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Environmental Justice Grant Information for Applicants

Purpose

The Department of Environmental Conservation ("DEC") will use Environmental Justice Community Impact Grants ("EJ Grants") to provide State assistance funding to community groups for projects that address exposure of communities to multiple environmental harms and risks ("Projects").

What type of Projects will be eligible for funding?

An eligible Project must address exposure of communities to multiple environmental harms and risks. The community impacted by the multiple environmental harms and risks that are the focus of the Project will be referred to in the application instructions as the affected community. An eligible Project must be located within the community served by the applicant organization. Each Project must include research that will be used to expand the knowledge or understanding of the affected community.

Eligible Projects may include:

  • An inventory of environmental harms and risks in the community, such as: inventory of industrial, municipal, or commercial facilities in the community, identification of related environmental or public harms and risks, and development of a community education program to address some or all of the harms and risks;
  • Mobile source emission tracking and monitoring (traffic counts, heavy duty vehicle idling counts), and development of a program to address some or all of the harms and risks;
  • Assessment of mercury contamination in schools, removal and disposal of mercury;
  • Demonstration Projects, e.g., green rooftops, urban tree planting and alternative energy Projects. The data from such demonstration Projects must be used to expand the community's knowledge and understanding of how such Projects may mitigate exposure to environmental impacts;
  • Projects to identify and reduce harms and risks to subsistence fishing populations that use waters restricted for fish consumption, i.e. research habits of fishing populations, develop means to provide safe fishing access to such populations;
  • Projects to identify industrial, commercial, or municipal processes that result in pollution which impacts the community, research these processes that result in pollution which impacts the community, research these processes, and study and develop potential methods to reduce such exposure;
  • Projects to identify lead hazards for children and pregnant women, prevent lead related housing risks, and/or promote lead safe work practices by homeowners and contractors involved in residential renovation and remodeling;
  • Projects to identify sources of household hazardous waste within the affected community, identify local hazardous waste facilities, educate community residents on proper disposal and alternative non hazardous products such as green cleaning products, and encourage use of alternative non hazardous products;
  • An inventory of open space in the affected community and construction of community gardens to demonstrate beneficial use of that open space;
  • Projects that encourage a connection to nature and the urban environment for inner-city students, develop hands-on stewardship projects for students to help then understand natural processes, and inventory community environmental harms and risks.

What is the application deadline?

Applications must be postmarked or hand delivered no later than 5:00 PM, Wednesday, April 23, 2008. Applications received by DEC after the deadline will not be considered for funding.

Who may apply?

Each eligible applicant must satisfy all of the following criteria:

  1. Be a community group or a partnership of multiple community groups that: (1) focuses primarily on addressing the environmental and/or public health problems of the residents of the affected community, (2) is located in the affected community, and (3) has greater than fifty (50) percent of its members living in the affected community. A community group is defined as an organization that serves the human residents of an area equal to or smaller than a town or one of the five boroughs of New York City; and
  2. Be a Not-For-Profit Corporation having 501 (c) (3) tax exempt status (NFP) or a partner with a NFP that will serve as a greater financial agent for the applicant. A financial agent is a NFP which uses its 501 (c) (3) tax exempt status to assure the validity of the applicant. The NFP serving as the financial agent remains eligible to apply for EJ Grant funds individually; and
  3. Declare that it has not caused or contributed to the harms or risks that are to be the subject of the Project.

Who may not apply?

Entities that are not eligible to receive funds under this Grant program are: individuals; universities; government bodies; water districts or similar entities; large non-governmental organizations such as county, state or national environmental groups; or organizations that are not located in the affected communities where the Projects are located. However, there are two ways that an ineligible organization can be involved in a Project that receives funding through an EJ Grant: (1) if the organization is not-for-profit, the organization can act as a fiscal agent for an eligible applicant that has not yet received not-for-profit status; or (2) the organization can be a Project partner or subcontractor for an eligible applicant that receives an EJ Grant.

Are matching funds required?

No, matching funds are not required.

What are "multiple harms and risks" to a community?

"Multiple harms and risks" can occur in several ways: (1) multiple sources of environmental harms or risks to the community (e.g. contaminated abandoned properties); (2) multiple sources of a single environmental harm or risk (e.g. asthma); (3) multiple environmental or health impacts or risks from a single source of environmental harm (e.g. air and/or water contamination from a single source); or other possibilities. If you are unsure whether the situation in your community can be categorized as multiple harms and risks, please call the Office of Environmental Justice at 1-866-229-0497 or 518-402-8556.

Can funds allocated through the Environmental Justice Community Impact Grant Program be combined with other funds to pay for larger Projects?

Yes. So long as all other EJ Grant Program requirements are met, funds allocated through the EJ Grant Program can be combined with other funds to pay for larger Projects. If this is the case, the applicant must provide a brief description of the larger Project, identify other available funding source(s), indicate why additional funding is needed for the Project, and describe and identify how funds from the EJ Grant Program will be used as part of the larger Project.

How much funding is available for these Grants?

There is currently a total of $1.2 million available for this Grant cycle. The DEC Office of Environmental Justice may award up to $50,000 to ten (10) EJ Grant recipients and up to $25,000 to an additional twenty-eight (28) EJ Grant recipients in this Grant cycle. If fewer than ten applications are received for $50,000 EJ Grants, additional EJ Grants for smaller amounts may be awarded.

Is there a minimum or maximum Grant amount?

Individual EJ Grants will not be awarded for less than the minimum amount of $2,500 or exceed the maximum amount of $50,000. DEC reserves the right to award less funding than requested in the EJ Grant application, based on the scope of work being proposed in the application, and based on eligible expenses described in Attachment C, Budget Summary Form.

What type of costs are eligible for funding?

Proposed Projects must be cost-effective. Cost effectiveness will be given priority in the review and selection of all Projects. The following costs are eligible for funding under the Environmental Justice Community Impact Grant Program:

  1. Costs for professional services directly related to the implementation of the Project, including related consultant and legal services (also see Ineligible Costs);
  2. Costs for paid staff time (plus fringe benefits) and travel expenses for work done exclusively for the Project. Fringe benefits are limited to 15% of the staff salary paid in the EJ Grant award;
  3. Costs for special equipment (purchase or rental), supplies, and materials required to execute the Project;
  4. Costs associated with communication directly related to the Project, including costs directly related to informing the community about the Project such as telephone services, telegrams, postage, messenger, electronic or computer transmittal services and the like;
  5. Costs associated with securing NFP tax exempt status up to $1,000;
  6. Costs for training required to implement the Project;
  7. Costs for purchase, upgrade and maintenance of computer hardware and software required to implement the Project; and
  8. Other reasonable costs, such as notarization fees, costs for paperwork and reporting, etc., directly related to implementation of the Project.

All eligible costs for which the Applicant is seeking funding under this Grant program must be described in Attachment C, Budget Summary Form, in these application instructions. Applications that do not provide sufficient information to determine whether costs are eligible for funding will lose points in the EJ Grant application evaluation process and may result in a smaller Grant award or denial of funding. Note that any equipment, furniture, supplies or other property purchased with funds provided by this Grant program cannot be sold, transferred or used for other purposes without written approval by DEC.

Ineligible Costs

The following costs are not eligible for reimbursement under this Grant program:

  1. Costs defrayed by other outside funding;
  2. Indirect (personal service-related) costs unrelated to the proposed Project such as general maintenance and operation expenses, general office and administrative expenses, or general overhead;
  3. Costs of preparing the EJ Grant application;
  4. Costs relating to the Project that were incurred prior to April 1, 2007;
  5. Costs, including legal costs, related to the commencement of, or participation in, any action before a municipal, state or federal court or other agency; and
  6. Costs for the general operation of the applicant organization, including personnel, building rent and utilities, and office supplies, unless those costs are incurred solely for the benefit of the Project described in the EJ Grant application.

Is a letter of support required?

A letter of support is optional, but encouraged. Applications with a letter of support from a government body, educational institution, or other established entity supporting the applicant and the proposed Project will be awarded additional points in the EJ Grant application review and evaluation process.

What are the criteria for review and selection of these Projects?

Complete applications will be evaluated and scored in accordance with the general evaluation criteria contained in Supplement A of these application instructions. A review panel of DEC staff will evaluate and score all eligible Projects. The total maximum score an application may receive is 100 points. In an effort to equitably distribute available funding across the State, and in the best interest of the State, DEC reserves the right to determine the best selection of applications for Project funding in one of the following two ways after all of the applications are received:

  1. The reviewer scores will be averaged for each application to determine the total and final score. Applicant final scores will be ranked and placed on a statewide list from highest to lowest scores. Applicants having the highest total scores will be awarded State Assistance Grants until funding is exhausted, regardless of the geographic location of an applicant. Applications that score below 65 will not be considered for funding. OR
  2. The reviewer scores will be averaged for each application to determine the total and final score. Applicant final scores will be ranked and placed on one of nine DEC regional lists (see page 4) from highest to lowest scores. The nine DEC regional lists will correspond with the geographic locations of the applicants. The top two highest ranked Projects on each DEC regional list will be funded (regions without eligible applications will not be considered for awards). If any funds remain, a statewide list will be created from all of the remaining Projects regardless of their geographic location. The statewide list will be ranked from highest to lowest score. Applicants having the highest total scores will be awarded a State Assistance Grant until funding is exhausted. Applications that score below 65 will be not considered for funding.

DEC reserves the right to determine the amount of state assistance to award an EJ Grant Project, or to award only a portion of the total available EJ Grant funds, if it is in the best interest of the State to do so.

When can I start work?

Work may begin once the applicant is officially notified in writing by DEC of an EJ Grant award. However, no advance payments will be provided until a State Assistance Contract for the Grant award is approved by DEC. The process of signing and executing the State Assistance Contract and processing the first payment takes approximately three to four months. The EJ Grant recipient must plan for this time when scheduling Project expenses. The DEC expects that a funded Project will be completed within a three year contract term.

When are the EJ Grant monies available?

This is a scheduled payment grant program. Funding will be paid to the Not-for-Profit Corporation in increments as follows: the first payment in the amount of 30% of the Grant award; the second payment in the amount of 30% of the Grant award; the third payment in the amount of 30% of the Grant award, and the final payment in the amount of 10% of the Grant award, for a total award payment of 100%.

The first payment in the amount of 30% of the Grant award will be advanced once a State Assistance Contract is approved by DEC. The second payment in the amount of 30% of the Grant award will be advanced once the initial payment is exhausted and upon submission by the grantee of a concise report detailing: the work done to date; an accounting of all eligible expenditures relating to the first payment in its entirety; and an outline of the work to be completed with the second payment. The third payment in the amount of 30% of the Grant award will be advanced once the second payment is exhausted and upon submission by the grantee of a concise report detailing: the work done to date; an accounting of all eligible expenditures relating to the second payment in its entirety; and an outline of the work to be completed with the third payment. The final payment in the amount of 10% of the Grant award will be reimbursed to the grantee once the Project has been successfully completed in accordance with the scope of work and budget identified in the grantee's executed contract. Costs up to $1,000 associated with an applicant securing Not-For-Profit tax exempt status are not eligible for advance funding, but will be reimbursed upon submission of documentation verifying the expense and proof that NFP tax exempt status has been attained.

What assistance is available for preparing the EJ Grant applications?

For information related to the process by which an applicant can apply for the Environmental Justice Community Impact Grant Program, contact the DEC staff members listed below. Additional information regarding this Grant application material and frequently asked questions and answers will be posted on the DEC web site as they occur. The final posting of this information will be on April 16, 2008.

Douglas E. Morrison, Environmental Program Specialist
Office of Environmental Justice
NYSDEC
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233-1500
Toll Free: 1-866-229-0497
Telephone: 518-402-8556
ej@gw.dec.state.ny.us