If you have Policy Questions regarding the following programs please ask them here:
1. Clean Water Fund - 2. Cooperative Weed Management - 3. Native Buffer cost Share - 4.Conservation Drainage Management
(click on the title above and ask your questions in a "comment")
This blog provides a community forum where information about the BWSR competitive grant program can be shared, questions can be answered and potential issues identified early. The intent of this blog is to ensure that answers to questions about program policies and procedures are answered and distributed as widely as possible, not to develop specific grant applications.
BWSR will be distilling the questions from the Grant Outreach sessions and the discussions below and maintaining a master list of QUESTIONS & ANSWERS. (please read these Questions and Answers to see if an answer to your question has already been provided.)
Your questions will be answered and posted within 24-hours. The deadline to submit any questions is 4:30 p.m. on Friday, November 19, 2009
(You will have to create an account on this site and log in, in order to post comments.)
(please provide the name and/or type of your organization when submitting questions)
Question regarding Clean Water Legacy funding received in the past 3 years on page 2 of the comprehensive application: Does this include funds received in subrecipient agreements with the Technical Support JPB which was the grant applicant? The funds were passed through to our SWCD, and our local board authorized the use of these funds through an agreement with the JPB. Staff hired with the funds are considered employees of the SWCD not the JPB.
ReplyDeletethanks!
Donna,
ReplyDeleteOnly the original grant recipient (in this case the technical support JPB) who has a signed grant agreement with BWSR will need to report the use of past Clean Water Legacy grants under the “Past Performance” tab of the outcomes and budget spreadsheet. Sub-recipients are not required to report past performance on BWSR grants.
Thanks,
Matt Drewitz, BWSR
We are filling out the SSTS Program Project worksheet in Excel. We are unable to insert additional rows. We have over a dozen lakes that need to be listed. Is it okay to only name the watershed district on the spreadsheet and then list all of the lakes in the project narrative, or does BWSR/MPCA want to see the list of lakes on the worksheet?
ReplyDeleteMultiple lakes can be grouped by some method such as township, watershed or lake chain in the spreadsheet and additional detail can be provided in the narrative portion of the application.
ReplyDeleteIf the County will use grant money to contract with a compliance inspector to conduct compliance inspections, are we allowed to use Fair Market Value of the compliance inspection as a match? That is, the money that the homeowner would have to spend to hire the compliance inspector themselves, can we use that as a match?
ReplyDeleteIf an SWCD is planning on applying for a Native Buffer Cost Share Grant and a CWF Competitive Grant, should they be combined on the same application? Do they have to be combined?
ReplyDeleteIs the narrative document for one application or one for each project in the application? I am including a project for a city in our application.
ReplyDeleteWe are seeking funds for feedlot bmps and would welcome funding from any source (CWF Grant or Outcomes). Can we submit one application and include the necessary information in the required tab for each funding source or do we have to submit two seperate applications for the same project?
ReplyDeleteIs the native buffer grant considered a clean water legacy grant for the purpose of "past performace" worksheet?
ReplyDeleteResponse to Chris LeClair question of October 30:
ReplyDeleteLocal funds, including landowner funds, may be used as match for state grant funds. Therefore, it could be considered and used as match when a homeowner pays for an inspection that is required to complete a project. However, if the state grant funds are being used to contract with a compliance inspector, the avoided cost of the homeowner cannot be used as match, as the inspections are being paid for with state funds.
Response to Mark Basiletti question of November 9:
ReplyDeleteIt is not necessary to combine these grant requests on the same application, however it is recommended that applications that may be eligible for all competitive funds be combined on one application.
Response to Lklement's question on November 16th:
ReplyDeleteIn a single application, there should be one narrative for each application to a specific program.
For example, if an applicant applied for a general Clean Water Fund grant and also for an SSTS grant, there would be a narrative associated with each of those two grant programs.
If an applicant just applied for a general Clean Water Fund Grant, there would be one narrative associated with that grant program. If within that application there were multiple projects, those projects would be summarized within that single narrative. Applicants may choose to send in more than one application to the general Clean Water Fund Grant if the applicant has projects that are very different in nature, scope, and project outcomes.
Response to Greg's question on November 16th:
ReplyDeleteAn applicant may apply for the feedlot BMPs though the Clean Water Fund and the BWSR Feedlot Water Quality Management Grants. BWSR will only fund a specific project from one of those funding sources.
Response to Gina's question on November 17th:
ReplyDeleteNo, the Native Buffer Grant is a general fund, BWSR State Cost Share Program Grant, and is not considered Clean Water Legacy. Therefore, Native Buffer Cost Share expenditures do not need to be reported under past performance.
The narrative instructions say to keep it to 3 pages. Mine is 5 pages but this is because all of the answer blocks after the "Describe the coordination..." question are coming out triple or quadruple spaced. I was unable to change the formatting. Can this be fixed?
ReplyDeleteAre letters of support from project partners required or recommended as part of the application?
ReplyDeleteResponse to Mark's question on Nov. 18th:
ReplyDeleteIf you have a computer that has an older version of Microsoft Office, you may have issues with opening the application materials that are in Microsoft Office 2007 format. Please contact Matt Drewitz at matt.drewitz@state.mn.us with questions you have. BWSR can send you a copy of the files in the 1997-2003 Microsoft Office format.
Response to ttbeaster's question on November 23:
ReplyDeleteA. Letters of support are not required. However, letters of support may be attached to the email to which the application has been submitted. Support from other organizations can also be documented in the narrative portion of the application.
Grant Applications require time and a willingness to provide concise and reasoned answers. Furthermore, they require strong expository techniques.
ReplyDeleteGrant Applications