Urban Agriculture Resilience Program Q&A

The USBG and Association will hold an informational webinar on September 29, 2023. This webinar was recorded and is available here. The slides for the presentation are available here.

If you have additional questions that are not answered here, please email bneese@publicgardens.org

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General
The end date is the same as the report date and is Feb. 1, 2025.

This is a competitive award. Typically around one third of applicants have been awarded.

We do not currently have information to share about future Urban Agriculture Resilience Program Award opportunities. It is our hope to be able to offer future opportunities.

Eligibility
Previously-awarded projects that are incorporating significant new components, and those that have applied but have not been awarded may apply.

Organizations currently participating in the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program Capstone Cohort are not eligible to apply.

Partners may include nonprofit organizations, local government entities (e.g., parks and recreation departments, housing authorities), small businesses, other public gardens, educational institutions, or other qualified organizations.

While we are not giving individual application advice, all eligibility requirements are included in this criteria document.

All applications require a partnership between at least two entities, one of which must be a public garden. If your organization does not meet the definition of public garden, you can still apply to the program if one of your partner organizations does meet the definition of public garden. Additionally, the primary awardee organization must be either a U.S. public garden or an incorporated nonprofit organization with an Employer Identification Number recognized by the IRS capable of generating a W-9 Form to receive payment.

No, all public gardens, as long as they meet all criteria, are eligible.

All eligible applicants must be a U.S. public garden.

Application

Receiving a previous Urban Agriculture Resilience Program award does not make your application more or less competitive. If you are currently participating in the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program Capstone Cohort, your organization is not eligible to apply.

The most important things we will initially be considering for incoming applications are all listed in the criteria document. How you budget to use funds, outside of the specified restrictions, doesn’t play a role in the decision.

No, you will not upload photos with your application. Upon selection, we will request photos from awardees to use in program communications upon.

Education

We are open to a wide range of education formats and methods. Reviewing our priorities for the awards, on the first and second pages of the criteria document, may be helpful to you.

This depends on the content you plan to post. Social media posts about your program and do not involve your audience would not be considered educational. Something like a YouTube educational class/livestream or Facebook live educational event can qualify.

Funding and Budgeting

There are a few restrictions, they are all listed in the budget form document. Fringe benefits are not to exceed 15% of the proposed budget. Indirect costs are not to exceed 5% of the budget.

The award can be used to pay staff, including interns.

All awards will be between $5,000 and $20,000. Your application and budget should reflect your specific request.

We don’t fund partial awards. We are focused mostly on the partnership and outcomes of the work you are doing, in application review. The budget supports how you are planning to spend the funds and in your application you should describe how the funds support the program priorities. If the overall budget of the project you are planning exceeds $20,000 you are welcome to apply for an award of $20,000 to cover part of your project’s needs.

Reporting

We plan to send the reporting requirements directly to awardees after they are notified that they have been awarded. This will happen very early on to let awardees know exactly what things they may need to track or monitor throughout their program participation.