Grant Details

Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant (REDLG) Programs - FY 2025

Agency:	U.S. Department of Agriculture
CFDA:	10.854
Federal FON:	RD-RBCS-25-REDLG
Office:	Rural Development (RD) Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBCS)
Multipart Grant:	No

Next Due:	12/31/2024 (Multiple)
Solicitation Date:	08/23/2024

Match Required:	Yes
Match Type:	Unspecified
Actual Funds:	$50,000,000 (Estimated)

Summary:

The purpose of this program is to support projects that promote rural economic development and job creation. Awards will be provided in the form of grants or loans to successful applicants, that will pass the funding through to business and community borrowers, or ultimate recipients, in the form of loans.

Grant awards must be used to create revolving loan funds (RLFs) for this purpose. Both grant and loan awards will be used by the ultimate recipients for costs such as:

Business incubators
Community development assistance to nonprofit organizations and public bodies, particularly for job creation or enhancement
Facilities and equipment to educate and train rural residents to facilitate economic development
Facilities and equipment for medical care for rural residents
Startup venture costs, including financing fixed assets such as real estate, new or existing buildings, equipment, or working capital
Business expansion
Technical assistance

Applicants are encouraged to consider projects that will advance the following key priorities:

Addressing climate change and environmental justice: reducing climate pollution and increasing resilience to the impacts of climate change through economic support to rural communities
Advancing racial justice, place-based equity, and opportunity: and ensuring all rural residents have equitable access to the funding agency's programs and their benefits
Creating more and better market opportunities: assisting rural communities recover economically through more and better market opportunities and through improved infrastructure

Last Updated: November 25, 2024

Eligibility Notes:

Eligible applicants are the following borrowers described in the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, as amended:

Corporations
States and territories
Subdivisions and agencies of states and territories
Municipalities
People's utility districts
Cooperative, nonprofit, or limited-dividend associations

Applicants must meet one of the following criteria:

Are current Rural Utilities Service (RUS), electric, or telecommunications borrowers
Are a former RUS borrower that has repaid or pre-paid an insured, direct, or guaranteed loan under the Rural Electrification Act
Are nonprofit utilities that are eligible to receive an insured or direct loan under the Rural Electrification Act

Projects must serve rural areas or towns with a population of fewer than 50,000 residents. For persistent-poverty counties, projects may serve county seats with populations of up to 55,000.

Priority will be given to applicants that are federally recognized tribes, including tribal instrumentalities and entities that are wholly owned by tribes; to projects where at least 50 percent of beneficiaries are members of federally recognized tribes; and to non-tribal applicants that submit tribal resolutions of consent from tribes they propose to serve.

Additionally, priority will be provided to projects that are located in or serve:

Rural communities whose economic well-being ranks in the most distressed tier (distress score of 80 or higher) of the distressed communities index
Rural communities with a social vulnerability index (CVI) of 0.75 or above
The Rural Partners' Network's (RPN's) community network, which currently includes communities in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, West Virginia, and Wisconsin
Disadvantaged communities, as defined by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST)
Energy communities, as defined by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)

Refer to pages 3-4 of the NOFA file or additional information regarding these program priorities.

There is no limit on the number of applications an applicant may submit.

Completed loan applications that exceed $1 million but are not funded in the FY 2025 first quarter competition will be allowed to compete for second quarter funding with the submission of a revised scope of work plan and budget for a loan amount not to exceed $1 million.

The following entities are not eligible to apply:

Entities or organizations that are delinquent on any federal debt
Corporations that have any unpaid federal tax liability
Corporations that were convicted of a felony criminal violation under any federal law within the preceding 24 months

Previous award recipients include:

Southern Iowa Electric Coop, Inc. (IA)
Singing River EPA (MS)
United Telephone Mutual Aid Corporation (ND)
Origo Cold Madera Phase I LLC (CA)
Verndale Products Incorporated (MI)

Refer to the Award file for additional information regarding previous award recipients.

Eligible Applicants:

Local Government
Native American Tribe
Non Profits
Private Sector
State Government
Tribal Organizations/Institutions

Application Notes:

Applications must be received by 4:30 p.m. local time on one of the following dates:

September 30, 2024
December 31, 2024
March 31, 2025
June 30, 2025

Applications must be obtained by contacting the appropriate Rural Development (RD) state office listed online at www.rd.usda.gov/page/state-offices, and must be submitted to the appropriate state office as electronic or hard copies. Faxed or postage-due applications will not be accepted.

The contents of the application will become available upon initiation of the application process.

The following are required in order to submit an application:

Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number
SAM (System for Award Management) registration
SPOC (state Single Point of Contact) notification

Applicants may obtain a UEI number and verify or renew SAM registration status at www.ecivis.com/sam. Applicants in states participating in the SPOC program must contact the relevant SPOC listed in the SPOC file before applying.

A how-to apply video series for this program is available online at www.youtube.com.

Prior to applying, applicants may request technical assistance or other application guidance from the funding agency using the information provided in the Contact section, as long as such requests are made at least 15 days prior to each submission date.

Refer to the NOFA and Overview files for additional application information.

Match Required:	Yes
Match Type:	Unspecified
Actual Funds:	$50,000,000 (Estimated)

Match Notes:

Applicants seeking loans, or the ultimate recipients of loans, must provide a match of at least 20 percent of the loan amount.

Applicants seeking grants must establish a revolving loan fund (RLF), and provide an amount equal to at least 20 percent of the grant amount. This contribution may not be provided using other federal grants, unless permitted by law.

Funding Notes:

Approximately $50 million is anticipated to be available to support grants of up to an anticipated $300,000 and loans of up to an anticipated $2 million through this program; however, the maximum loan amount awarded for applications competing in the second, third, and fourth quarter funding cycles of FY 2025 will be lowered to $1 million.

Awards are anticipated to be made on the following dates:

November 30, 2024, for applications submitted by September 30, 2024
February 28, 2025, for applications submitted by December 31, 2024
May 31, 2025, for applications submitted by March 31, 2025
August 31, 2025, for applications submitted by June 30, 2025

Project periods will begin on December 1, 2024, and end on September 30, 2026. Renewal or supplemental awards will not be provided.

Loans will be made at zero percent interest rate for ten years. Loan award recipients must pass on loan funding to local businesses or ultimate recipients for projects that will create and keep employment in rural areas. First-time loans are at zero percent interest. Repayment for loans for ultimate recipients may be deferred for up to two years for projects that include a startup venture or community facilities projects.

Grant award recipients may use funding to establish RLFs. Grant funds must be repaid to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) upon termination of RLFs.

For grant awards, operating expenses of the RLF are limited to 10 percent of the total award amount over the life of the RLF.

Pre-award costs will only be permitted with the prior written approval of the funding agency.

Funds may not be used for foreign travel.

In August 2023, two grants of $300,000 each and three loans ranging from $1.5 million to $2 million were distributed through this program. In June 2023, 23 loans ranging from $1.5 million to $35 million and four grants ranging from $630,000 to $9,752,250 were distributed. In December 2022, 20 loans ranging from $272,296 to $1.5 million were distributed, and 14 grants ranging from $36,986 to $300,000 were distributed. Refer to the Award file for details.

Contacts:

Cindy Mason
(202) 720-1400
cindy.mason@usda.gov

Agency Address
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development
Rural Business-Cooperative Service
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Rm. 5803-S, STOP 3201
Washington, D.C. 20250-3201

Contact Notes:

Questions should be directed to Cindy Mason, or to the appropriate Rural Development (RD) state office listed online at www.rd.usda.gov/page/state-offices.

Applications must be submitted electronically or as hard copies to the appropriate RD state office.

The agency address provided is for reference purposes only.

Files:

NOFA File: US0106_NOFA_FY2025.pdf (367.7 Kb)
Other Pre-Award File: US0106_RuralElectrificationAct_FY2025.pdf (208.6 Kb)
Other Pre-Award File: US0106_FactSheet_FY2025.pdf (212.6 Kb)
Other Pre-Award File: US0106_Overview_FY2025.pdf (161.1 Kb)
Award File: US0106_Award_FY2025.pdf (4.1 Mb)
Other Pre-Award File: US0106_Update_FY2025.pdf (184.4 Kb)

Federal Forms:

SPOC (67.7 Kb)

File Notes:

The NOFA file contains the full solicitation for this program. The RuralElectrificationAct file contains the text of the Rural Electrification Act, which includes information regarding the eligibility requirements for this program. The FactSheet file contains a fact sheet summarizing this program. The Overview file contains general program information. The Update file contains updated information regarding the maximum loan amount awarded through this program. The Award file contains information on previous award recipients. The SPOC file contains information on the state Single Point of Contact program.

November 26, 2024
Updated information regarding the maximum loan amount awarded through this program has been released and attached as the Update file. The Eligibility and Financial sections have been updated accordingly.

Project:	The Eclipse Packaging Project (6.0 Mb)
Applicant:	Crescent Electric Membership Corporation
Summary:	The purpose of this program is to support projects that stimulate rural economic development and job creation. Crescent Electric Membership Corporation requested and received $600,000 to fund the Eclipse Packaging Project, which will fund the start-up of Eclipse Packaging, Inc., a plastics packing operation which will provide 27 permanent jobs to the rural area near Statesville, North Carolina. The corporation provided $4,091,000 in matching costs.

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Grant Categories

Community Development
Economic Development
Training & Vocational Services
Information Technology/Telecommunications
Rural Issues
Human Services