About the FY 2006
Outreach Grant Competition
On Nov. 30, 2005, FNS released a request for
applications for outreach grants for fiscal year 2006.
The purpose of these grants is to implement and study effective
strategies to inform and educate potentially eligible low income people
not currently participating in the FSP about the nutrition benefits of
the Food Stamp Program, eligibility rules, and how to apply. At least $1
million, contingent upon availability, is available for grant awards
under this competition. The maximum grant award is $75,000.
Entities eligible for these outreach grants are private non-profit
organizations, including community and faith-based organizations, and
public entities with the exception of State and local FSP agencies.
Recipients of FNS outreach grants under the “Food Stamp Program Research
Grants to Improve Access Through the Use of New Technology and
Partnerships” awarded in fiscal year 2001 and 2002, and recipients of
FNS Outreach Grants awarded in fiscal years 2004 and 2005 may not apply
or participate as sub-grantees to another applicant. (No outreach grants
were awarded in fiscal year 2003.) Please read the RFA for more
information about who is eligible to apply and who is not.
The due date for optional letters of intent to apply is Jan. 6, 2006.
The due date to submit applications is April 3, 2006. Please read the
RFA for more information about the due date and how to submit an
application
FY06 Outreach Grant Competition Materials
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions from applicants will be
posted here throughout the application period as they accrue. Please
check back often for updates.
Q. Are Statewide projects allowable under this grant
competition? (posted 1/4/06)
A. Statewide projects are not allowable for the
following reasons:
-
As noted on p. 2 of the
RFA
under “Target Populations”, applicants are expected to develop
proposals to design and implement a community food stamp outreach
and education program for the specified target populations.
-
As noted p. 3 of the
RFA under
“Allowable Activities”, the focus of these grants is to make
sustainable investments in food stamp outreach and to build
infrastructure at the local level for ongoing food stamp outreach
efforts. The examples of allowable activities clearly specify
community-based, community-driven outreach at the ground level.
-
The maximum grant award of $75,000 further indicates
that the scope of these projects is small, community based
initiatives.
There are other funding options available to support
State level initiatives. These are the FSP participation grants in
cooperation with State agencies, or working directly with a State as a
contractor under an optional outreach plan. Under optional outreach
plans, the Federal government reimburses State agencies for 50 percent
of the reasonable, allowable, and necessary FSP administrative costs for
outreach. FNS expects to announce the 2006 participation grant
competition in mid to late January 2006, so interested parties may wish
to start checking the web site around that time for more information.
Q. Are Nationwide projects allowable under this grant
competition? (posted 1/4/06)
A. Nationwide projects are not allowable for the
following reasons:
-
As noted on p. 2 of the
RFA
under “Target Populations”, applicants are expected to develop
proposals to design and implement a community food stamp outreach
and education program for the specified target populations.
-
As noted p. 3 of the
RFA under
“Allowable Activities”, the focus of these grants is to make
sustainable investments in food stamp outreach and to build
infrastructure at the local level for ongoing food stamp outreach
efforts. The examples of allowable activities clearly specify
community-based, community-driven outreach at the ground level.
-
The maximum grant award of $75,000 further indicates
that the scope of these projects is small, community based
initiatives.
-
A letter of acknowledgement from the State or local
food stamp office is a required element of the application.
Applications received without such letters of acknowledgement will
be considered non-responsive and eliminated from consideration (see
p. 4 of the
RFA.) A project that is national
in scope would make this requirement difficult if not impossible
since it would involve seeking letters from all States.
Q. Is there a limit on indirect costs? (posted
1/12/06)
A. Applicants WITH an indirect cost rate agreement: If indirect costs
are part of the budget, organizations with an indirect cost rate
agreement from their cognizant audit agency claim the indirect cost rate
stated in that agreement. Applicants should submit a copy of the
negotiated and approved indirect cost rate agreement from their
cognizant agency with their proposal. It should be included as an
attachment and is not part of the 15 page technical proposal limit. This
is noted on page 12 of the
RFA.
The example on page 21 of the
RFA
uses an indirect cost rate of 12 percent. This example assumes that the
fictitious organization has an indirect cost agreement from their
cognizant agency for 12 percent indirect costs.
Applicants WITHOUT an indirect cost rate agreement: If
indirect costs are part of the budget, organization without an indirect
cost rate agreement from a cognizant agency, may claim up to, but no
more than, 10 percent indirect costs. Another option for organizations
without an agreement is to directly charge all support and overhead
costs that are reasonable and allowable under the grant. As with all
line items on the budget, such items will be carefully reviewed
according to the technical evaluation criteria.
Q. Please clarify the nature of the letter of
acknowledgement from the State and local food stamp office and what
role the State or local food stamp office should play in the
project. (posted 2/7/06)
A. A sample letter in the Request for
Applications (RFA) is provided in Template II on page 17 of the
RFA.
A letter of acknowledgement from your State or local food stamp
office is required to be submitted with each proposal. As noted on
page 4 of the RFA, applications submitted without a signed letter of
acknowledgement from the State or local food stamp office will be
considered non-responsive and eliminated from consideration.
The role of the State or local office
in the project can be anything from a simple acknowledgement of the
outreach project to tracking applications of outreach contacts and
supplying outcome data (with appropriate confidentially concerns
addressed) or anything in between. It is up to you, the applicant,
to talk with representatives at the State or local office and sort
out the appropriate role for them in the project as envisioned.
Modify the template letter in the RFA as needed to fit their role as
the two of you have defined it.
If you have other partners in addition
to the food stamp office, remember that you must also include a
letter of commitment from those partners with your proposal.
For further information about
partnering with food stamp offices, please see Attachment IX on page
33 of the RFA (Lessons Learned from the Evaluation of FY02 Outreach
Grants.)
Q. Please clarify the requirements for submission of
organizational audit by non-profit organizations. (posted 3/7/06)
A. As noted on page 13 of the RFA, non-profit
organizations are required to submit the most recent audit of their
organization’s financial records. It is also noted that if the
organization has not had an audit, a financial statement signed by the
Treasurer of the Board will suffice. It has been brought to our
attention that organizational audits may be rather large files that can
present difficulties when being uploaded to
www.grants.gov for those
applying online.
-
If you are applying online through
www.grants.gov , please try to
convert your audit to a .pdf file and upload it. If this doesn’t
work because the file is too large, please include in your proposal
a statement certifying that you had a recent audit, noting the date,
and indicating that it was too large for upload to
www.grants.gov . In this case,
please also submit a financial statement signed by the Treasurer of
the Board. FNS may ask for the complete audit during negotiations at
a later date if your organization is being considered for an award.
If you are applying online and your audit is too
large for upload, please do not mail your audit separately as FNS
cannot match up sections of proposals that are submitted separately.
If you continue to have problems including these items with your
electronic proposal, please contact Suzanne Pastura at
suzanne.pastura@fns.usda.gov
for assistance.
Q. Is the FNS “Step1” pre-screening tool available in
a stand alone version that can be used on a laptop that is not connected
to the Internet? (posted 3/7/06)
A. At this time, the “Step” 1 tool is not available in a
stand alone version. FNS is working on a stand alone version but it is
not ready at the current time. The stand alone version will be posted on
the FNS web site for download when it becomes available.
Q. Please clarify the nature on what is meant by
“financial incentive.” (posted 3/7/06)
A. As noted on page 3 of the request for Applications (RFA),
recruitment and provision of food (or food vouchers) or financial (or
monetary) incentives to potentially eligible participants are not
allowed. Provision of an outreach reinforcement item such as a pen or
magnet with a toll free number is not considered recruitment or a
financial incentive. Such items that include an outreach message can
serve as continual reminders for potential participants about the
nutrition benefits of food stamps and enables them to follow through
when they feel ready. However, such items must be of nominal value,
certainly less than $4 per item, and they must be reasonable, necessary
and relevant to the program objectives, and justified in the budget, in
addition to having a specific outreach message and substantive
information such as a phone contact number for more information.
Q: Is there a minimum or maximum mileage
allowance? (posted 3/23/06)
A: There is no minimum or maximum mileage
allowance. However, the technical review panel will review and
score your travel budget line item based on whether the costs are
necessary, reasonable, and accurate.
The current Federal per mile reimbursement rate is 44.5
cents for privately owned vehicles. However, your organization may
have established it’s own per mile reimbursement rate for
privately-owned vehicles. If your organization does have an
established rate, you should use the lesser of the two rates. For
example, if your organization reimburses 40 cents per mile and the
Federal rate is 44.5 cents per mile, you should use 40 cents a mile
to arrive at your automobile travel costs.
If you intend to use the Federal rate, please know
that the rate periodically changes. You can find the most current
Federal rate at
www.gsa.gov . Look for Travel Resources on the left and click
on “POV Mileage Reimbursement Rates.”
Last modified:
11/21/2008
|
|
