Innovative Finance for National Forests Grant Program

_NOTE: There is not currently an IFNF Request for Proposals._

Program Summary

The Innovative Finance for National Forests (IFNF) grant program supports the development and implementation of innovative finance models that leverage private and public capital other than US Forest Service (USFS) appropriations to support the resilience of the National Forest System (NFS).

The IFNF grant program seeks to:

• Leverage private and public capital other than USFS appropriations to support agency priorities;
• Deliver measurable social, ecological, and financial outcomes to many stakeholders;
• Demonstrate solutions that promise improved financial sustainability for land management;
• Chart a path to scale in addressing landscape-level challenges on and near National Forests;
• Generate lessons learned to incorporate in agency management and decision making.

IFNF grants could, but are not limited to, support of innovative finance models that:

• Enable debt or equity financing from public or private sources to pay for the upfront costs of a project that will be paid back over time by project beneficiaries (payors);
• Access new or existing markets for environmental goods or services;
• Access user-based fees or contributions;
• Increase pace and scale of implementation by blending multiple sources of funding;
• Employ any combination of the approaches listed above.

Summary of IFNF Grant RFP Details

This round of grant funding emphasizes three Focus Areas::

• Wildfire Resilience and Recovery
• Sustainable Recreation Access and Infrastructure
• Watershed Health

Across these focus areas, IFNF provides funding for three types of projects:

• Feasibility
• Pilot
• Scaling

Project activities may take place on a National Forest, on adjacent state, private or tribal lands, or across boundaries as long as project outcomes contribute to the health of the National Forest System.

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

• Eligible Applicants:
  • Not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organizations;
  • for-profit companies;
  • tribes;
  • intertribal consortia;
  • state and local government agencies, and
  • colleges and universities.
  • A single organization or a consortia/team of organizations may apply.

Ineligibility

• Ineligible Applicants
  • Unincorporated individuals are not eligible.
  • Forest Service units and programs cannot receive funding directly.
• Ineligible Activities and Limitations on Activities:
  • Operations/administration beyond recovered indirect costs.
  • Lobbying, litigation or political advocacy. Other limitations may be found at 2 CFR Part 200.
  • Match for any other federal program.
  • Total project costs in the following areas may not exceed 15% of request: education, interpretation,and management planning (NEPA), convening, natural science research, monitoring.
  • Implementation of on-the-ground project activities such as forest restoration or infrastructure improvements (e.g., forest thinning, tree planting, trail repair).