FY 2025 JACS NOFO Q&A.docx

U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program FY 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity Frequently Asked Questions Last Updated 10/30/2024 Q: Should the application come from me (an individual) or from a non-profit, my fiscal sponsor?

A: The application should come from the Prime Recipient. Per Public Law 109-441 (120 Stat. 3288), organizations and entities working to preserve historic Japanese American confinement sites and their history, including: State and local agencies, public or private nonprofit institutions/organizations, Federally recognized Indian tribal governments, State colleges and universities, public and private colleges and universities are eligible to apply.

Q: I tried to create an application account with Grants.Gov, routed through Login.Gov, but was not successful. It would not recognize the username and password I chose. Could you please advise me as to how to get that done.

A: When using Grants.gov and Login.gov you must first have an account registered in SAM.gov. Only entities eligible to do business with the federal government may register in SAM.gov and subsequently utilize Login.gov and Grant.gov.

If you open the Full Announcement in the Related Documents tab the Application and Submission Information states that applications for this announcement will not be submitted electronically through Grants.gov. Applications need to be submitted by email to nps_jacsgrants@nps.gov.

The System for Award Management (SAM.gov) is a government-wide registry for organizations doing business with the Federal government. SAM.gov centralizes information about grant recipients and provides a central location for grant recipients to change organizational information. Grants.gov uses SAM.gov to establish organizational authority for its users and to provide unique entity identification numbers. SAM registration must be renewed annually.

First, you must register with SAM.gov to obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). The UEI is a 12-character alphanumeric identifier assigned to all entities (public and private companies, individuals, institutions, or organizations) to do business with the Federal Government. Organizations will also need to designate an E-Business Point of Contact (EBiz POC). It can take 7-10 business days to fully complete the registration process required for most funding opportunities. There is no fee for registering with SAM.gov.

After obtaining the UEI for the organization from SAM.gov, you must return to Grants.gov to continue registration.

Q: Before we commence the application process, we wanted to confirm with you that the project is a good fit.

A: Grant applications are evaluated through a competitive grant merit review process that the JACS grant program has used for a number of years. A merit review panel of NPS subject matter experts review each application and apply the merit review criteria outlined in the Notice of Funding Opportunity to score individual grant applications using the materials submitted by the applicant. Based on their individual scores, the highest-ranking grant applications are recommended for awards and transited to the National Park Service Director through the apportionment memo process for final approval and awarding.

A record of previously awarded grants can be found here https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1379/funded-projects.htm

Q: Can waived indirect costs (with submitted evidence of an IDC waiver) be considered a cost share? If so, how would it be calculated, as the federal IDC rate for the federal share?

A: 2 CFR 200.306(c) (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-D/section-200.306) addresses unrecovered indirect for the purposes of matching, and it is acceptable with the prior approval of the awarding agency. In terms of satisfying the prior approval requirements, I think that would probably be satisfied if we select and award based on your submission, so I don’t necessarily think we’d need to affirmatively provide some sort of prior approval at this application stage. Essentially if you identify and/or explain those costs in the application's detailed budget, our approval is given when we issue the award with the budget attached. It wouldn’t cause any hiccups at the application stage.

Q: Under grants.gov, it says the award ceiling is $500,000. Is this limit the total cost of the grant or the federal share?

A: The $500,000 ceiling for the JACS grants is the Federal portion. So, with the cost share it would be $1,000,000.

Q: I understand that there were confinement sites in Hawaii, however, they are not among the 10 listed in the notice and Hawaii was not a state during the internment period. Please let me know if any of the Hawaii sites are eligible applicants.

A: Since the JACS grant program began in 2009, over $1,450,000 has been award to projects in Hawaii. One of the key grant recipients in Hawaii has enabled a number of significant sites to be recognized and would be considered eligible for JACS grant funding, these include:

· Honouliuli Internment Site (now a National Park unit)

· Sand Island Detention Camp

· Kilauea Military Camp

· Kalaheo Stockade

· Haiku Camp Research projects to identify additional sites, oral histories or work with descendant communities, as well as interpretive and educational program to better share the Japanese American Incarceration story would also be considered eligible.

Q: If my project has more than one Project Type (Capital, Documentation, Oral history, Preservation, Interpretation & Education, Planning, Real Property) which should I select on my Project Proposal?

A: Please select the project type you feel is the largest and/or most important component. You can further describe the other project types in the Project Summary

Q: Can project income be used for Cost Share? Should project income and donations be reflected in the proposed budget?

A: Yes, both project income and donations are acceptable forms of meeting the 2:1 cost share requirement. However, if project income does not fully meet the requirement as expected another source of cost share must supplement this. You may want to identify an alternative cost share strategy in your proposed budget to ensure the full match is met by income. Any form of cost share should be included in the proposed project budget.

Q: What is the best way to make deliverables created with grant funds available to the Confinement Sites?

A: As stated in the FY-25 JACS Notice of Funding Opportunity, project sustainability will be considered as part of the merit review evaluation process. Identifying how the project results will be distributed and shared with the public should be stated in the project narrative. Hosting project deliverables online or sharing them through a podcast are potential strategies to consider. Be sure to also consider long-term digital curation and maintenance that might be required to host materials online and factor those into your project scope and budget.

Q: Are endorsements such as letters of support and letters of commitment permissible as appendices to the main grant application?

A: Yes. Letters of support are encouraged and should be submitted as part of the grant application packet. These can be included as supplemental materials to your application.

Q: A recipient was awarded a JACS Grant previously but would like to now apply for a project that is related to this first grant. However, this project was not anticipated at the time of the first grant and is for an explicitly independent portion of work. Would this be considered a supplementation of an existing project?

A: No this would be considered a new scope of work, separate from the original grant and therefore is eligible.

Q: Would confinement site specific performances be the sort of thing that the JACS grant could cover?

A: This proposed project it would be eligible for consideration

Elaboration on project timelines, project need and pre-award costs: One of the elements that will be considered for all applications will be project need and potential loss of opportunity. If at the time of review and/or selection the bulk of the project has been completed it is possible for that application to score lower in the project need category. The problem that the project wishes to address would already be completed or near completion. Additionally, the anticipated term of agreement for selected applications is within two ears of funding. Finally, pre-award costs for selected applications would need to be negotiated at the time of award. In past awards pre-award costs that have been granted were minor expenses related to the start of the project.

Q: Does it matter if there are two project applications from the same non-profit working on the same confinement site (two different projects with different project leads)?

A: Following up on your question regarding the Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program and collaboration between organizations. As outlined in the FY-25 JACS Notice of Funding Opportunity, 4. Other Administrative Requirements, page 9. “Each applicant may submit up to 3 applications annually (for 3 separate projects), but each applicant can receive only 2 grants per fiscal year grant cycle.” So, in response to your question the same non-profit organization could submit up to three separate grant applications in a fiscal year grant cycle. The JACS grant program often sees multiple grant applications for projects at the same confinement site, so this should not be an issue.

In determining the best organization to partner with, that is entirely up to you and should be based on the individual needs of the project as well as the existing relationships your organization has with potential collaborating partners.

Q: Is there any sort of match / cost share waiver process for projects that are unable to meet the 2:1 cost share requirement?

A: The Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program requires a 2:1 cost share match, so there is no waiver process for project proposals unable to meet this requirement. As stated in the Notice of Funding Opportunity, " Each grant requires a 2:1 Federal to non-Federal match; that is, to receive two dollars of Federal funds at least one dollar non-Federal match is required. Contributions for cost match must be made from non-Federal sources, which may include cash, in-kind contributions or services, materials/supplies/equipment, or *land. The non-Federal match may be raised and spent during the grant period; it does not have to be “in the bank” at the time of the application."

Q: Is this a reimbursement grant? If so, how often can reimbursement requests be submitted?

A: Due to the JACS grant cost share requirements, grant recipients must submit reimbursement request documentation as outlined on the JACS grant program website prior to receiving payment. Here is a link to the program webpage with additional information regarding the JACS grant program payment and reimbursement process. Grant Reporting Forms - Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program (U.S. National Park Service)