Philip A. Palmesano headshot

Assemblymember

Philip A. Palmesano

Assembly District 132

Palmesano June ‘Grants Action News’ Update

June 12, 2014

Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C,I-Corning) today is sending his April grants bulletin to residents, organizations and local governments to highlight a series of grants available from the state, federal government and private entities. Each month, the Assembly provides an updated list of grants in a variety of categories. “During a time of economic recovery, grants can play an integral part in helping our local communities complete needed infrastructure repairs or support under-funded projects,” said Palmesano. “Many people don’t realize the scope of available opportunities because they aren’t sure where to look. The ‘Grants Action News’ bulletin makes finding these grants much easier by consolidating the information and making it available to everyone. I hope that residents, organizations and local governments throughout the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions will be able to use this resource to find much-needed support to strengthen communities in our rural area.” The “Grants Action News” bulletin is updated at the beginning of each month with newly-available grants and information on how to apply. Palmesano will continue to provide regular updates on his Assembly website at http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Philip-A-Palmesano, as well as posts to his Facebook page – just like “Assemblyman Phil Palmesano” to stay up-to-date on new grants information. Those interested may sign up for monthly direct mail or email updates on the latest grants available, and can find a more detailed list of the current and previously- offered grants by going to http://assembly.state.ny.us/gan/. A summary of this month’s “Grants Action News” appears below: State Grants: New York State Energy Research and Development Authority The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) Environmental Research program seeks to increase understanding and awareness of the environmental impacts of energy choices and emerging energy options, and to provide a scientific, technical foundation for formulating effective, equitable, energy-related environmental policies and resource management practices. The program focuses on critical information needs and research gaps associated with electricity-related environmental issues relevant to New York State. Through this program, NYSERDA is accepting applications for the New York State Acid Deposition and Mercury: Data Development and Publication Pilot program. NYSERDA seeks proposals to reanalyze data, datasets and synthesize multiple datasets to gain additional understanding of ecosystem function and response to changing nitrogen, sulfur and mercury depositional loads. Selected projects will be required to publish the findings either in open-access, peer-reviewed journals, or through a NYSERDA report.

  • Eligibility: New sample collection or chemical analyses are not eligible for funding under this announcement. Students are not eligible to submit proposals, but may receive funding support through selected proposers. NYSERDA reserves the right to reject proposals in which an investigator(s) identified in the proposal is an investigator on a current NYSERDA-awarded project with chronically- delinquent project deliverables (such as reports). No investigator may receive more than 30 percent of the funding available under this announcement. Investigators are not eligible to have more than two active projects funded at one time.
  • Funding: $400,000
  • Deadline: December 30, 2016
  • Contact: Gregory Lampman
    Phone: (518) 862-1090 Ext. 3372
    Email: ggl@nyserda.ny.gov
    Website: www.nyserda.ny.gov/Funding-Opportunities/Current-Funding-Opportunities/PON-2870-New-York-State-Acid-Deposition-and-Mercury.aspx
Federal Grants: United States Department of Agriculture/Rural Development The United States Department of Agriculture has announced its Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) to provide financial assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses. REAP creates opportunities for economic development for rural businesses by supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency projects via loan guarantees and grants. Awards can be used to purchase, install and construct renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements to non-residential buildings and facilities.
  • Eligibility: Guaranteed loan and grant eligibility is limited to rural small businesses and agricultural producers. An agricultural producer is an individual or entity directly engaged in the production of agricultural products (crops, livestock, forestry products, hydroponics, nursery and aquaculture) whereby 50 percent or greater of the gross income is derived from the operations. A private entity is considered a small business in accordance with the Small Business Administration’s small business size standards. The lender must be eligible for the program. Most lenders are eligible, including federal and state-chartered banks, Farm Credit System banks and savings and loan associations. Other lenders may be eligible if approved by USDA. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
  • Funding: Nationwide REAP Program funding availability for FY 2014 is estimated to be $12.3 million for grants and $57.8 million for loan guarantees.
  • Deadline: Grant and combination grant/loan guarantee applications are due by July 7, 2014. Loan guarantee-only applications are due by July 31, 2014.
  • Contact: Gary Pereira, Business/Energy Program Specialist
    USDA Rural Development
    9025 River Road
    Marcy, NY 13403
    Phone: (315) 736-3316 Ext. 129
    Email: gary.pereira@ny.usda.gov
    Website: www.rurdev.usda.gov/NY_REAP_Home.html
Administration for Children and Families The Children’s Bureau (CB) announces the availability of competitive grant funds authorized by the Adoption Opportunities Program through the Administration of Children and Families. The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement is to test, by awarding eight discretionary grants, intensive and exhaustive child-focused adoptive parent recruitment strategies for children in foster care. The CB has found that intensive recruitment strategies have been shown to move foster youth into permanent families at a higher rate than traditional recruitment approaches. Proposed programs should focus on children/youth that are the hardest to place from the child welfare system due to age, disability or sibling group membership.
  • Eligibility: Eligible applicants include public and private agencies and organizations. Applicants are encouraged to partner with consumers, and with other key agencies, (e.g., a university, mental health agency, and/or community-based provider with experience with the population(s) that the applicant proposes to serve). Faith-based and community organizations that meet the eligibility requirements are eligible to apply. Applications from individuals (including sole proprietorships) and foreign entities are not eligible.
  • Funding: $4,000,000 total. Eight grants will be awarded $500,000 for a 17-month project and budget period.
  • Deadline: July 7, 2014
  • Contact: CB Operations Center c/o LCG, Inc.
    1400 Key Blvd., Suite 900 Arlington, VA 22209
    Phone: (888) 203-6161
    Email: CB@grantreview.org
    Website: www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/view/HHS-2014-ACF-ACYF-CO-0828
Private Grants: National Alliance for Grieving Children For the third year in a row, the National Alliance for Grieving Children is collaborating with the New York Life Foundation to expand the Grief Reach program, a grant opportunity to fund children’s bereavement programs across the country in an effort to reach underserved youth through an RFP process. Proposals should clearly define the target population, local partners and strategy for expansion. The projects must be an expansion of services to children not currently served by the program and have a direct impact on them. Fifty percent of the children served must be from low-income families, or 50 percent of the children must be from minority communities.
  • Eligibility: Grants are made only to private, nonprofit organizations, which have tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code and which are not private foundations. Applicants must be able to provide 990 tax returns for at least two of the past three years; must provide a budget detailing how requested funds will be used; must be the entity that will provide the children’s bereavement services; and must have at least one paid staff person. Startup agencies or programs will not be considered.
  • Funding: Grants range from $15,000 to $100,000.
  • Deadline: Applications will be accepted online through July 7, 2014. Decisions will be announced in September, 2014. For more information about the application and upcoming webinars on this RFP, please go to www.ChildrenGrieve.org.
  • Contact: Megan Lopez
    Email: Megan.Lopez@childrengrieve.org
    Website: www.childrengrieve.org/grief-reach-community-expansion-grants
Rockefeller Archive Center The Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) has announced funding for its competitive grant-in-aid program. This program provides research grants to foster, promote and support research conducted by serious scholars in the collections located at the Rockefeller Archive Center, which include the archival collections of members of the Rockefeller family, institutions and organizations founded by Rockefeller family members (including the Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, General Education Board, Rockefeller University, Population Council, Asia Society and many other organizations) and from numerous non-Rockefeller foundations and nonprofit organizations, including the Ford Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, Russell Sage Foundation, Foundation for Child Development, W.T. Grant Foundation, Markle Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and the Foundation Center, among others.
  • Eligibility: Awards are made to individuals. Institutions are not eligible to apply. The grant does not support research at other institutions, and it does not provide general tuition support. Application to the grant-in-aid program is open to U.S. citizens and citizens of foreign countries.
  • Funding: Up to $4,000 will be reimbursed for receipted expenses for travel and accommodation in conjunction with research conducted at the RAC.
  • Deadline: Potential grant applicants must contact the RAC’s staff by email or by fax no later than October 15, 2014, with a description of the research project for which they seek support. The application deadline is November 1, 2014.
  • Contact: The Rockefeller Archive Center
    15 Dayton Avenue Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591
    Phone: (914) 366-6300
    Fax: (914) 631-6017
    Email: archive@rockarch.org
    Website: www.rockarch.org/grants/generalgia.php
Scholar Awards: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation provides fellowships for advanced professionals in all fields – including the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and creative arts – except the performing arts. The fellowships are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. The program seeks to further the development of scholars and artists by helping them engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions. The foundation understands the performing arts to be those in which an individual interprets work created by others. Accordingly, the foundation will provide fellowships to: composers but not conductors, singers or instrumentalists; choreographers but not dancers; filmmakers, playwrights and performance artists who create their own work but not actors or theater directors.
  • Eligibility: Scholars, scientists, writers, artists, choreographers, composers and film or video makers are eligible to apply. Awards are intended for individuals only; they are not available to organizations, institutions or groups. Persons who have already received a Guggenheim Fellowship are not eligible to apply for another.
  • Funding: Grant amounts vary, and the foundation does not guarantee it will fully fund any project.
  • Deadline: September 19, 2014
  • Contact: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
    90 Park Avenue New York, NY 10016
    Phone: (212) 687-4470
    Email: fellowships@gf.org
    Website: www.gf.org/applicants/the-united-states-canadian-competition/
National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation is now accepting applications for its Law & Social Sciences Program (LLS) to consider proposals that address social scientific studies of law and law-like systems of rules. The program is inherently interdisciplinary and multi-methodological. Successful proposals describe research that advances scientific theory and understanding of the connections between law or legal processes and human behavior. Social scientific studies of law often approach law as dynamic, made in multiple arenas, with the participation of multiple actors. Fields of study include many disciplines, and often address problems, including though not limited to crime, violence and punishment, economic issues, governance, legal decision-making, legal mobilization and conceptions of justice and litigation and the legal profession.
  • Eligibility: Varies by the mode of support:
    • Standard research grants and grants for collaborative research: no limitations.
    • Interdisciplinary postdoctoral fellowships: U.S. academic institutions.
    • Doctoral dissertation research improvement grants: U.S. academic institutions.
    • Conference and workshop support: no limitations.
  • Funding: $5,000,000 pending availability of funds
  • Deadline: August 1, 2014
  • Contact: Susan Sterett
    Phone: (703) 292-7267
    Email: ssterett@nsf.gov
    Marjorie Zatz
    Phone: (703) 292-7808
    Email: mzatz@nsf.gov
    Website: www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf12507
The Foundation Center The Foundation Center has scheduled the following free training classes. Grant writing Grant-seeking Basics: July 17 Attendees will learn how the Center’s resources help make them more effective grant seekers. For beginners, this introduction to the library provides instruction in foundation research and identification of potential funders. A tour of the library will follow. Introduction to Finding Funders: July 17, 31 This class provides a hands-on introduction on how to use the Center’s comprehensive online database – The Foundation Directory Online – to research and identify potential funders. The Foundation Directory Online contains over 100,000 profiles of grant-making institutions. How to Approach a Foundation: July 29 Attendees will learn how to initiate contact with potential donors, plan calls and meetings, and build partnerships with sponsors. This class is intended for fundraisers who have some experience but are not experts. In addition: Classes are held at The Foundation Center, located at:
New York Library
79 Fifth Ave. 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10003 Space is limited, so register as soon as possible. For additional training opportunities, to register, or for more information, call 212-620-4230 or visit www.foundationcenter.org.