FY15 Community Innovation Challenge Grants

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Executive Office for Administration and Finance is soliciting proposals for the FY15 Community Innovation Challenge (CIC) Grant Program. The purpose of the program is to provide funding and incentives for one-time or transitional costs related to improving local government service delivery efficiency, service quality, and achieving cost savings through regionalization and internal efficiency initiatives. Eligible applicants include municipalities, regional schools, school districts, regional planning agencies, councils of government, counties, and special municipal districts. Grant awards up to $500,000 will be considered, and funding may be used for small capital purchases, consultant services, and transition personnel or project management costs. The application deadline is October 10, 2014, and grant recipients will be announced by December 2014. Successful applicants will be required to submit quarterly reports on project activities, expenses, and performance measurements, as well as a final project report documenting the initiative and its outcomes. Proposals will be evaluated based on criteria such as innovation, potential for impact, cost savings and other tangible benefits, demonstrated feasibility, speed of implementation, and potential applicability to other local governments.

The CIC Grant Program is open to all eligible local government entities in Massachusetts. The grants are intended to serve as seed money or transitional funding to help establish or expand regionalization and efficiency initiatives. No specific set-aside designations or restrictions on types of organizations are mentioned. Incumbent vendors or current contractors are not identified, and the total program budget or award value range is not specified, though individual grants up to $500,000 will be considered.