Q and A for USDA-FSA-MULTI-21-NOFO0001104.pdf

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Notice of Funding Opportunity: USDA-FSA-MULTI-21-NOFO0001104 Outreach Education and Technical Assistance for Farm Service Agency Programs, Functions and Activities

Questions and Answers – As of 04/20/2021

Question 1: Are 501(c)(3) organizations that are restricted to serving veterans eligible?

Answer: Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS (other than institutions of higher education) are eligible.

Question 2: I have not yet received the 501(c)(3) status but I am in the process. Am I still eligible to apply?

Answer: As noted in section C.1. of the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NFO), applicants must meet the eligibility criteria by the application deadline to be considered for award.

Question 3: The list of socially disadvantaged groups does not include veterans. Are they considered a socially disadvantaged for the purposes of this grant?

Answer: The NFO is intended to provide targeted, focused, specific outreach to socially disadvantaged producers in areas and communities where outreach efforts have not been effective in the past and where participation in Farm Service Agency (FSA) programs is historically lower for socially disadvantaged producers. For purposes of this NFO, socially disadvantaged groups are defined as a group whose members have been subjected to racial, ethnic, or gender prejudice because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual qualities. These groups include: American Indians or Alaskan Natives, Asians, Blacks or African Americans, Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and in the case of FSA loan farm programs, women; veterans are not identified.

Question 4: Can I apply as an individual?

Answer: Individuals are not eligible to apply for funding under this notice of funding opportunity.

Question 5: We see that the NFO states award selections will be made by June 21, and that applications with a focus on the CFAP 2 program will be on a faster track. Do these provisions mean that an application addressing CFAP 2 submitted before the May 5 deadline will be considered and awarded earlier? Or does it instead mean that applications addressing CFAP 2 will be accepted up until the May 5 deadline, and will be awarded earlier than June 21?

Answer: The latter is the correct scenario; applications involving CFAP 2 will be accepted until May 5 and then on a fast track for the review and award process.

Question 6: Can we temporarily hire individuals for translation purposes?

Answer: Yes – translation services are allowable if such costs are reasonable and necessary to accomplish the project’s goals and objectives.

Question 7: Can we subcontract to an organization that is not eligible to apply?

Answer: Yes – the primary organization may subcontract to an organization that may not be eligible to receive funding under the NFO directly.

Question 8: The NFO includes 2 different dates (i.e., April 20 and April 26) for the submission and posting of questions and answers. Which is correct?

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Answer: Both dates will be honored. Questions and answers received ahead of April 20 will be posted and any additional questions received from that posting through April 26 will then be posted with answers.

Question 9: I don’t see where a project summary, biographical sketches, conflict of interest, current and pending support, or CV (resume) are required. Can you confirm?

Answer: The NFO does not specifically request a project summary, biographical sketches, Conflict of Interest, Current & Pending, or curriculum vitae (Resume). However, I will point out that as part of the Project Narrative, the applicant must provide information about the Project Team and Institutional Background. The SF-424, SF-424A, Budget Narrative, and Grants.Gov Lobbying Form are required documents.

Question 10: The reporting requirement specify that awardees must share the names, addresses, contact information, county locations, city, and state of participants. We are concerned that requiring participants to share this level of detail with us in order to receive information from us will be a deterrent to their participation. Will you consider an application that requests an exemption to this requirement?

Answer: Initially the answer was that names and county information of people contacted and conducted outreach with is needed to assist in determining if the outreach was effective (i.e., cross reference to see if they participated in program(s)). Addresses not required but at a minimum, the name & county they farm in is necessary. However, after further consideration, a modification to the NFO was published on April 19: Section F.3., Reporting, a bulleted item under what cooperators must provide to the agency was modified – previously, the item stated, “Identify all tasks completed to date and provide documentation supporting the reported results; (activity participants’ names, addresses, contact information, county locations, city, state)" and it was modified to state, “Identify all tasks completed to date and provide documentation supporting the reported results (dates and locations of activities, county, city state; number of participants assisted, barriers to participation)”.

Question 11: Will there be an opportunity to back bill any outreach work done before the grant award?

Answer: All costs incurred before the USDA awarding agency makes the award are at the risk of the recipient. The USDA awarding agency is under no obligation to reimburse costs; this includes if for any reason the award is not made; award is less than anticipated; award is inadequate to cover such costs; costs are unallowable under the award, etc. Following an award, the recipient may submit a request for pre-award costs for consideration.

Question 12: Will there be another opportunity to apply for this grant later in the year or near future?

Answer: Future cooperative agreement opportunities are unknown at this time. FSA hopes to offer agreements again in FY 2022 depending on budget and need.

Question 13: Is there a place I can go to learn more about previous grantees and their projects?

Answer: There currently is not information available about previous awards. You are encouraged to take a look at the available notice of funding opportunity (see https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=332638) and, based on the information in the NFO, determine whether to prepare and submit an application in response to the

NFO.

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