Technical Assistance for Federal Cost-Sharing Program
The TAFC Program is accepting grant applications beginning Wednesday, August 6. Before submitting your application, please contact Michael Regan (michael.regan@stateco.us) to schedule a brief meeting to discuss your project and its fit with the TAFC program.
The Technical Assistance for Federal Cost-Sharing Program (TAFC) helps Colorado water users secure and use federal money for water projects. The TAFC Program's main purpose is to provide technical and administrative support to organizations applying for federal funding. This program is especially helpful for water users who struggle to access federal funds due to limited staff or technical resources.
The TAFC Program offers grants directly to water users. These grants can be used to hire consultants or get other necessary resources to create strong applications for federal funding. All projects funded by TAFC must align with the Colorado Water Plan and can include projects involving aging infrastructure. TAFC grants cannot be used for treated water projects or wastewater projects.
The CWCB has $500,000 available for projects across Colorado. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.
Grant funding can be used for tasks such as:
- Preliminary project planning, design, and engineering
- Preliminary permitting
- Developing estimated project costs
- Understanding available federal funding opportunities
- Grant writing
- Submitting federal grant applications
Important: Every TAFC grant application must include preparing and submitting at least one federal grant application as a specific task within the project's plan and budget.
More Information
- Governmental entities: This includes cities, districts, enterprises, and counties. Colorado state agencies generally cannot apply, though program staff can make exceptions in some cases.
- Covered Entities: As defined in Section 37-60-126, C.R.S., these entities are eligible if they have an approved water conservation plan.
- Private entities: This includes mutual ditch companies, non-profit organizations, and partnerships.
- Project development: This includes site assessments, data collection for project design, working with other interested parties, permitting, design help, cost estimates, securing matching funds, and other technical work needed for a federal funding application.
- Grant writing: This covers researching federal grant opportunities, contacting funding programs before applying, reviewing federal rules and application requirements, and creating the application and required documents like support letters.
- Before applying, review the Program Guidelines. Please contact Michael Regan at CWCB (michael.regan@state.co.us) to discuss your project ideas.
- If you haven't applied for a CWCB grant before, you'll need complete the CWCB Portal Registration first. Be aware that registration can take 1-2 days, and you'll get an email once it's approved.
- Applications are submitted through the CWCB Portal.
- All TAFC grant applications must include a Statement of Work, a Budget, and a project schedule.
- To receive TAFC grants, you'll need either a federal System for Award Management (SAM) account or a Unique Entity ID (UEI). This helps CWCB confirm you're eligible to receive federal funds.
For questions about the CWCB Portal, you can watch the Portal Application How-To Video
The Statement of Work and Budget must be completed outside of the grant portal and uploaded to your application. You can download templates here: