2022 Tribal Tourism Grant Program Informational Overview Webinar
Elwood Pipestem-Ott (00:10): Hello, and thank you for joining us today for a Tribal Tourism Grant Program informational overview. I am Elwood Pipestem-Ott, your webinar coordinator for today. Elwood Pipestem-Ott (00:28): Before we begin, there are a few housekeeping items for our time together. All participants are muted and can enter comments in the chat box. We will be monitoring our chat box for your questions and comments.
Also, copies of the PowerPoint slides and a copy of the recording will be shared, and those will be shared within the next week. Elwood Pipestem-Ott (00:58): Moving right along. Objectives of this session are to introduce the Office of Indian Economic Development, Division of Economic Development staff and Technical Assistance Team. Share information about the Tribal Tourism Grant Program and be available to answer any questions you may have following the presentation.
Elwood Pipestem-Ott (01:22): Now, I will introduce Denise Litz, the Branch Chief of the Office of Indian Economic Development Division of Economic Development, and she will get us started today. Denise. Denise Litz (01:40): Great. Thank you, Elwood. [foreign language 00:01:43]. Greetings everyone.
I'm Denise Litz. I'm the Chief for the Division of Economic Development. I'm originally from the Tuscarora Nation. We're located about 10 miles north of Niagara Falls, New York. But I am joining you from the traditional homelands of the Cheyenne, Ute and Arapaho here in Lakewood, Colorado.
Good to have you here. Denise Litz (02:02): I'm going to take some time to introduce our staff. First off is Onna LeBeau.
She's the Director of the Office of Indian Economic Development and myself as the Branch Chief for the Division of Economic Development. Next slide. Denise Litz (02:19): We have two teams in our division, the Economic Development Specialists team and the Grants Management team. Next slide please.
The Economic Development Specialist, we have two currently in our office. They cover the zones that we cover for economic development. Janelle Green provides support for Alaska and Southwest Zone Tribes. She's also providing support for our Eastern Zone.
We have a vacancy that we're currently in the process of hiring, so we'll have a three person Economic Development Specialists team. Janelle is Citizen Potawatomi Nation and is also serving for the Eastern Zone. Denise Litz (03:02): And then Jim Henry is covering our Northwest Zone. He's Maidu from Palm Desert, California and they are covering our Economic Development Specialist positions. Next slide please.
Denise Litz (03:16): What they do. Our Economic Development Specialists provide virtual presentations. We want to make sure that Tribes and Tribal Organizations have information about our programs and how to access our funding. They schedule meetings with regional offices and with various different entities that convene Tribes together. They're available if there's an opportunity to make presentations.
They also want to provide help and resources to our non-awarded grant applicants. We know that our funding is not the only funding that's available out there and we want to make sure that any applicants that are looking for funding for economic development get the support that they need. Anytime our entities apply for our grants, they'll receive a call if they don't receive funding so that they can get extra help and resources. Okay. Next slide please.
Denise Litz (04:09): We also have a Grants Management team. Dennis Wilson, who you're going to hear from later today is our Grants Management Specialist and then Elizabeth Callahan is our Program Analyst. Next slide.
Denise Litz (04:25): We have secured a contract with Tribal Tech to provide technical assistance in the way of pre-application training like the one that you're experiencing right now. Christine Celentano is the training and Technical Assistance Project Manager. Elwood Pipestem-Ott, who you just recently met, is the Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator. And then Makana Reilly is the Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator for Hawaii and that's for our NATIVE Act efforts. Next slide. Denise Litz (04:57): I'm going to go ahead and turn this over to Dennis Wilson.
He's going to take over and start covering the Tribal Tourism Grant Program. Dennis. Dennis Wilson (05:07): Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks, Denise. Appreciate that.
Just want to say thanks to the whole DED team and Tribal Tech team. Without everybody's involvement, we couldn't get this off the ground, so I really appreciate everybody's efforts to really put this together. We are going to talk Tribal Tourism Grant Program. This is currently open. Sorry, I lost train of thought here.
We're going to be closing this on October 24th, so we got a little over a month to go. Dennis Wilson (05:45): The Tribal Tourism Grant Program, this is the second cohort, the second offering. These grants are going to be providing funds to support Tribal tourism by obtaining either A, a feasibility study or B, a Tribal tourism business plan.
We figured for the amount of money, you could do one or the other fairly well. It was open in August, so it's going to be a two-month run. It's going to close again on the 24th. We got plenty of time if you have any questions or concerns. And hopefully this presentation answers a lot of the pertinent, mandatory components.
That way you check all the boxes and we get your application in on time with your best foot forward towards ranking. Next slide please. Dennis Wilson (06:31): Let's talk first and foremost, eligibility. A lot of these first slides are going to be talking about the things that are just going to get you through the door. One, you need to be a fairly recognized Indian Tribe that's based on 87 FR 4636, which was updated in January. And you could also come in as a Tribal Organization per the definition 25 U.S.C. 5304(l).
That one includes having a Tribal board, dually elected members from the community. Unfortunately I cannot provide predetermined eligibility, so if you have any questions, I would get a hold of your legal counsel and of course obviously try with Tribal Tech to flesh some of that out. Once you get that, next slide. Dennis Wilson (07:25): The feasibility study or the business plan. It should be the product that's going to help the Tribe organization develop the data necessary to make informed decisions on the direction that the organizations want to go, be it potential tourism projects, tourism businesses, both of those that are recovering from COVID-19 pandemic.
Anything tourism economic related is going to be good, so it's wide open. We have examples of past awardees and what they've accomplished and what they've done and leapfrog to future funded opportunities and other projects. The sky's the limit on this grant as well. Next slide. Dennis Wilson (08:16): Who can do these studies? The funding is obviously to contract or consult with a firm to rope in and get these products.
Vetting, vetting, vetting I think is the key. It should be by entities who have the pertinent data to speak to your particular relative market or segment or what you're trying to accomplish, be it they be qualified subject matter experts. They can include, but obviously aren't limited to universities, colleges, private consulting firms, non-academic, non-profit entities. Like any other decision, it comes down to the data, the current data, what's coming down the line as far as the market, looking forward, strategizing, costing locally. I would make sure that when you do select those, which you should have one at the time of submission of your application, you should have that contractor identified in your application, the cost and bid associated with that. You want have that as you're running.
Next slide please. Dennis Wilson (09:29): Particulars about the grant that you'll notice when you go into grants.gov, that we are under CFDA 15.032, which is like most of our other grant programs. The ceiling was raised from our last cohort to 150,000. The floor is 25, there is no match.
So based on, and it is a one-year grant, we anticipate to award based on the total 2 million budget of 20 to 35 awardees. And in the CFDA categories Business Development. Next slide please. You'll find that on grants.gov. Dennis Wilson (10:07): The application requirements, you'll find on grants.gov as well. We've updated that.
So it should be current, those that are mandatory and those that are optional. So we'll go through those mandatory pieces and you should find all those on grants.gov and should be fillable and or you could pull them down and attach it.
Let's go one at a time. Next slide please. Dennis Wilson (10:34): Cover page is going to include a lot of information. The key with your entire application is consistency.
Make sure the titles are the same, the legal names are the same, the amounts are the same, et cetera and et cetera, all the way through. Please ensure that. It makes the review a lot easier, especially if we don't have to flag anything. Dennis Wilson (10:56): CFDA Number: 15.032, you want to put the title
and a lot of other information on there. You want to confirm that you're active in SAM's, that your UEI is attached, same that's on the SF-424, which we'll get into later. Want to make sure you're enrolled in the BIA ASAP payment system. If you already have an ASAP account, just link in the BIA as a form and it's pretty simple.
If you don't have one period, you want to get that started now. So you should have that ready to go at the time of the solicitation closing. You also want to identify all the key personnel, be it Tribal members or those at the consultant level. You do need a Tribal Resolution.
Dennis Wilson (11:45): We need to have all of these at the time of your submission on or before the 24th. That will secure that you are not only eligible, you have a complete application. We will be pretty stringent on that, so don't leave anything out. Make sure you check all those boxes.
We'll cover a lot of this later as well. But next slide. But that cover page were just more and less statements that you have it's a help check as well. Dennis Wilson (12:14): Cover letter, on official Tribal letterhead if possible should be just a page summarizing the interest, intent, authorized signature. This is just the step in from the Tribe to knowing that or the organization that it is authorized, it is supported and everyone is in agreement that it's going to go forward.
Next slide, please. Dennis Wilson (12:36): The project abstract summary. This is new. This is a grant solutions addition to grants.gov. Most of this will just be copied and paste from other areas in your application, but this is its own individual page, so please have that filled out and just have it consistent through the rest of your application. Next slide.
Dennis Wilson (12:57): The project narrative. This will be the meat and potatoes of your application. This is where you'll flesh out all timelines, all project objective, goals. Your budget could be in here as well.
Leave nothing unturned, leave nothing to generalization. As you'll see when we get into the budget, you'd flesh everything out, be it travel, your consultation charges, et cetera, et cetera. You want to provide the technical description of the project which you plan to accomplish, goals and objectives per the timeline. It's a one-year grant, so base it on 12 months. We hope to award by December with a peer to performance January 1st of the year, January 3rd through the end of December.
That's what you want to plan on. Don't hold us to that. Things happen holiday season, but we should stick to that. Dennis Wilson (13:51): Describe the deliverable projects that the consultant is expected to generate. Key consultants and personnel. This is important.
Please try to fill all roles as necessary. A programmatic person, financial point of contact, overall oversight. The more the better. That way if someone's gone, someone's on leave, especially through this holiday season and we need to run down any flags or issues, that we can reach somebody and don't have to move on to the next, so please secure that. Even though everything in the applications could be submitted on grants.gov when we pull
them down, they will be individual. So please try to have the naming convention somewhat similar to what's on that last bullet on TTPGNarrative.TribalnameOrganizationname.Project. That helps it, keeps it all consistent as we move into folders. Next slide, please.
Makana Reilly (14:55): Thanks so much, Dennis. Right now we have one question in the chat. Steven is wondering, does the cover letter substitute for a resolution? Dennis Wilson (15:08): No. The resolution should be, especially for your Tribe, it should be issued by the Tribal Council or the body that's involved in that and has the authority to do that, as well as the Tribal Organization, which they should have their own.
If you have any issues or particular questions about that, let me know. We'll work with you and see what we could do. It's not something that we can just not have since it would be unfair to the rest of the applicants, but if you run into particular situations, let us know ahead of time.
Obviously, don't not submit something, that's the worst case scenario. You'll have our contact information at the end and we can address that. Makana Reilly (15:54): Thanks, Dennis.
So far that's the only question. Everyone, as participants in this webinar, you can continue to add your questions into the chat and we'll have regular recurring breaks just to check in with all of you on the questions that are arising. We can always go back to questions that might have to do with presentations earlier in this slide deck. We're passing along to Christine now, but if you have questions on what Dennis just presented that come up later, feel free to just add them into the chat.
We will turn it over to Christine here. Christine Celentano (16:46): Good afternoon, everyone. We're going to talk about budget information and we're going to go into a little bit of depth about the forms, because a lot of questions come in on the forms. Applicants are required to utilize a SF-424A for their budget submission. Please use a descriptive file name as we mentioned earlier in the other sections, that includes your Tribal name and a project description. There's an example there at bullet five.
Christine Celentano (17:18): The budget must identify the amount of grant funding requested and a comprehensive breakdown of all projected and anticipated expenditures, including contracted personnel fees, consulting fees, hourly or fixed, travel costs, data collection and analysis costs, computer rental, report generation drafting, advertising costs for a proposed project and other relevant project expenses and their sub components. A link to the SF-424A will be also provided in the chat, so you can get a link right directly to that form and the most current version. Next slide please. Christine Celentano (18:04): Line item budget. Applicants are required to submit both a line item budget and a budget narrative. The project budget is for the 12 month period and entered on the SF-424A.
The budget justification consists of a budget narrative and a line item budget detail for the budget period of the proposed project. It includes detailed calculations for the object class categories identified in SF-424A, and discusses the necessity, reasonableness and allocation of the proposed cost in the budget narrative. Next slide please. Christine Celentano (18:47): Budget narrative. Travel costs should be itemized by airfare, vehicle rental, lodging and per diem, based on current federal government per diem schedule. Data collection and analysis costs should be itemized in sufficient detail for the OIED Review Committee to evaluate those charges.
Christine Celentano (19:06): For personnel oversight management, compensation and associated costs of personnel who will be providing management oversight will not be indirectly charged. Do not include the personnel costs of consultants or contractors under this category. For any position, provide the name of the individual if known, their title, time commitment to the project in months, time commitment to the project is a percentage or a full-time equivalent, annual salary, wage rates, et cetera. Identify the project director or principal investigator if known at the time of the application. Christine Celentano (19:46): Cost of employee fringe benefits or allowances and services provided by employers to their employees in addition to regular salaries and wages.
Typically, fringe benefit amounts are determined by applying a calculated rate for a particular class of employee, full-time or part-time, for example, to the salary and wages requested. Fringe benefits like salary will also be a direct cost. For example, health insurance, FICA taxes, retirement, et cetera. Those are a direct cost.
Other expenses may include computer rental, report generation drafting and advertising costs for a proposed project. Next slide please. Christine Celentano (20:33): This is what the 424A form looks like and the next three slides show the 424A budget information form for non-construction programs. Specifically, this form should match Number 18 of the SF-424, which we'll talk about in just a couple minutes. And your budget narrative. So they should all match.
The highlighted areas show where to input the requested information. This form's divided into six sections, lettered A through F. Section A is a high level summary for the project budget. Column A is the program title associated with the CFDA Number and column B is the CFDA Number: 15.032 in this case. Both pieces of information can be found in the Notice of Funding Opportunity, if you're not sure where to find that. Christine Celentano (21:25): Column C and D are only filled out for extension or continuation request.
So you'll be entering zero in each of those columns, as this will be a new request for funding. Columns E and F, you will enter the total amount of funding requested in column E and zero in column F, as no match is required for Tribal tourism. This form and SF-424 instructions on how to complete the forms are found at and ready to download in grants.gov.
Next slide please. Christine Celentano (22:00): This is page two and here in number six, you'll provide your budget line item requested amounts. In section A, lines A through F are the project's object class categories. Corresponding requested funding will be filled in, in section B budget categories. Christine Celentano (22:20): So in Section B personnel is project staffing you have identified and should match the staffing plan provided in your budget narrative. Fringe benefit expenses, other costs of the benefits for project staff, travel is the itemized travel cost associated with your project.
Where equipment and supplies are thought to be similar, equipment is considered a long term asset and has a unit cost of $5,000 or more. Contractual is any cost for which you would have a written contract associated. Neither project related construction, that's Item G, nor indirect costs, Item J, are allowed under Tribal Tourism Grant Program.
Christine Celentano (23:04): Most project costs will fit into the categories provided. The other expense items should only be used for project costs which do not fit into categories A through F. Total direct charges will automatically populate in row I. Program income is predicted to come from a program directly and in this case, it's not anticipated for the Tribal Tourism Grant Program. So it's just an example, those two areas G and J are marked out just to show you that those are not something you're going to deal with here with this particular funding program area. But you won't see that on SF-424A form. Next slide please.
Christine Celentano (23:52): This is the third page and section D includes the forecasted cash needs for the proposed project. You'll fill in row 13 for quarters one through four. The total forecasted cash needs will auto populate once each quarter is entered. Section E is where you enter budget estimates of federal funds needed for the balance of the project.
In this case, it's a 12-month project, so you won't be entering anything in that section. In section F, Number 21 is the total of federal direct charges and should match section B row I. Number 22 will not be filled in as indirect charges are not allowed under the Tribal Tourism Grant Program. Next slide please. Christine Celentano (24:41): This year, grantees will be required to have two individuals who work directly on the project attend an in-person annual Department of Interior, Office of Indian Economic Development sponsored grantee three-day meeting in Washington DC during the grant award year. Applicants must include costing the budget to cover this requirement.
Travel costs must not exceed $6,000 per person. Applicants should follow their own travel policies to budget for this three-day meeting. Additional funds for these expenses will not be available once the grant is awarded. In the event the meeting is converted to a virtual meeting due to timing or COVID-related issues, those funds may be repurposed in the grant. Next slide please. Christine Celentano (25:37): Budget narrative.
This is such an important part, so please be real conscientious about putting this together and providing all the great information that will help support your project narrative. Include a comprehensive breakdown of all projected expenditures. Budgeted items must be necessary, relevant and reasonable as they relate to the program proposal. Anything found in the budget must directly tie back to an activity expense proposed in the project. For example, if it's in the budget, you've mentioned it in the project narrative.
You should demonstrate and combine these three items to provide a justification for the proposed project expenditures in a well-written and thorough budget narrative. Next slide please. Christine Celentano (26:35): Applicants are also required to submit the SF-424. This form, you'll see it in the next three slides, can be found in a link in the chat. Again, when you submit this, please use the same naming convention and have everything identical and follow, so you're using the same naming convention for each portion of your application that you submit. This makes it easier during the review process.
As Dennis mentioned, everything comes down one at a time and so this is easier to track everything with you as the applicant in one place. On the SF-424 form, it requires Congressional District numbers and those can be found at the link that's provided in the chat as well. Next slide please. Christine Celentano (27:32): This is the first page of the SF-424.
The highlighted area shows where to input the requested information. This form and the SF-424A and instructions, again, are found in grants.gov. Also provided within grants.gov are detailed instruction boxes.
When one clicks over the highlighted area in gold, there's actually instructions that come up and links that are helpful. You can find these forms on grants.gov and we also have provided you with a link in the chat. Christine Celentano (28:08): Under Number One, that's the type of submission which is in this case an application. So that's a second box. The type of application is new.
In Number Eight A, please use a legal name of the applicant's Tribal Organization, not an individual. This name will be the name used consistently by OIED on forms and correspondence, so it's important to use the name that your Tribe uses legally. Number Eight B, the EIN or TIN is Tax Identification number are nine digit numbers assigned by the IRS and can take up to five weeks to acquire, so confirm this number as soon as possible. In number Eight C, the Unique Entity Identification number is a 12 digit number and one should allow 10 to 12 business days to require from SAM.gov. You'll enter the applicant organization's address in Eight D and in Eight F, This is the name of a contact for answering questions about an application and who oversees the program. This is not necessarily and is not usually the same person who is legally responsible for authorizing a grant agreement.
Next slide please. Christine Celentano (29:27): This is page two and in Number Nine the type of applicant is a dropdown menu. So you choose the correct description of your organization, whether it's a Tribe or a Tribal Organization, you'll be able to identify that there. In number 10, this should be prepopulated by the application package, but please confirm it's correct and filled in with the agency for which you're applying to. In this case it should say Department of Interior Indian Economic Development.
Christine Celentano (29:56): Number 11 is requesting the CF D number, which should be prepopulated and is also found in the Notice of Funding Opportunity or NOFO and can be found on grants.gov. Number 12, The Funding Opportunity number should prepopulate. However, the title may not prepopulate so copy the title from the NOFO here. In this case, Tribal Tourism Grant Program. Competition ID and title will prepopulate. Number 15, please provide your organization's title for the proposed project.
It is recommended to use a descriptive title that tells a little bit about the project as well. Next slide please. Christine Celentano (30:39): So this is three and the third page. You'll see at the top there that's highlighted, this is where you list the counties where the project is associated and will be located and the Congressional District number where the project is located.
List of Congressional Districts, they use a two character state abbreviation and a three character district number, like the one you can see in the upper right hand corner. If your service area crosses Congressional Districts, you're able to identify these areas as well. The next piece of the application is key contacts and at this time I'm going to turn it back over to Dennis to cover this important piece of the application. Dennis. Dennis Wilson (31:29): Thank you, Christine.
Key contacts. Again, we want to make sure that everyone that's involved with the facilitation of this grant award is able to be got ahold of in instances where someone is not available, there's been turnover, there's been change, the more the merrier. So please include everyone. You can include I think as many pages as you want.
Have those also consistent in the SF-424 if possible. The main POC or programmatic person is on page one. Obviously on the last page it's more than likely the authorizing duly elected leader of the Tribal Organization on the third page. But look at the naming convention, try to keep it to that as well. Again, we're pulling all these down individually and then we're going to put them in our tracking spreadsheets.
It could be the project manager contact information including the address email, phone I think is what they allow. Dennis Wilson (32:43): Again, let's talk about these two things that are really pertinent just to get through the door, which are SAM's registration with the UEI. That is also on the first page of the SF-424.
Make sure those match. If they don't, we've run into situations where either it cannot be awarded or we're going to have to do a whole new rerun. So please ensure that the UEI is consistent throughout the application, that it is also the one that's registered in SAM's as a vendor. So please ensure that. If you are enrolled in ASAP already, make sure that those matches well and that you have the BIA ASAP and that should not take as much time if you don't have it. But we have plenty of time to still get this stuff done.
So please ensure that. Next slide. Makana Reilly (33:40): Thanks, Dennis and Christine. So far there's no questions that have come up during that section.
Like I said, everyone, you can continue to put questions in the chat even though we've moved past whatever section you might have a question that comes up on. I think we'll we'll just continue on. We'll have another questions break moving forward, but for now we'll move on.
Thanks, Dennis. Dennis Wilson (34:08): No thanks, Makana. As we go through the rest of these slides, a lot of them are going to be wrapping up a lot of what Christine talked about, a lot of what was in the initial phase.
So as we move through, you submitted your application, your narrative hopefully addresses to these main points of the criteria, which it'll be ranked on. You could speak directly to them. However, the ranking panel members should be able to distill that down, but don't leave any points on the table is what they always say in these ranking panels.
Dennis Wilson (34:44): As you can see there's going to be five criteria, the biggest one, the most lost points is the Projects Economic Benefits. Next, Project Deliverables, down to Feasibility Process Analysis. 10, Cost of Proposal and the final 10, Specificity. Let's go through these quickly, one at a time.
Next slide please. Dennis Wilson (35:06): The biggest point, the Economic Benefits. You want to link what you're doing back to how it's going to impact the greater community. What do you expect out of it? What kind of economic stimulus, where is it going to lead, how is it going to collaborate with others? The kind of job opportunities it's going to provide. All of those garner points.
Some of these points are how is it going to increase tourism capacity? How is the project going to address economic challenges such as unemployment, workforce development, infrastructure needs, stimulate the economic activity within the native community. Does it address sustainability planning, ensuring that the project has long-term benefits for the community? And does the proposal identify any partnerships with nonprofits, private sector resources that might increase the potential that the tourism project will succeed. Dennis Wilson (36:07): As you can tell, it's wrapping everything up in the community that it should not touch any area when it comes to economic development. This is by far the biggest point loss, so try to do what you can to address these points, address what's in the NOFO and really flesh this out. Next slide please. Dennis Wilson (36:31): The next two are a little bit smaller.
The Project Deliverables, we want to see that you have a timeline, that it is a 12 month timeline that you can implement it at the January's notice or whenever the peer to performance starts, that you're going to be on point, you're going to be on task, that it's if not conservative, it's doable. And if you run into any problems, obviously in the reporting phase, if you're awarded, we'll address that. But we want to see that it's consistent with what's provided in the project narrative and it remains consistent through the whole application.
Dennis Wilson (37:10): On the Feasibility Process and Analysis, the reviewers are going to look at this in the term if there's a comprehensive timeline that's been developed to address the tasks that are needed to successfully complete the objective. Both of these are going to work in Tandem, whereas they're small... I froze. Dennis Wilson (37:47): The Cost of the Proposal, we obviously don't have crystal ball, but we have seen enough of these feasibility studies or some of these products from consultants on what costs are associated. They should be market costs, they should be provided. The bid, directly or indirectly should be involved.
The name of who you've selected should be contained within this application. No application should be submitted without a known consultant already either retained or going to be, because how would you come up with the amount of money that you need if you don't already have that in place, much less all the details of what they can provide with the data sources they have with the resources at their disposal. We want to see all that and that we're going to see if what is coming in or what you expect to be coming in is comparable to the cost and what you need for funding. Dennis Wilson (38:45): Specificity does wrap this up that you are as the organization, as the Tribe, in concert, working in tandem with the consultant, it's not just pushed onto them. Obvious in the application, it's not just photocopied and you can see that there's not a lot of communication, which we want to make sure both entities are in discussion and constant communication so that when we need or we come questions, we have data calls, we want to do success stories that we can really tap into both and get those things. Dennis Wilson (39:23): As you can see from that, it's a one of the smaller points, but as we've seen with a lot of these other cohorts, the applications are getting more and more competitive.
So it will come down to just fractions of points. Do what you can to maximize that, talk directly to the criteria when at possible and you should be fine. Next slide. Dennis Wilson (39:48): Special notes. I'll pull a lot of what we already talked about in the beginning and then what Christine covered, which is fantastic because we do run into a lot of these that drag down the ranking, drag down the final analysis, especially in the budget as we get to awarding.
So the less of this we can encounter, the better. Dennis Wilson (40:11): First and foremost, getting through the door, make sure you're eligible and that you have a complete application that'll get you through. You want to have all the mandatory forms filled out. You want to make sure your UEI is active.
It's the same UEI throughout on the SF-424 as a vendor in FBMS, through to ASAP. You don't need to and it's active, you want to make sure your BIA ASAP account is activated, you have all your roles identified, you are not pending. And if I run the ASAP completed list as of October 25th, your entity should be on it with the recipient ID. Those two major things, you're good to go. Dennis Wilson (41:01): Next is making sure you have things like the Congressional District and we'll get to that question in the chat as far as fleshing things out, but you want to have everything identified and fleshed out. Lastly, but not least is the Tribal Resolution.
You want to make sure it's included. Again, if you have a particular instance or situation that we need to discuss, let me know, but it will be required. In cases of a Tribal Organization in that definition, you could read it right in there as well. So it's there.
Next slide please. Dennis Wilson (41:40): The Tourism Grant Opportunity, NOFO, is on grants.gov. There's a link there to it.
How to apply link is there. That's been helpful. I went through that because I don't see what those on the grantee side submit. So it did help me a lot. And of course you could register@grants.gov for future CFDA notices and blast when opportunities
come up that you're eligible for, which I highly suggest that is powerful. Next slide, please. Makana Reilly (42:16): Dennis, it looks like we just have the one question right now regarding the three-day grantee meeting in DC. Is there guidance on who the two participants should be? For example, members of the Tribe or the project leads from the consulting firm that's hired? Dennis Wilson (42:35): Sure. Backing up just a little bit to talk about budget and being consistent and fleshing everything out.
Make sure your travel, well, your budget really should probably only have two things: the consultant fee and your travel. SF-424A, really should probably have that. If you have more, I've seen that and a lot of it's been necessary and reasonable that it's got to be explained, but for this kind of grant, it probably should be just those two things. Both of them should be fleshed out in detail, how those overall costs were derived. We shouldn't see a travel object class code, budget class code for $6,000 with no discussion, no breakdown, nothing anywhere in the application. It should be broken down.
You're free and encouraged to have your own budget spreadsheets in there to mirror what's on the SF-424A. Dennis Wilson (43:33): Should be three days. So figure the travel day in there as well, to DC. Go with the GSA rates, go with your Tribal processes, show per diem, show rental car, whatever you have to arrive at that final amount. Yes, things change, but we do need to see that for grant compliance. Dennis Wilson (43:54): Who should go? Ideally it should be from the Tribe, the Tribe or the folks that are going to be involved in not just this grant, but future grants, future tourism cohorts, those that when you take this feasibility study or business plan and you leapfrog, hopefully there's one of our success stories into different HUD grants, different opportunities that are out there.
So ideally, they should be the ones to go. Let us know if you need someone from a consulting firm to go, but it should ideally be those from the Tribe, because they're going to be ones that are going to be around and they're managing the grant, they were awarded the grant. So we would love to secure that relationship and foster that as we go forward.
Any other questions? Makana Reilly (44:47): I think for now, that's it, Dennis. We're almost done and we'll be able to open up for questions one last time. Dennis Wilson (44:56): Sure.
Next slide. Let's see what we have left. Technical Assistance. I blast this all over our NOFO and emails for those that have emailed me as well. Hopefully, you take advantage and register with Tribal Tech, not only from your pre-application, it should flow all the way through closeout and every step along the way. You want to maximize your success rate, so this is by far probably the one to do it.
Christine, Otto, Makana, they are fantastic at this. They probably know more about this than I do at this point, so please take advantage and fill out their intake form. It should be also available on our website, so please do that. Next slide please.
Makana's throwing some links down. Denise, I think we're going to turn this over to you. Christine Celentano (45:57): Dennis, before we close, this is Christine. Sorry, one second, Denise. We also hope to get your feedback on the webinar and so there should be a link in the chat that we'll direct you to just a couple-minute survey so we can see how we did and see how we can improve.
And thank you ahead of time for doing that for us. And I will turn it over to Denise. Denise Litz (46:23): It looks like there's one more question that came in. Makana, did you want to... Makana Reilly (46:28): Sure, yeah.
It says with the NOFO specifying that only one project should be submitted and that multiple projects would be denied, how specific does the one project need to be? For example, if a Tribe wanted to do a feasibility study for eco-tourism, IE, lodging, food and activities, could it apply under one project of eco-tourism or would the one project be eco, lodging specific? Dennis Wilson (47:05): Denise, you want me to go ahead? Okay. I would suggest keep it as streamlined as possible. Good question, Maxine, because for the amount of money you may be able to get both. It's going to come down to obviously the data. In any other vein or industry like valuations, et cetera, those with the best data typically charge the most or have a higher success rate with their products and they know that they may cost the most. So I would keep it as specific as possible.
If it's within a particular niche, like your example, eco-tourism, and there's some multiple pieces that will work in concert or they're related enough that it's not going to completely ticket off tasks, then have at it, feel free to do that. Dennis Wilson (48:02): Going forward, as you're awarded in this competitive discretionary grant program, you cannot change your statement of work. That is almost statutory with our grant officer. I've really never seen that. We've had additions when you've come in under budget, but those are far and few between and we don't like to go there either.
That being said, we cannot change your statement of work, so do what you can to make sure that what you're going to do for that 12 month is going to stay status quo all the way through. So if you get too specific in what you plan to do and you can't do it, now you're stuck. So be cognizant of that dance, with what you are going to be providing as a deliverable with goals, timelines. Don't overreach.
I think I beat that horse to death, so if you have any other questions specific about that, let me know. We could talk about it, especially after this year end run. We're going to have some more time. So hopefully I answered your question, Maxine, and then we can also talk offline about that.
I saw- Makana Reilly (49:11): Dennis, I have a few more questions. I'm just going to leave you spotlighted. So let's see. Cassandra is asking, you mentioned this will be the second cohort. Are the projects or case studies from the first cohort viewable online? Dennis Wilson (49:28): Let me check.
I know not every grant program was advertised as such, but they should be on there, at least who they were and a quick summary in what they did and maybe even the amounts. I know on tourism, I think that was it. I could check. But proprietary wise, that's their information and you're free to contact them and discuss it, but from us, we could only give so much. If it's not on there, I do have your email, Cassandra, I think I could get that to you, at least what has been publicly acknowledged.
So, yes. And yes, this is the second cohort. The first one was 2021. Makana Reilly (50:15): Okay. Thanks, Dennis.
The next question is regarding access to the recording of this presentation. Yes, the slide deck will be available on our website within the next week or so. And the recording, within one to two weeks. We just have to make small edits to the recording and get captioning up on it. But yes, both will be available online. And then let's see.
Dennis, Terry is asking what would suffice as a Tribal Resolution for a National Native Organization? Board of directors? Dennis Wilson (50:55): Terry, Thanks. Good question. Yes, for sure, board of directors. Secondary, if you read that definition of Tribal Organization, it does loosely state that you need approval from the parent Tribe. So if you can get that Tribal Resolution from the Tribe, you're going to have no problem at all.
If you have difficulty with that, let me know, let's discuss that. Don't not turn anything in. That will be an incomplete application. So for sure, board of directors.
Do try to get that Tribal Resolution from the Tribe because it is in the definition. There's a little bit of room here, but we do want to make sure that the Tribe is aware of any organization acquiring federal funds for the benefit of the community. It is right to have that, but if you're up against the wall on timing, we have some options to help you with that.
So please email me and we'll talk offline about that. Hopefully, we don't get too many of those, so please let me know. Makana Reilly (52:08): Thanks, Dennis. Marsha Kelly is asking, how is OIED defining the business plan? We want to apply for a business strong direction for marketing our agritourism program and products. Dennis Wilson (52:26): Marsha, howdy.
I would define it... Well, in general, you're going to find with our OIED grant programs that they're pretty broad by design, allowing each Tribe, each organization or whoever's eligible, whoever's an eligible entity to apply within our grant programs at their capacity for what they need, their direction. So you're not going to see a lot of dos and don'ts, can and can'ts. Definition wise, a business plan as it relates to moving forward. If it's agritourism, you already have land identified, you have what you're going to be doing identified with those next steps, is this business plan going to in case all of that and as it moves forward, I know that's just a loose definition, but however you define it, it should encapsulate all the functionality that you need from marketing, supplies, all the components that would be in a typical business plan with expected returns, so on and so forth. Dennis Wilson (53:40): So you do want to see all that, because you want to take these documents, whether it's the business plan or the feasibility study, and be ready to go next step.
You shouldn't need to acquire more pieces to it. This should be all inclusive and hopefully for the amount you should get that. If you're not, maybe you need to pair that down a little bit, but what we hope to do is get you these funding so you could springboard and be our success story.
And you secured other fundings, you took off and this just exploded into something fantastic and wonderful for the Tribe, and you come back and thank us for it. I probably beat that one to death too, but just want to make sure that you don't overreach or you don't have something provided that it's underwhelming, if that helps. Makana Reilly (54:29): Okay. One more, Dennis, coming in from Haley, I believe.
It says, "Just wanted to confirm that no indirect costs/federal de minimis rates are allowed." Can you answer that one first? There's followup to that. Dennis Wilson (54:49): Sure. No, at this point we have not offered indirect costs, administrative costs, de minimis rates for any of our grants so far. That may change in the future, but right now our direction is we don't.
So please don't include it on there. We're going to have to run that down. No, we will not be offering that. Makana Reilly (55:16): Okay.
And then I think you likely already answered this part, Haley is asking again regarding Tribal Organizations can submit a resolution from the board of directors rather than needing Tribal Resolutions from all the Tribes we provide programming with and for. Dennis Wilson (55:35): I see where you're going with this, because especially if you're a broader organization that oversees a good amount of Tribes, that may be problematic. If you have a particular case, let me know. Let's talk, that we have record of it prior to your application, but obviously explain it away in your application as well. You do get that resolution from the board of the organization for sure.
If you can get the one or more from the Tribal Organization, from the Tribes you represent, try to get those. What we want to ensure is this, that the Tribes are knowingly supportive, authorizing and involved with this project. What we don't want to see is, "We had no idea they were doing this. They got federal funds for this?" And it turns into that kind of situation. So we want to make sure through this instrument, the Tribal Resolution, that it is a known fact, because the resolutions are posted.
Everyone can see those and provide comments to that in their communities. I hope I answered that as well. Makana Reilly (56:47): Yep, I think so, Dennis, and it looks like for now, that's all the questions. Again, everyone, we're going to stay on just for a couple minutes after we're completely done with this presentation so you can continue to ask questions. And then also, as Dennis has mentioned multiple times, reach out to him.
He's an open door. I think, Dennis, we're passing on to Denise. Denise Litz (57:14): I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone for joining us today. I hope that this webinar has been helpful.
Please reach out to Tribal Tech and to Dennis himself if you have additional questions. And best of luck with your applications. Thanks for joining.
2022-10-04 17:44
