The Federal Technical Assistance Grant Program provides grants to eligible entities to assist with capacity and resources in pursuit of federal funding opportunities that directly support the Colorado Water Plan objectives. This program is designed to help grantees identify, initiate, and improve projects in their jurisdiction, resulting in highly competitive federal aid applications. The allowable uses of this grant funding are broad in scope, to allow for the wide range of federal opportunities available. Funding can be used for: preliminary project planning and design, preliminary permitting, development of estimated project costs, navigation of available federal opportunities, grant writing, and federal grant application submission. The ultimate goal of the program, and a required element of every funded project, is the submission of one or more applications seeking federal funding for further project work.
There are two types of grants available through the Federal Technical Assistance Grant Program:
- Local Capacity Grants: These are direct awards to grantees to secure the resources they need (contractors or otherwise) to develop projects and submit competitive federal grant applications.
- Technical Assistance Grants: These are awards to grantees who want to utilize a contractor hired by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. This contractor can provide a wide variety of water project services, including researching federal grant opportunities, project design, partial engineering, cost estimation, and federal application development/grant writing.
A total of $5.0 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding is available for grants. A minimum of 25 percent matching funds is required. For Local Capacity grants, up to half of this match can be in-kind work provided by the applicant. In-kind work is not allowed as a match for Technical Assistance grants. Grants will be awarded on a rolling basis through December 2024; grant funds must be fully expended by December 2026.
For a list of potential federal grant opportunities, visit the Water Funding Opportunity Navigator.
Please note: A federal System for Award Management (SAM) account and/or Unique Entity ID (UEI) are required to receive ARPA funding. Additionally, your SAM or UEI account must be set to Public to allow CWCB to confirm that your agency is eligible to receive federal funds. Some federal grant applicants have reported times of up to 2-3 months to complete registration with the federal SAM.gov website. If your organization does not currently have a SAM or UEI account, consider beginning the registration process as soon as possible.
More Information
- Governmental entities – municipalities, districts, enterprises, counties, and State of Colorado agencies. Covered Entities as defined in Section 37-60-126, C.R.S., are eligible if the applicant has adopted an approved water conservation plan.
- Private entities - mutual ditch companies, non-profit corporations, and partnerships.
Funding can be used for:
- Project development - site assessments, data research and collection necessary for project design, coordination with stakeholders, permitting, design assistance, cost estimating, securing matching funds for the project, and other technical work required to develop an application for federal IIJA funding
- Grant writing - researching federal grant opportunities, outreach to funding programs prior to submitting an application, review of Federal guidelines and application requirements, and development of the application and required documents, including letters of support.
Prior to submitting an application, interested parties must contact Michael Regan (michael.regan@state.co.us) with CWCB to discuss potential projects.
Application forms are available on the CWCB Portal.
If you have not applied for a CWCB grant in the past, please start with CWCB Portal Registration. Please note that confirmation of registration may take 1-2 days and you will receive an email once your registration is approved.
All Local Capacity grant applications must include a statement of work, budget, and project schedule. Technical Assistance grant applications require a project concept/description, but do not require a budget; for projects that are approved, a budget will be developed as part of the project scoping and development project with CWCB’s selected contractor.
Local Capacity and Technical Assistance Grants - Budget & Schedule Template
Local Capacity and Technical Assistance Grants - Statement of Work Template
For further details and criteria, review the Grant Guidelines.
Questions? View our Portal application How To Video.
Point of Contact
Michael Regan
(303) 866-3441 x3214