Environmental Justice Small Grant Program

The Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) Program provides funding directly to community-based organizations for projects that help residents of underserved communities understand and address local environmental and public health issues. The term

The Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) program provides funding to support projects that address local environmental and public health issues within communities facing environmental justice concerns. Communities with environmental justice concerns include people of color, low-income, tribal, indigenous, and homeless populations that potentially experience disproportionate environmental harms and risks as a result of greater vulnerability to environmental hazards.

An eligible applicant must be one of the following: • incorporated non-profit organizations -including, but not limited to, community-based organizations, grassroots organizations, environmental justice networks, faith based organizations and those affiliated with religious institutions;* U.S. Territories • Tribal governments, must be either federally-recognized or state-recognized - including Alaska Native Villages • tribal organizations * • Freely Associated States (FAS) - including local governmental entities and local non-profit organizations in the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Palau. Applicant organizations claiming non-profit status must include documentation that shows the organization is either a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization as designated by the Internal Revenue Service; OR a non-profit organization recognized by the state, territory, commonwealth or tribe in which it is located. For the latter, documentation must be on official state government letterhead. Applicants must be located within the same state, territory, commonwealth, or tribe in which the proposed project is located. This means that an applicant's registered address of record (i.e., the address designated on their IRS or State-sanctioned documentation) must be in the same state, territory, commonwealth or tribe as the location of the proposed project. The following entities are INELIGIBLE to receive an award, but we encourage applicants to partner with these organizations, as appropriate: • colleges and universities; • hospitals; • for-profit businesses; • state and local governments and their entities; • quasi-governmental entities (e.g., water districts, utilities)*; • national organizations and chapters of the aforementioned organizations**; •International organizations and chapters of the aforementioned organizations • Individuals • non-profit organizations supporting lobbying activities as defined in Section 3 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995; and*** * Generally, a quasi-governmental entity is one that: (1) has a close association with the government agency, but is not considered a part of the government agency; (2) was created by the government agency, but is exempt from certain legal and administrative requirements imposed on government agencies; or (3) was not created by the government agency but performs a public purpose and is significantly supported financially by the government agency. ** National organizations are defined as comprising of one centralized headquarters or principal place of business that creates and controls the mission, structure and work carried out by its chapters or affiliates. *** Funds awarded under this program may not be used to support lobbying activities or any activities related to lobbying or the appearance thereof. Subawards made to nonprofit organizations that lobby are not allowed. For certain competitive funding opportunities under this assistance listing, the Agency may limit eligibility to compete to a number or subset of eligible applicants consistent with the Agency's Assistance Agreement Competition Policy.

Eligible beneficiaries are the Non-Profit Community Groups as described under "Applicant Eligibility" above, and the residents of the communities they serve. List selected may not be all inclusive.

Applicants may be requested to demonstrate they have appropriate background, academic training, experience in the field, and necessary equipment to carry out projects. EPA may ask applicants or principal investigators to provide curriculum vitae and relevant publications.

Grants and cooperative agreements are available to support recipients' allowable direct costs incident to approved surveys, studies, and investigations plus allowable direct costs in accordance with established EPA policies and procedures. Assistance agreement awards under this program may involve or relate to geospatial information. Further information regarding geospatial information may be obtained by viewing the following website: Geospatial Resources at EPA (https://www.epa.gov/geospatial).

The project grant will be awarded for a 1-year project period. Activities must be completed within the time frame of the project's budget period and all grants will be fully funded at the time of award.

This program is eligible for coverage under E.O. 12372, "Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs," when proposed Federal financial assistance involves land use planning or construction associated with demonstration projects. EPA financial assistance programs and activities subject to intergovernmental review that have been selected for review under State single point of contact procedures are identified at https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-financial-assistance-programs-subject-executive-order-12372-and-section-204. Applicants for programs or activities subject to Intergovernmental Review that have not been selected for State single point of contact review must provide directly affected State, areawide, regional, and local entities at least 60 days to review their application following notification by EPA that the application has been selected for funding as provided by 40 CFR 29.8(a) and (c). Regarding pre-application assistance with respect to competitive funding opportunities under this assistance listing, EPA will generally specify the nature of the pre-application assistance, if any, that will be available to applicants in the competitive announcement. For additional information, contact the individual(s) listed as "Agency Contacts" in the competitive announcement.

Applicants, except in limited circumstances approved by the Agency, must submit all initial applications for funding through Grants.gov.

The evaluation and selection criteria for competitive awards under this assistance listing will be described in the competitive announcement.

For competitive awards, EPA will review and evaluate applications in accordance with the terms, conditions, and criteria stated in the competitive announcement. Competitions will be conducted in accordance with EPA policies/regulations for competing assistance agreements.

For competitive awards, deadlines will be specified in the competitive announcement.

Approximately 150 days after the application submission due date.

Awardees may request a no-cost extension 'as needed' which then must be approved by Agency personnel.

Assistance agreement competition-related disputes will be resolved in accordance with the dispute resolution procedures published in 70 FR (Federal Register) 3629, 3630 (January 26, 2005). Copies of these procedures may also be found at: https://www.epa.gov/grants/grant-competition-dispute-resolution-procedures.