CAPACITY TO COMPETE:
A grants playbook for local governments in the Hudson Valley

In recent years, municipal leaders throughout the Hudson Valley agree that there has been a noticeable increase in grant funding awarded through a competitive process from New York State and the federal government instead of formulaic funding disbursement. The increase in competitive grant funding poses an issue. Local governments must now dedicate more time and resources to pursuing grant funds, some of  which were previously available through formula funding or direct government appropriations. Small and mid-sized municipalities throughout the country, and specifically in the Hudson Valley, struggle due to limited staff who have many responsibilities, stretched bandwidth, and may lack necessary grant writing expertise.

This report investigates how small and mid-sized municipalities in the Hudson Valley can better access competitive state and federal grant funding.

While pursuing competitive grants might be worthwhile, municipalities struggle to navigate the complicated process. To help them, we have developed a TOOLKIT.

The SCORECARD was created to help communities self-assess their current grant operations. This scorecard is not meant to critique communities – particularly those with fewer resources – but to help municipalities assess where their current practices stand and how they can improve. Communities looking to improve their grants program should focus on their lowest-scoring stage first.

The CHECKLIST was devised as a tool for municipalities to aid them in obtaining competitive state and federal funding. The steps are in relative chronological order and divided into the four stages of the grant process. Work through each step on this checklist as you consider accessing more competitive grant funding. While this checklist may not be fully exhaustive, it represents the steps we heard repeatedly from towns both succeeding and addressing gaps in their approach to grants.

The NYS and FEDERAL RESOURCES highlight several resources we learned about that could be used or replicated at a regional or state level.

The RECOMMENDATIONS and KEY TAKEAWAYS  offer a snapshot of the research.