The Benefits of Promise Zone Designations for Grant Applications

I have written extensively about pre-planning over the past year to help you understand the value in preparing for a government grant application *before* the formal RFP/NOFA is even open. If you missed any of those posts, you can see them here.

The upcoming anticipated round (and final round) of Promise Zone competition through HUD (Department of Housing & Urban Development) is no different.

Let us back up for a minute, though. You may be asking what is a Promise Zone? A Promise Zone is a “high poverty community where the federal government partners with local leaders to increase economic activity, improve educational opportunities, leverage private investment, reduce violent crime, enhance public health and address other priorities identified by the community.” You can read more about HUD’s definition of Promise Zones and previous approved Promise Zones here.

How can you go about determining if your community is a good fit for consideration as a designated Promise Zone? I recommend you begin by reviewing the draft Third Round Urban Application Guide or the Third Round Rural and Tribal Application Guide that was produced by HUD.

Are you wondering what the benefits would be to you as a community for applying and receiving the Promise Zone classification? Indeed, there is no immediate and direct funding provided to communities that initially receive the classification of Promise Zone. Rather, the benefits come to your community after the designation is received in numerous direct and indirect ways, including, but not limited to:

• An opportunity to engage five AmeriCorps VISTA members in the Promise Zone's work
• A federal liaison assigned to help designees navigate federal programs
• Preferences for certain competitive federal grant programs and technical assistance from participating federal agencies
• Potential tax incentives

All four of the listed benefits can have significant positive impact on each of the Promise Zone communities. One of the most widely discussed among grant professionals is the preference and priority points available to Promise Zones in competitive federal grant programs. There is an extensive list of grant programs, sorted by federal agency, that provide specific partner funding preferences or specific technical assistance opportunities for Promise Zone communities, which can be found here.

According to HUD, “The Promise Zone designation will be for a term of 10 years and may be extended as necessary to capture the full term of availability of the Promise Zones tax incentives, pending the enactment of tax incentives by Congress. During this term, the specific benefits made available to Promise Zones will vary from year to year, and sometimes more often than annually, due to changes in the agency policies and changes in appropriations and authorizations for relevant programs.”

How does a community best prepare themselves through pre-planning for the rigorous and transparent application process to be considered a Promise Zone? The answer is through many of the standard pre-planning best practices that you may have followed for other state and federal funding opportunities. These should include:

1 – Assessing your grant readiness and ensuring all lead applicant federal grant related registrations are current (including DUNS, SAM.gov, and grants.gov)

2 – Assessing the internal controls and policies for the lead applicant to ensure

3 – Assembling an internal grant team and laying out a project management plan and timeline for the preplanning process

4 – Convene with partners as early in the pre-planning process as possible to ensure that they are engaged in the dialogue and design of the application and prepared to provide letters of collaboration or complete memorandums of understanding/agreement

5 – Gather the support of the local community and key elected officials not already engaged in the pre-planning process

 

Here are a few other tips about managing the pre-planning process for a grant application.

 

If you are considering applying for Promise Zone status in the final round of consideration through HUD, and have questions about how to pre-plan leading up to the release of the application or completing the application in the most competitive way possible, please be sure to contact the GovGrantsHelp.com team for assistance!

Visit the Promise Zones webpage for more information.