Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program (EJ TCGM)

SUMMARY: This notice is issued to amend the Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program (EJ TCGM) program's 2023 Request for Applications (RFA). This amendment includes the following changes: 1) Extended deadline date to June 30, 2023, and new Period of Performance start date. All applications are now due on or before June 30, 2023, at 11:59 PM (Eastern Time). Due to the extended deadline, all applicants should now plan for a period of performance start date of February 1, 2024. (See pages 1, 24, 31, and 48). 2) Additional guidance has been included for National Applicants related to the development of a national evaluation and tracking system. In addition to having the ability to issue a number of subgrants to fill potential gaps in coverage, applicants proposing a National Grantmaker should also plan to develop a national evaluation and tracking system to track and organize all Grantmaking program data nationwide. National Grantmaker applicants should plan to devote the initial 3 - 6 months of their project to substantial coordination with each of the Regional Grantmakers to develop a national evaluation and tracking system that is compatible with the Regional Grantmaker systems (See page 17). 3) Technical Assistance support available to assist Grantmakers and Subgrantees. Technical assistance resources are anticipated to be made available to Grantmakers through an EPA contract and may include technical assistance on items such as subgrantee internal controls, evaluation, data collection needs, and support on compliance matters. (See pages 8 and 16). 4) Two additions to the Eligible Subrecipient list and scheduling of second EJ TCGM webinar. Local Governments and Institutions of Higher Education are now included as Eligible Subrecipients. (See page 9). An additional Zoom Pre-application Assistance Webinar is scheduled for May 30, 2023, from 2:00 - 4:00 PM (Eastern Time). (See page 37). This amendment supersedes all previous versions. -

EPA is issuing this solicitation to request applications for the design and management of a new Environmental Justice (EJ) competitive pass-through program where EPA will competitively select multiple pass-through entities to provide grant funds via subawards to community-based nonprofit organizations and other eligible subrecipient groups representing underserved and disadvantaged communities. The definition of the term Pass-through entity in 2 CFR 200.1 provides that a pass-through entity is a non-Federal entity that provides a subaward to a subrecipient to carry out part of a federal program. The EPA provides extensive guidance to pass-through entities in the EPA Subaward Policy and related materials available on the EPA internet website.