Abstract

Federal funding can help local governments realize their most ambitious sustainability goals. This document aims to support local governments and cities in the United States with their process of conceiving, partnering, and applying for federal funding.

This resource is based on interviews with local governments that have previously applied to federal funding opportunities, organizations that have supported local governments in their applications, and federal funding program managers, and more. The resource compiles stories, best practices, lessons learned, and helpful resources to support local governments in securing federal investments in their local sustainability and climate projects.

The guide is arranged as a series of steps in the federal funding application journey. In each of the six steps, you will learn the factors that constitute an ideal process and read stories from local governments – excerpts from our interviews that illuminate the challenges they experienced and the lessons they learned. Each chapter concludes with resources that helped local governments during that part of the process. 

The six key steps and related ‘lessons learned’ from local governments with federal funding experience include:

1. Project ideation
2. Strategic partnerships
3. Project prioritization
4. Project framework
5. Selecting federal funding opportunities
6. Proposal preparation