Resource Information

NOAA (through OCM) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation jointly manage a competitive grant program that funds projects to restore, increase, and strengthen natural infrastructure-the landscapes that help absorb the impacts of storms and floods — to ultimately protect coastal communities from storm and flooding impacts and enhance fish and wildlife habitat. In 2020, program will support four categories of activities through the same funding opportunity: 1) Community Capacity Building and Planning: Supports communities in vital first step in moving forward with community resilience initiatives, supporting community stakeholder engagement, planning, and prioritization. Plans should identify specific efforts that, when implemented, will meet community needs to increase resilience and reduce risks from coastal storms and flooding. 2) Project Site Assessment and Preliminary Design: Supports completion of site assessments and preliminary designs of best options to address restoration and community resilience goals. Projects under this phase will have previously identified and prioritized a community for which increased resilience and risk reduction is the goal, but for which a site or sites are still under consideration to determine the most appropriate site and project to achieve resilience goals 3) Project Final Design and Permitting: Supports final project design and permitting for on-the-ground projects. Funding may be used to support preparation of conceptual designs, engineering plans, continued and expanded stakeholder engagement efforts, detailed cost estimates, robust communications with permitting officials at various levels of government, and other related tasks to position projects for restoration-ready implementation 4) Restoration and Monitoring: Projects proposed are expected to have already been prioritized through planning processes that address coastal resilience, completed all design and engineering plans necessary for implementation, and readiness to secure all permits and other approvals necessary for implementation. Grants for larger, more comprehensive projects that are designed for greater impact – versus a ‘demonstration’ or ‘pilot’ scale project - are likely to be more competitive.

• Program availability is dependent on annual appropriations.
• One year or multi-year awards up to three years.
• New project category in 2020: Community Capacity Building and Planning
• Will award approximately $31,000,000 in grants in 2020. Most project awards will average between $125,000 and $5,000,000. Community capacity building, site assessment, and preliminary design projects: average $125,000 - $250,000; final design and permitting projects: average $250,000; implementation of restoration and monitoring projects: average $1,000,000- $5,000,000.
• Minimum 1:1 federal to non-federal match of cash or in-kind services is expected and strongly encouraged