Grants and Agreements Resource Center

Have you considered partnering with the Forest Service?

Are you unsure if partnering is a possible option or what the process looks like?

You can follow the guidelines below to help answer some of these questions and more. 

Grants and Agreements (G&A) work differs greatly from contracting, a common avenue that renders a product or service to the government.

We help entities such as yours in awarding grants and agreements in a variety of program area opportunities.

Our G&A program is committed to increasing accessibility, expanding opportunities, and building collaborative approaches with you. 

Each partnership agreement comes with its own requirements, limits, and opportunities.

We work with you to best match proposed projects with permissible activities authorized by Congress and available funding.

Grants and Agreements both can be Federal Financial Assistance transactions for work that benefits the public good.

Grants and Agreements are legal instruments used to document assistance between government agencies and various entities.

Cooperative Agreement projects include substantial involvement by our Forest Service staff but not under a Grant. 

The System for Award Management, or SAM.gov, is an official website of the U.S. Government external to G&A.

If you would like to partner with the us at the Forest Service, a SAM.gov registration is required.

Your entity is unable to apply for or receive federal funds Without a SAM.gov registration.

You can use the external SAM.gov site to register to do business with the U.S. Government.

The SAM.gov website also allows you to update, renew, or check the status of your entity registration.

Find more detailed information for SAM.gov on their website, see link below.

Identifying a project’s need and capacity may be initiated by either us at the Forest Service, yourself as partner, or as a collaborative effort.

If either of our parties have a project ready, it can be shared as a potential collaborative project at any time.

Once all parties have agreed to work together, we will discuss agreement options with you to jointly craft a partnership proposal.  

Mutual interest and mutual benefit are an important REQUIREMENT for Grants & Agreements.

We can partner together both on and off National Forest System land as long as there exists mutual interest and mutual benefit from the project.

Mutual interest and mutual benefit also distinguishes Grants and Agreements work from contracting where a product or service is rendered at a contractor’s awarded bid.

Once everyone decides to develop a specific project, all parties involved should work closely to determine several facets of the project proposal.

We will work with you to ensure any partnership agreement meets all mandated law and Forest Service policies.

We will work on collaborative revisions until all parties are satisfied with the agreement contents for signature, award, and execution.

We can always discuss Financial and budgetary planning for agreements at any time.

Everyone must agree upon clear goals, objectives, and outcomes to determine which grant or agreement type best fits the project.

All parties must agree upon a timeline, purpose, capacities, capabilities, responsibilities, funding sources and funding types between each respective party.

If you’re looking for grant funding opportunities, grants.gov is a government website dedicated to grant searches, applications and more. See link below. 

All official parties must sign the agreement, only then can outlined work be coordinated and executed.

Throughout the life of the grant or agreement, partner entities are required to submit regular reports to the Forest Service showing the progress of work and funding updates.

Periodic invoices must be submitted after each segment of work is completed.

Partnership agreements may be in place for a period of up to five years, or in the case of a Stewardship Agreement, for ten years.

To close out an agreement, all final reports and invoices must be submitted and paid out.

Any unused funding requires de-obligation and returned to the respective parties.