AoA Grant Programs
Funding Opportunities
Overview
Grants and cooperative agreements are the vehicles by which AoA
transfers its appropriated funding resources to the Aging Network.
Grants are used when AoA has no substantial involvement in the
administration of project and there is no direct benefit to AoA.
If, however, AoA expects to have substantial involvement in the
direction and implementation of a project, AoA often uses cooperative
agreements.
There are two basic types of Federal grants: Formula (or Mandatory)
Grants and Discretionary Grants. In addition, AoA’s Title
VI program uses a hybrid grant which features elements of both
Formula and Discretionary grants and is therefore listed separately.
Formula Grants
Title III and Title VII of the Older Americas Act make funds available
to grantees through Formula grants. They are on-going programs
administered by State agencies for which no application or competition
is required. By Congressional mandate, however, the funds for
these two programs are divided among individual states and U.S.
territories using a population-based formula. In addition, grantees
are required to match a percentage of the Federal funds received
with State-appropriated funds and to administer the total of state
and Federal program funds in accordance with an AoA-approved State
Plan for the state. (See: Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) for additional background
on Title III and Title VII program administration.)
Discretionary Grants
AoA funds projects under Title IV of the Older Americans Act to
encourage projects that develop, test and disseminate best practices
to be used by organizations in the Aging Network. Competitive
grants allow AoA to exercise discretion in selecting the projects
to be funded and determining the amount to be awarded. Because
of the nature of these projects, substantial involvement on the
part of the Agency is often necessary, as a result, discretionary
grants are increasingly being administered as cooperative agreements.
In addition, funds that Congress has set aside for specific legislatively-defined
purposes are administered with Title IV projects . (See: Catalogue
of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) for more on Title IV
program administration.)
Native Americans (Title VI) Grants
Title VI grants to Native American Tribes and Hawaiian Americans
require that, like discretionary grants, grantees must submit
an application if they wish to be included in the allocation of
funds, but like formula grants, a population based formula is
used to estimate the distribution of funds that will be made available
to grantees under this Title. (See: Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) for more on Title VI
program administration.)
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