Federal grant programs / Environmental Protection Agency

Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program (EJ TCGM) (66.615)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$660 million
• Grant awards20
• Typical award$36.5 million
• Awarded in FY 2025$478 million
• Size rank312 of 1,823
• Type of assistanceCooperative agreement

Key findings

• It is the 312th largest of 1,823 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 10 largest recipients received 100% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 9 states and territories.

What the program funds

This program has been terminated. The goals of this program are to make awards for the design and management of a new Environmental Justice (EJ) competitive pass-through program where EPA will competitively select pass-through entities to provide grant funds via subawards to community-based nonprofit organizations, underserved and disadvantaged communities, and other EJ community stakeholders. Per the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR200.74), a pass-through entity is defined as a non-Federal entity that provides a subaward to a subrecipient to carry out part of a federal program. Under this program, EPA plans to award 5 - 11 cooperative agreements in FY 23 to pass-through entities (referred to as Grantmakers by the program) who will collaborate with EPA to design and build their own processes to receive and evaluate competitive community project applications from communities and community stakeholders addressing local environmental and/or public health issues impacting underserved and disadvantaged communities. The Grantmaking program strives to increase the access Eligible Subrecipients have to funding, as well as reduce the burden of the federal grants application process on underserved and disadvantaged communities. As a result, community-based nonprofit organizations and other EJ stakeholders will be better positioned to advance and address EJ issues nationwide. This will lead to progress towards achieving the objectives of Executive Order 13985, "Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government," and Executive Order 14008, "Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis,", as well as the Justice40 Initiative.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

The entities eligible to apply under this assistance listing to serve as a Grantmaker are as follows: • a community-based nonprofit organization* or • a partnership of community-based nonprofit organizations* or a partnership between*— an Indian tribe and a community-based nonprofit organization • a partnership between*— an institution of higher education and a community-based nonprofit organization. Consistent with the definition of Nonprofit organization at 2 CFR 200.1, the term “nonprofit organization means any corporation, trust, association, cooperative, or other organization that is operated mainly for scientific, educational, service, charitable, or similar purpose in the public interest and is not organized primarily for profit; and uses net proceeds to maintain, improve, or expand the operation of the organization. Note that 2 CFR 200.1 specifically excludes Institutions of Higher Education from the definition of non-profit organization because they are separately defined in the regulation. While not considered to be a nonprofit organization(s) as defined by 2 CFR 200.1, public or nonprofit Institutions of Higher Education are, nevertheless, eligible to submit applications under this assistance listing. For-profit colleges, universities, trade schools, and hospitals are ineligible. Eligible nonprofit organizations may, but are not required to be, exempt from taxation under section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Continue reading on SAM.gov

What the money can and cannot pay for

Grants and cooperative agreements are available to support recipients' allowable direct costs incident to approved cooperative agreements plus allowable indirect costs, in accordance with established EPA policies and regulations. Generally, this program makes Federal awards on a discretionary basis. A discretionary award means an award in which the Federal awarding agency, in keeping with specific statutory authority that enables the agency to exercise judgement (“discretion”), selects the recipient and/or the amount of Federal funding awarded through a competitive process or based on merit of proposals. A discretionary award may be selected on a non-competitive basis, as appropriate. For further information, please contact the Headquarters or regional office.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

For competitive awards, deadlines will be specified in the NOFO.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

Total funding available in FY 23 is expected to be up to approximately $550 million in Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding. This funding will be provided through 5 – 11 incrementally funded cooperative agreement awards with periods of performance of three years with total funding of approximately $50 million per award (for a single geographic area).

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

Nonprofits received 82% of the money, colleges and universities 18%.

By state

Each state below has its own page for this program, with its recipients and yearly totals.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.