Navigating the Changing Landscape of Grant Funding

### Navigating the Changing Landscape of Grant Funding

In the latest episode of "The Capstone Conversation," host Jared Asch engages with Kristen Cooper of Grants Management Associates to explore the ever-evolving landscape of grant funding. This discussion sheds light on the implications of new regulations, the strategic approaches necessary for securing grants, and the opportunities and challenges that organizations face in adapting to these changes.

#### Understanding the Impact of New Regulations

Kristen Cooper begins by explaining the structural shifts in grant funding due to the Trump administration's changes, specifically through the HB 1 rule and anticipated rewrites by the Office of Management and Budget. Significant revisions to the 2 CFR 200 — the uniform guidance considered the master rulebook for federal grants — have been proposed. These changes include mandatory pre-issuance reviews and conditions baked into award terms, reflecting a departure from previous guidelines. Kristen highlights the potential for legal challenges and the importance of understanding these dynamics to remain competitive in seeking funding.

#### The Shift to Shorter Timelines

One of the critical shifts in grant processes is the reduction in response timelines for proposals. Jared and Kristen discuss how applicants now face tighter deadlines, often just four weeks, substantially shorter than the previous six to eight weeks, which presents a challenge for building partnerships and crafting compelling applications. As a strategy, organizations are advised to prepare well in advance, enabling them to pivot quickly once funding opportunities emerge.

#### Strategic Insights for Securing Funding

Organizations, particularly municipalities and large-scale project entities, must now secure overt political support, as Kristen explains. This need arises due to a shift from equity-focused funding to a more substantial emphasis on job creation and workforce development. Entities are encouraged to align their projects strategically with these federal priorities to enhance their funding prospects.

#### Emerging Opportunities in Technology and Infrastructure

The conversation explores how projects related to infrastructure and technology — such as transit projects that open new corridors and promote job growth — are increasingly favored. Kristen emphasizes the importance of being proactive and ready with necessary partnerships, plans, and permit arrangements to secure funding efficiently.

#### The Role of Community Colleges and Nonprofits

Kristen further discusses the role community colleges and nonprofits can play in this evolving environment. She advocates for certifications and short-term program development in community colleges to better respond to rapidly changing industry demands. Meanwhile, nonprofits are encouraged to diversify their revenue streams and reduce reliance solely on state and federal funding.

#### Renewable Energy and Clean Technology Advancement

Jared and Kristen conclude by examining the renewable energy sector. Despite reductions in federal tax credits, California remains a strong proponent of clean technology, particularly in EV infrastructure and hydrogen energy projects. This ongoing support highlights ongoing opportunities for organizations in the clean energy space.

#### Final Thoughts

For more expert insights into grant funding and to explore opportunities that align with your organization's goals, connect with Kristen Cooper on LinkedIn. Her firm, Grants Management Associates, offers tailored funding notifications to help entities stay ahead in this competitive landscape.

Whether you're representing a city, nonprofit, or company, understanding these shifts and preparing strategically ensures you're not just competing for grants but succeeding in securing them. 

#Grants #Funding #GrantManagement #PublicPolicy #Nonprofits #MunicipalFunding #GovernmentGrants #FinancialAssistance #StrategicPlanning #WorkforceDevelopment #CommunityColleges #FederalFunding #LocalGovernment #PoliticalSupport #RuralDevelopment #CleanEnergy #InfrastructureGrants #EconomicDevelopment #EVCharging #PolicyChanges 

For the FULL TRANSCRIPT

 Welcome to The Capstone Conversation, the East Bay's best podcast hosted by Jared Asch, bringing you in-depth conversations with the leaders shaping your community  Today, we are gonna talk about the shifting landscape of grants, particularly those from state and local agencies, and how they work with their federal partners during the changes that all the Trump administration has made through the HB 1, the Big Beautiful Bill. This isn't about the politics of that bill. This is how does your city, your water district, your electric utility work and understand the new accountability process? This is also helpful for a lot of nonprofits, workforce agencies that also rely and partner on those grants. So today, I am joined by Kristen Cooper with Grants Management Associates, or GMA here in Northern California to talk about this. Thanks, Kristen. You're welcome And Kristen, give a little bit about your background, about yourself and your company, highlighting some of the expertise you've done in this space. Absolutely. Absolutely. and thank you, and thank you, Jared, for allowing me to be on the with you, and I webinar with you, and I appreciate the opportunity opportunity to share information because the landscape been has quite a changing quite a bit. will say I will say that, been in business I've been in business since two thousand 2009, and, and nine and, the for the majority of those years, this landscape was fairly predictable. in the And in the last two years, starting at the beginning of twenty twenty-five, things became less a lot less predictable. And only are not only are there changes in the the way that the funding has been out, pushed out, but there's also major changes the way that the funding currently is being currently managed, it's, so it's both pre- and post-award. have a firm, I have a firm. firm firm about 58 fifty-eight associates, we and we have, well amassed well over two point five billion dollars in funding for... well I think we're well over five hundred grants at this point. And And have we have touched on pretty much every space space within the federal and state grant-making organizations. We've we've gained a vast amount vast amount of experience and exposure to a variety of mechanisms mechanisms and tools that are deployed deployed. And 2.5 billion, that's not a shabby number. I say I've helped sell over a billion and a half to government, so I've gotta, I've gotta catch up to you. Talk about... you already highlighted it. Talk about what are a couple of the big things that you've seen change right now in that process, and what's going on? What's different? What do you want people as a high level to start understand? Yeah. Federally there's some Federally, there's some things that are going on that are definitely going to impact, have a major impact. a bit of a structural whiplash. a bit of of a structural whiplash. Not a blackout, but a whiplash. ones of the major ones is the OMB rewrite. it started it started in, end of at the end of May of this year, it's a and it's a wholesale overhaul 2 2 CFR 200, which is uniform guidance. And basically what that is, Jared, is the master rule book every for every federal grant, cooperative agreement, and financial assistance award. there are major are major changes to that rule book. would Key would be that agencies get explicit authority authority to terminate awards awards. no longer no longer advance the agency priorities That's a major That's a major change. The second the second mandatory is mandatory pre-issuance political appointee review of discretionary awards. awards. And the third one is neo routine 332 which means, which means, conditions are baked conditions are baked into the award terms. these are So these are all proposing proposing because they're currently not authorized yet. They're under review, and people have the ability to weigh in on conversation of how this is of how this is gonna roll out until July, I think, 13th. Been have been well over 30,000 comments submitted to date proposed these proposed changes, I have it and I have it on good authority changes changes pushed are pushed forward, they're likely to be in tied up in lawsuits for a long time, because there's a lot because there's a lot of concern about them. am So I am mentioning them I do because I do think it's important to understand just just how the changes changes that are being proposed by this administration, what the flavor is of those changes. kinda And we kinda saw this at the beginning of '25 when there when there was just a wholesale halt on all of halt on all of the government the government funding. And since that since that time, started to has started to roll out again, the but the is that most of the most of the funding that's being rolled out out coming out with short short deadlines. we would see we would see new funding coming out with six weeks, six weeks, we- weeks of leeway. now, we're Right now, we're looking week at four, and there's usually a national holiday involved. So So has runway has been very short. That's-- those are that's-- those are some of those we're changes that we're seeing. So I'll stop there, see if you have any questions about any of that 'cause I know lot of information. information. Yeah. So first on that shorter timeline, why are they, why have they shortened the timeline? That's... Usually that's a good thing in government, it speed things up. But in this case, it doesn't sound like that. So what has So what has shortened is the ability to to respond to an RFP, to a request for a proposal. the So the applicants have a have a much shorter much shorter time together together partnerships, r- pull to br- pull together resolutions, cost-benefit benefit analysis, studies, studies, market reports, plans, all the plans, all the things that go into the application components. Now they have Now they have four weeks. to eight Six to eight weeks was already difficult together pull together those types of relationships, of those types of documents. It's not saying It's not saying that the government is gonna push out the money in four weeks. Kinda unlikely Kinda unlikely. It's... So four weeks, yeah, I've put together those RFPs and things. I- I... So you really have to be prepared, it sounds i- if you're a local government agency of and maybe I refer to them as cities, but counties, any of these special districts, y- if you're know you're gonna be looking for something, you almost have to be ready in advance of it actually coming out. Exactly. Yeah. And so I would So I would say that one of the things as far as a strategic insight are are advising our clients, especially our most of our clients are on working on fairly significant sized projects. We work with, municipalities and organizations organizations that are maybe establishing new manufacturing plants or municipalities that are rolling out, large scale large scale like transportation projects. these, And these, types of these types of projects really now need support, support, which which in the past has been has been frowned upon because because the agencies have been careful careful have to have a, what I would consider, quote, "clean evaluation process" of of all of the all of the applications that have come in, and they don't want the visual visual of being influenced by political forces. we're But now we're seeing that projects really do need overt support support to Please note due to technical difficulties this is Kristin's words and image but not her voice. Her exact words without edit were dubbed by AI in order to improve the listening. Now back to the episode. In order to move forward And so if you're in Northern California, where at least most of this podcast audience is from, I know you work nationally, you-- there's only a few Republican members of the House not a lot of Republican political support in the Bay Area and you may even have less depending on where November goes with the new districts. How do you recommend entities, whether public or private, build that political support to this administration? So if So if the they're project that they're working on broader broader benefits outside of the outside of the state of California, a it's a manufacturing effort that is going to be beneficial, maybe let's say in semiconductor or critical minerals, producing producing Product that's product that's used data in the data center, that is where you're gonna gain that is where you're gonna gain some additional political support, right? Outside of the state of California With, that are entities that are gonna be benefiting from the production of those types of materials. within the if it's within the state of California, we're noticing that there's a pretty major pivot state of California the state of California funding for exactly that reason. Is-- Does that mean on a federal dollar basis, you're seeing more money returned to like Florida and Texas and Alabama than you are to a blue state? Not being political, but just talking about the dollars and cents of who's winning these grants. Yeah. So So been since... been since no there was no funding that went out in '25, And we're at, in the And we're in the first half of '26. hard to really hard to know because now the awards for the applications that were submitted at the beginning of '26 and maybe the end of '25 are just now getting funded. that type that type of litmus test is not really going to be very accurate probably for another or two quarter or two quarters to when we start to see more awards pushed out. And I have no And I have no doubt that there will be, analysis analysis some of those on some of those awards determination that determination So this comes up at, One of my volunteer hobbies is I sit on an advisory committee for Contra Costa Transit Authority, and it comes up in a lot of questions that some cities do better at receiving state and federal, even grants from MTC and transportation versus other cities. In your experience, why do some cities or agencies do better than others, other than hiring you at receiving these grants and going after them? So a lot So it a lot of times with it has to do with just purely where they reside, right? And historically, we had, influence big influence by Justice40 and community benefits, now has and that now has changed to a lot of, development, job development, job creation, And focus, and less on equity, right? in And so in the say past, I would say that the cities or counties that have outperformed others probably had a tie back to a disadvantaged community, and they can make and they could make that argument that the project that they're pursuing would be beneficial to that community or to those areas. Now, Now, has the pivot has been away from equity and really more focused on job creation, workforce development. So those same counties and cities need to may need to look at developing strategic relationships with colleges or colleges or universities- ... to, show show how the they're project that they're pursuing is going to be, beneficial on the helpful on the job creation side. That the... the, if it's a transit project, that the project is gonna open up, new key key avenues of corridors that have that have not been not been previously open and will lead to job creation opportunity or to, a greater, greater, to to the increase the number of, and companies and whatnot in the area that will take advantage of a better, a better, a route, a safer route the more E- easier e- easier to get to, areas. So those are kinds areas. So those are kinds of the pivots that we're pivot- pivots that we're looking at now. now. funding for the funding for the state of California right now is gonna be Prop 40, climate is that climate water bond. you have a I'm sure you have a lot interest in interest in that. There's there's definitely a lot of money there, and a lot of maneuvering that's going on with the p- funding, funding, funding. that's another And that's another one that we really advise our clients clients and our partners that are partners that are involved look look at the of who they're of who they're dealing with. So if it's like Wildlife Conservation Board, to be you need to be in close contact with there. You're there, them making them aware. You need to be able to get, support for your support for your project. We're not just we're not just seeing the political alliances from the federal level, we're also seeing this coming in more state some of the state funding as well. That's interesting. I wanna hit on the state thing, but first I wanna follow up with the job creation. So it seems if we wanna build a transit thing if we're a city going after money for infrastructure, we have to really tout it as how many jobs is this going to bring to our community and to the region? That seems to be the number one aspect, right? and Jobs and workforce development, which are things. things. jobs can the jobs can be both short-term and long-term, right? So if it's a massive project to do an overhaul for a, a key corridor a key corridor or a bridge or something that's gonna last four to five build it to build it out, that's gonna be a job creation opportunity. be That's gonna be, of millions of dollars spent in that region of the to the benefit of the region, but also bringing in labor to the, to do the work, right? So you've got short-term job creation, then and then if built or if is built or if that is, is, enhanced or broadened, is there, is there A long-term, to to attract larger businesses, that need, need, a larger a, larger corridor, right? For their for, their for traffic needs, for their transportation needs, transit needs. there are a there are a variety of ways to that. As that. As far as workforce development, if If project is a project is a long-term project, let's say it's a manufacturing project, can and you can convince that manufacturing, let's say it's battery manufacturing, talk let's talk about, collaborating with the university to put together a program where they're gonna do direct hire of interns are gonna that are gonna come out of a program that's in alliance with that manufacturing facility. that We've seen that done, With with the EV world. We saw it done in the Bay Area quite a bit. San Jose, Community Community College down there did a project that, was was some of supporting some of the EV with installers and trainings and stuff like that. That's the kind of stuff gonna that they're gonna probably be Is gonna is gonna enhance the project. It no longer becomes just a project about the manufacturing plant or a bridge. It now becomes a project about it's the jobs it's gonna create the residue the residue jobs it will hopefully enhance and support. Yeah, that training being a big component, and that makes sense, and it's interesting. I've been involved in a lot of conversations about how community colleges are... need to evolve with tech evolving and more into these trades or other partnerships. So that sort of fits into supporting those concepts. Yeah ... when you talk about manufacturing, can private companies that want to build manufacturing, like there's a lot of talk in Solano County about shipbuilding military suppor- companies that are selling into logistics at Travis Air Force Base. Are there opportunities for companies like that want to do that to come here or in Alameda? I think there's companies that build s- drones via the water. Are those things that manufacturing, like they can go after federal funding now? Do you see new opportunities there? Maybe help touch on that. No, I Yeah. No, I absolutely some new opportunities there, for sure. Yep, Sure. very Yep, those are very active areas. And it's important it's important to be in front of some of those opportunities, so until they wait until they come out. We- we're We- we're working with some of our clients now to determine to come likely to come down the pipeline or at least we're getting them in front of some of the agencies and talking about they're trying they're trying to put together, and the best way to do that, and having some offline conversations. we're doing a lot we're doing a lot more of the back-end work, than we were than we were before Interesting. All right, let's talk about California. You mentioned the water infrastructure bond. Talk a little bit about that. What opportunities do you see coming out in the second half of '26, '27 that people should be aware of related to that, and then we'll dive further into California opportunities. Absolutely. that I think that probably one of the, larger Prop 4 Prop 4 Funds funds some people that maybe some people don't know about is gonna be the DSAL, Department of DWR, Department of Water Resources DSAL program. It's got 62 million and in it, and it's gonna be... That's gonna be a big one. Water water intrusion, if you know what that is. I used to own a water company of California. of California. So wa- brackish water intrusion is the s- the where seawater, salt the saltwater, salt water is pushing up in wells, and we're seeing that and we're seeing that a lot. In fact, even, where I'm at in Chico, inland, brackish had brackish water intrusion appear, which was crazy. so if we have so if we have it up here, we're probably seeing it throughout the state. I know I know that, the Sierra the Sierra Nevada Conservancy is sitting on a bucket of money, about 15 million, 15 million, and that's for, resilience, resilience. And that's, the northern up here in the northern part of the state we where we have forest fires. and then I'm sure and then I've heard that there are also, CAL similar CAL FIRE funds California, California, that are also that are also coming out. I know that we also have, going a lot going into forest research out of CAL health research out of CAL FIRE. are some of the are some that of coming the funds that are coming California that are out of the state of California that are Prop 4. But there's also other funds Coming out that are not 4 Prop 4 oriented. we do have some we do have some money coming out still from the California Climate Investment- that is, that is usually usually CDFA, CAL CAL FIRE, California Energy California and others. General the, general plan or general fund, sorry, as I'm sure you're aware, has been suspending programs, and I programs, and I think most of that is due to, federal of federal pass-through funding coming in. we have So we have seen award pools shrink. you talk about, when you talk about like looking back at '24- We've seen we, we've seen some budgets, But, but- they haven't they haven't collapsed. They're not going away, that we're and I think that we're getting a little bit more conservative in the state of California of California with where the funding's going to where as opposed been it has been historically. I will say I will say from the side, side, the passthroughs that are still are still still flowing, still pretty active is drinking water, State water, State Revolving Fund CDBG fun- still fun- HOME is HOME flowing. So fl- flowing. So still, a lot of there's still a lot of that programs still are still flowing. Got it. Particularly around the water, that seems to be flowing. Yes, Yep. for sure For sure. Sorry, bad joke. I just couldn't help pick up on that, audience. I know. So I wanna dive more into that fire... I work with a lot of fire tech companies in variety of services. Is there funding for new technology adoption? Is it something these companies should look to say, "Hey, city so and we can help you pursue this funding, which can help purchase new technology," whether it's safe route advancements, it's fire deterrent, fire suppression. What are your thoughts on that? So it so it where the on where the companies are in the right? of things, right? if if if, are if companies are really early research and development, you're probably gonna be better suited towards, Science National Science Foundation Other a funds that are a little more directed towards startups. f- If they're f- fi- along, qui- advanced advanced towards commercialization, yes, would say yes, companies some of those companies would be able to get support. We And that's, bunch just got a big bunch of funding come out around community safety, and there's some technology funding there. We are seeing we are seeing some support for public the, public services fire, police safety, police safety, stuff like that. we're still seeing pr- and we're still seeing pre- it's pretty active still, are and the numbers are still pretty good. And yeah, let's expand on that. So I've seen a lot of public safety on the other side of it, like law enforcement related technology, things that can help police officers write police reports faster, things that can improve crime stats reporting things that I can things that can improve citizen reporting, and all geared towards saving officers time as well as just new tech for officers. W- what do you... Is that stuff police departments should go apply to? Is that state? Is that federal? Is it these companies should be working with their prospective clients? What do, what is your advice there? I'm seeing it mostly state, state, say and I would say that seeing probably what we're seeing more than anything is, safety. around safety. that's a big That's a big, that's a big area right now. And define what you mean by safety in that case, or give an example. Oh, o- officer safety or- Okay ... where it has to do where it has to do with, like making like making sure that there's cameras, use of cameras, stuff like that, safety gear, ability to use ability to use drones in situations For for lost people stuff like that. We're stuff like that. We're starting to see more tech coming in on that front. And and that's coming from the state of California filtering down to law enforcement agencies. Ooh, interesting. Okay there is some federal there is some federal funding on that of front too, Department of Justice What what advice do you have... let's maybe take cities and counties, and then s- we'll do that. We'll talk about advice for special districts, water agencies, utilities, wastewater, et cetera, and then we can talk about third is these private companies. Starting with cities and counties, what advice do you have for them today to get prepared? What should they be doing now to look for grants, be prepared, get things together? Yeah. Yeah More shovel-ready more shovel-ready the project is, the more appealing, So if it So if it requires permits, you have permits if you have permits in hand, that's gonna be more appealing. need, If you need costs, Bringing on bringing on a contractor and having them work with you to determine schedule, and schedule, and budget even in a rough even in a rough sense, is incredibly helpful. you need to be able to you need to be able to articulate those things. to be able to You need to be able to articulate the benefits of the project once executed. to be So there has to be, "Here's the problem, if and here's if we execute on this project, this is what the project will solve." Say some water some water conveyance systems are leaking X are leaking X amount of water. That water that is leaking needs to be quantified, it needs to be and it needs to be quantified by somebody who has an ability to, to, support the quantification. The approach the approach that's taken the to fix the water conveyance system, if there's more than if there's more than one approach that could be taken, show you need to show that you've explored all avenues, how, and how the criteria was used forward to move forward with whatever, approach you're approach you're going to take. those are So those are the kinds of things in a general sense, and we help advise clients all the time their specific their specific far as as far as they're what they're going to need or what's going to be expected of them applications. applications. they Sometimes they need on suggestion on a strategic partner strengthen help strengthen an application. they Sometimes they need come in somebody to come in and do third-party verification of their data. And can we, can pull off of our bench and bring people forward that can help with of that. But those are the kinds of things that will be needed in these applications, often on very short notice And right, especially if you're dealing with four-week timelines, you don't have time to put all of that together. So start lining things up. and I Yeah. And are know you are aware of the key considerations process that we deploy, but there's a reason process that we deploy, it's a... It but there's a reason that we do a that. And it's a-- it helps our clients to make a decision on whether or not to go after funding of based on the the actual attributes of what they're bringing to the table application. And what is going to be required in the application. And it is a very succinct to printout and, that allows them to see in, their verbally strong where their application is strong and do and where their application is weak, and do we have the ability to shore up the weaknesses before the deadline. considerations And that's... that key considerations analysis is something we've used for 15 years. tool, It's ph- a phenomenal tool, and very it helps make a decision very quickly on whether or not to pursue something based on just the reality of the situation Yeah, I think that's fundamental to success, right? 'Cause part of this is agencies spend a ton of money going after grants. You want to k- know that you at least have a better than 50% chance, upwards of 90% chance before you even apply for it and save yourself time. W- if you're some of those special districts, I guess that same advice would probably apply to them in how you prepare for things. So w- maybe talk about community colleges, 'cause you talked about some opportunities for them where they should be partnered with the private sector or with cities, talking about employment and training. Maybe touch a little bit about how community colleges should be prepared. What should they be doing today to position themselves and workforce agencies? Yeah. Yeah. colleges colleges Have a... they typically don't they, typically don't move very quickly, right? And establishing and having... I worked at a university for 17 I started and I started a new four-year degree program concrete in concrete, a- along with the concrete industry nationally. we And so we developed all the curriculum Hired all the faculty and this program this program that's still going on I left after I left in 2007. I'm So I'm keenly aware of how much of the resources resources of a community college it takes to establish new programs. But being But being able to be responsive and understand understand what's coming down the pipeline changes the changes in society, That's gonna be that's, gonna be really important. It's just like how quickly AI has taken has taken over our life, And being And, we together a curriculum that is that is relevant to certain to certain sectors or industries pumping out and pumping out students that have the appropriate skill set for a industry a industry that is evolving faster than we than we can of. keep track of. Data centers, centers, Trying to Trying to find a workforce in support of data centers. We thought we thought finding for EVs was gonna be was gonna be difficult, and now, put finally put together degree programs around that. The speed of The speed of light has just considerably on some of the on some of the new initiatives we're that we're having to be responsive to. And the faster that they can get in front of some of those trains- then they're gonna be able Then they're gonna be able to slow it and and take advantage take advantage of, board. on board. if But if they're the tail wagging the dog at it's the caboose, hard to it's really hard to get on board. Yeah, and in talking to people with community colleges and starting programs everything takes at least two years in California. And so if you think about where we were two years ago... I guess now I could say two years ago, you did have ChatGPT and Claude, but four years ago you didn't. And so i- in half of that time, things had changed, and that two years you've gotta start planning to where things are going. You've gotta be looking ahead a lot faster, right? This is true. And this is true, and I think that, think, that, you rather than four-year degree programs, I really think that the future of community colleges is gonna be with certification programs know, rather than they're much easier to four-year degree programs, I really think that the future of community colleges is gonna be with certification programs, because they're much easier to pull in. bring you're able to bring in instant With consultants that consultants they're that know what they're doing. can talk about You as it relates to defense. They can talk know, and AI talk about AI as it relates to defense, they could talk about AI as it relates banking, to banking, it relates as it relates To, industries, other industries, specific make it put specific- Yeah certification certification programs. I really think that's the wave of our future with community colleges, to be perfectly honest. own two cents my own two pence. You're not the first person to share that. I was in a conversation where somebody was talking about how Go- how are community colleges gonna compete with, like, where Google Classroom is going and what they're offering? And if you can get a certificate from that gets you ready for this next job- And that can be done for cheaper, faster than you can ever do a community college, and it could pivot with the resources of Alphabet that, you know... Who's gonna wanna go all the way to a community college for that, right? Yep. Yep. still there is still said for the to be said for the classroom atmosphere, Especially in Absolutely. industries. industries. I And so I think that community colleges have their place. gonna They're just gonna have to really, to work hard to carve out the niche that they're fulfilling, because they're-- you're absolutely right. They're not going absolutely right. They're not going to compete with online with online at all. that, ship that, that ship has sailed, they're and so now they're gonna have to take advantage of, the The what does the boots on the ground provide for them, I, I-- my is fiancé is a big equipment operator. We have a big equipment at program at Butte Community College. that to taking that to the next level and integrating all the new technologies, that are now that are now available, be where they should be going. teaching should be teaching how to use those, nobody else is because nobody else is teaching that. Have the companies have to bring in, certifiers to train certifiers to train their people on how to use those. colleges were colleges were smart, those are the types of programs I believe that they would be really successful with. Yeah, that makes sense. All right, let's talk about nonprofits and the, a- and for-profit earlier stage companies, going after manufacturing dollars, going after training programs. What thoughts do you have for either one of those groups? As far as as- What should they start doing today to get prepared to get state or federal grants? What should they be thinking about for the future? The nonprofit non is one where one where they've had to be they've had to be scrappy they just, they just, have... It's they don't have... It's not like the for-profit companies where they have kind of the guaranteed kind of income coming in. a And so a lot of them are very dependent on or federal state or federal funding, funding funding type programs, and we're starting to see and we're starting to see that go away. the reality the reality they are gonna they are gonna have to start to think about earning activities activities that they can engage in, on more on the con- consulting business side. that with And we're seeing that with some of our nonprofits in our community that are starting to recognize that the reliance on state or federal state or federal funding streams is a really difficult difficult right game to play right now. Of the number of, of the number of applicants is far exceeding that the dollars that are available, And Just part of that's, just part of that reality. on the board I was on the board of directors for our homeless center And, for and luckily for them, the funding on the federal side was Impacted. not as heavily, impacted. they're also But they're also looking at a variety of other activities, programs that they can put forward that are helping with earned income, or helping to helping to take advantage of, The communities that the communities that they live in by, obtaining, from restaurants from restaurants that's unused that they can still, the at the shelter. Advantage taking advantage of equipment no that is no longer being used y- At a you know, at a restaurant picking down and picking it up at low cost so that they can prepare, own meals as their own meals as far as relying on others to help bake bread, which they used all the time and it was a huge cost. bringing in bringing in to learn students to learn on their plumbing through Pacheco State's construction management program. are the So these are the kinds of things that really can be pulled in that, no, they're not sustaining, but they really help to cut costs them get and help them get times. rough times. And sometimes that's, the kind of scrappy, Attitude the that the, higher-ups at those organizations need for looking at, do else can we do to bring in not just bring in income our but to reduce our cost? Yeah. I think that's essential. I wanna cover two other quick topic areas with you just to see what trends you have. Housing, affordable housing comes up a ton in Northern California. What opportunities do you see cities or nonprofits want money to offset the cost of development today? Are there any trends things you could point out Yeah, yeah, state of California, state of California, the big housing housing is Strategic is Strategic Growth Council. know if you've And I don't know if you've ever- with engaged with them, of the but they're some of the most applications applications we've ever done. were a technical were a technical service provider applicants, applicants, through their through their program for a couple of years. have to say, I have to say, the program is funded trade the Cap-and-Trade Fund, much it's very much r- tied back tied back to the of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. So the So the communities that are in rural areas have a very difficult time competing, don't because they don't have the same greenhouse gas emission issues as urban counterparts. we So we had the city of Redding Mount Shasta, Shasta, we Had, over Arcata over on the coast. We had the little Yuba community of Yuba City, working we were working with them in their applications. Arcata had in Arcata had applied three times and was denied, had to go and so we had to go in and help them revamp their application towards really towards really making an argument around the green- greenhouse gas emission strategy. So you would think so you would think that affordable housing is all about affordable housing affordable housing. often it's But often it's, that funding is tied to other issues that you have to be able to address. that's And the mistake that's made is that applicants go in thinking that, in a good if they put in a good affordable housing application, 50/50 50/50 match, they have they have other fund, sources of funds that support this project, that they're gonna be pretty good, they and they the ignore the greenhouse gas, transit connectivity, transportation components in components in those applications, mistake. a big mistake. So we we were successful in getting the city of Redding successful proposals put through, proposals put through, the maximum of them the maximum million 20 million with a 50/50 match. So overall community overall got 80 million to redo its downtown and, has and that project has been ongoing. GMA the GMA website has a rendering of what the project, destined to look destined to look like when I was just up there, and it's looking spot on. they've And they've done an amazing job of implementing that project. funds are those funds are not easy to obtain. And are one of the but they are one of the biggest affordable housing funders in the state of California. And let's talk-- You've talked a couple times, you've mentioned EV charging. I know you've done a lot of work in the clean energy sector over the years. The feds have cut the ITC tax credit for renewable energy and EV charging and batteries and things. California is still a big backer of these programs. Talk a little bit just about that sector in particular and what you're seeing there. What is California continuing to do? Where is there opportunity in the grant space? Yeah. So what we saw Yeah. So what we saw historically was just the introduction of EVs into the state and into and nation at large. people And so then once people started to EVs as a vehicle EVs as a vehicle choice, the and we had the T corridors Fairly well Fairly well supported. Then the support in the state of California went to identifying that those areas that were experiencing range anxiety, right? the funding And so now the funding was really pushed out of into some of the more rural areas out to build out the infrastructure so that people traveling would have confidence that they could find stations. the And then the was to was to fast charge, right? So people did not wanna sit there hour for an hour and wait for the vehicle to charge. wanted that they wanted that charge in basically the same amount of time as a fill-up at a gas station. at a gas station. And so then the switch went into building out the infrastructure, changing out some of the old units, and replacing them charge fast charge units. now what we're now what we're seeing is that at the they're looking at the opportunities... at they also looked at this before. organizations organizations that have people commuting from, distances, it distances, it made a lot of sense for them to be in an EV making sure and making sure that those companies, companies, big corporations that had footprint big of our footprint in some of our urban areas, were offering were offering EV chargering- charging at their facilities. that was So that was as incentivized as well. we are seeing we are seeing incentives being pushed towards multi-housing complexes, complexes, types other types like of, complexes like that, making sure making sure that there's EV charging options. The problem with that is that there's often very limited for apartment for apartment complexes, in in areas urban areas like San Francisco, others. LA, and others. So they a push back a little bit in dedicating certain parking as areas as EV only. has been So that has been a little bit more of a stickier wicket To get pushed aside pushed through. So So really I see really more everything's towards incentives, targeting the the entities that are gonna have the biggest for the of bang for the buck, right? companies companies that, have a footprint that we can transition some of their people, into into EVs of and out of gas vehicles. And that's really and that's really where that's been. And anything else on the energy side that you're seeing trends in past EV charging, or is that the big focus area now in California? Hydrogen Hydrogen was nationally, and that fell off, but the state of California seems to be still pursuing hydrogen. Geothermal's come back on really strong, we're, and a we're, seeing a lot of interest in geothermal, both in the state of California and federally. I think I think that wave generation, energy generation is still garnering some interest. That is there. being out there. We know that wind has really fallen off. but some of but some of the offshore wind Is interesting. Data centers out in the ocean one is another one that we've heard about at a recent ARPA-E conference. I've been involved been involved in defense pretty heavily, I'd say and I'd say that the defense world is very is very active with very with very quick turnaround times and definite, strong lobbying, lobbying for the for, these for-profit companies. So yeah, are Those are on of the areas. On a federal level, we're seeing Minerals, critical minerals, minerals- data Yeah ... at the center. That makes sense. All right, last question. How do people learn more about you if they have further questions? I'm all over I'm, all over LinkedIn, I publish I publish articles and, funding opportunities on funding opportunities on LinkedIn. we do But what we do offer, if anybody is interested Funding funding opportunities sent directly to them that align their needs, their needs, 'cause they can pick what sector they're interested in, we are happy to, push push funding opportunities specific to your client needs. it's So if it's like the city of San Leandro, and there's a couple of projects that they're trying to get funded, maybe a wastewater treatment center or some safety issues, that they can put that down, and when we see stuff coming down the pipeline, we'll notify them. every week every week have a, have a, an executive team meeting that talks about what's coming in the pipeline, what both what has been forecasted been what has been released. we're So we're always on top of the things that we know are likely to come up. we And we track the RFIs, Request for Information, on a federal and state level, can so that way we can anticipate those funds they're likely when they're likely to hit. Notifying us of your us of your interest, and it doesn't cost you anything, is, a pretty good is a pretty good deal. Yeah. I appreciate that. Absolutely Cooper from Grants Management Associates, GMA, thank you for joining me today. Yeah. Thank you, Yeah, thank you, Jared. Great conversation. Yeah. There we go. All right. Thank-  Thanks for listening to The Capstone Conversation. Don't forget to subscribe and follow Jared Asch and Capstone Government Affairs on LinkedIn. Leave us a review and share this episode with a friend