Pioneer Valley
Planning Commission
Grant Writing Assistance Program
The Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management is pleased announce a program to facilitate the provision of grant writing assistance to municipalities that are seeking competitive grants from programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This service is being provided free of charge to local governments.
The Center has designed a simple process for municipalities to follow to secure grant writing assistance. The process consists of 4 steps:
- The municipality identifies a specific project that meets the criteria detailed in the funding agencies guidelines;
- The municipality identifies one point person to contact the Collins Center to request assistance; we want to avoid multiple contacts for the same project from the same municipality;
- The municipality contacts the Center’s program administrator Michael Herbert at 617-287-7488 or Michael.herbert001@umb.edu
- We will then discuss the proposed project, ascertain if it is eligible for the particular grant program and then refer the municipality to a specific contact within its regional planning agency who will actually provide the grant writing assistance. In some instances, we will refer municipalities to other grant-writing providers rather than the regional planning agency, depending on the circumstances. Anybody that is unsure as to what regional planning agency their municipality belongs to can look it up in the MMA’s directory or visit Mass.gov where they are all listed.
Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management
McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies
University of Massachusetts Boston
Approximately $42,200,000 available through two EECBG programs:
1. COMMUNITIES GREATER THAN 35,000 - $27,000,000
- 42 cities and towns
- Direct grants
- 23 Awarded as of today
- To confirm award please log in at fedconnect.net – sign in using username and password
2. COMMUNITIES LESS THAN 35,000 - $14,750,000
Competitive grants - $12,200,000 – 80% of total EECBG
- 309 Municipalities eligible
- Awards capped at $150,000
- Solar pv
- Other clean technology
- Performance contract buy-downs
- Thermal Conservation measures for all oil or propane heated buildings
- Information available at:
- Public Opportunity Notice and Application available at www.comm-pass.com
- Solicitation Number: ENE-2010-009
- Applications are to be submitted by 12/7/09 at 5pm to Diane Gray at: diane.gray@state.ma.us
- Questions: Please post questions to www.comm-pass.com or email Diane Gray
Owner’s Agent Technical Assistance - $825,000
- 351 cities and towns eligible
- Awards provided in the form of services capped at a value of $50,000
- Owners agents will be contracted to DOER through a competitive solicitation and provided to municipalities for:
- Renewable Energy projects
- Performance Contract projects
- Information available at:
- Public Opportunity Notice and Application available at www.comm-pass.com
- Solicitation Number: ENE-2010-008
- Applications are to be submitted by 12/7/09 at 5pm to Diane Gray at: diane.gray@state.ma.us
- Questions: Please post questions on www.comm-pass.com or email Diane Gray
Building Inspector Training: Stretch Code and Energy Code - $175,000
- Free training for all municipal building inspectors
- Currently selecting firm to do training