The Montgomery County Government and the Chesapeake Bay Trust (the Trust) announce a grant program to support watershed restoration and outreach projects and programs throughout Montgomery County.
Donor Name: Chesapeake Bay Trust
State: Maryland
County: Montgomery County (MD)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 11/17/2022
Grant Size: $1.45 million
Grant Duration: 18 months
Details
The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has the responsibility to meet regulatory watershed restoration and water quality improvement goals. The DEP will focus on funding projects that increase public engagement and advocate stewardship activities that reduce pollutants through community-based restoration and outreach projects that will ultimately change behaviors with intentional programming using social science best practices.
This program seeks projects that will:
- Assist non-profit organizations such as watershed organizations, faith-based organizations, or civic organizations to significantly engage residents in achieving water quality improvement through increased awareness and quantifiable behavior change;
- Demonstrate runoff reduction and local water quality improvement on property owned by non-profit organizations such as faith-based organizations, community associations, community pools, private schools, or other types of non-profit entities;
- Reduce litter in the Anacostia River Watershed through litter reduction-focused stewardship programs; and/or
- Increase and restore the tree canopy to achieve enhanced water quality and multiple co-benefits such as reductions in peak runoff, improved air quality, increased shade from tree canopy, greater biological diversity, and mitigation of some of the effects of climate change.
Funding Information
- The funding partners anticipate $1.45 million available to support projects in FY 23 (this grant round). The funds will be allocated to the projects as follows:
- Requests will generally not exceed $40,000 for knowledge change and $60,000 for behavior change efforts as part of the Public Outreach and Stewardship (Type 1) projects, $100,000 for Community Based
- Restoration Implementation (Type 2) projects, $100,000 for Tree Planting and Reforestation projects (Type 3), and $50,000 for Litter Reduction Projects in the Anacostia River Watershed (Type 4) projects.
- Requests may exceed these levels with additional justification and prior approval by the Trust. Federal funds will support tree planting projects at approximately $400,000 and green infrastructure implementation (Type 2 – Community Based Restoration Implementation and Type 3 – Tree Planting and Reforestation) at approximately $400,000.
- Project Timeline: Projects must be completed within 18 months upon receipt of the award. Requests to extend project completion period will be reviewed and considered on a case-by-case basis.
Eligible Projects
The Clean Water Montgomery Grant Program supports requests for funding of the following project types in this Request for Proposals (RFP):
- Public Outreach and Stewardship
- Community Based Restoration Implementation
- Tree Planting and Reforestation
- Litter Reduction in the Anacostia River Watershed
Eligibility Criteria
Montgomery County and the Trust welcome requests from the following non-profit organizations, which may be non-profit organizations with 501(c)(3) or other status for non-profit organizations, e.g., homeowner associations (HOAs) with 501(c)(4) status:
- Watershed organizations
- Faith-based organizations
- Service, youth, and civic groups
- Community associations
- Private schools (public school sustainable efforts are supported through the School Energy and
- Recycling Team Program;
For tree planting projects, applicants can be categorized as:
- Non-profit organizations planting trees on their own property
- Non-profit organizations planting trees on property that is not their own
- Tree planting/reforestation projects can occur on sites including, but not limited to:
- Community grounds – common ownership on HOAs, apartment or multi-family buildings, community pools
Institutional Grounds, such as, but not limited to, faith, education, or health institutions
For more information, visit Chesapeake Bay Trust.