Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz An endorsement from two of its members convinced Del Norte County supervisors that partnering with an initiative tied to the California State Association of Counties will be a strategic advantage when pursuing state and federal grant dollars. The CSAC Grants Initiative and its partners, Washington D.C.-based consulting firm, the Ferguson Group, will provide grant-writing services to Del Norte County as part of its $75,000 contract. It will also help the county figure out how to match its projects with specific grant programs. It’s an approach District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey said she appreciated. Starkey, who sits on a technical advisory committee devoted to grants with her colleague Joey Borges, said they liked the proposal so much they decided to bring it to the whole Board. “Oftentimes what we do is we say, ‘Oh, there’s a grant out there and it’s going to do x,’ and we come up with how we could fit into x,” she told her colleagues Tuesday. “This is more of a strategy. It’s meeting with departments and saying, ‘What projects do you have? How can we help you develop them? What’s our strategy?” And then waiting for that perfect grant to come down.” The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the $75,000 professional services agreement with the CSAC Grants Initiative. This flat-fee one-year contract includes a $50,000 retainer for strategic consulting and planning as well as $25,000 for grant writing services, according to a staff report from Assistant County Administrative Officer Randy Hooper. The CSAC Foundation launched the grants initiative, and its partnership with the Ferguson Group, in 2022. According to Veronica Smith, the foundation’s director of programs and grants, county leaders, particularly those in rural communities, needed “strategic support” to access competitive state and federal dollars. “How we operate our initiative is dependent on the types of programs or grants that we are seeking on behalf of counties,” Smith said. “There is a very robust team of grant strategists and specialists who were brought in to assist with projects on an as-needed basis.” Since it launched, the CSAC Grants Initiative has worked with Humboldt, Imperial, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties. It has current relationships with Inyo, Mono, Sacramento, Nevada and Sonoma counties, and offers webinars, workshops and consulting to communities throughout California, said Kristi More, managing partner of grants for the Ferguson Group. According to More, Del Norte’s contract with the CSAC Grants Initiative comes at a time when federal funding is uncertain while state grants are coming out at a more fluid and rapid pace. She showed a five-step approach the initiative takes to the grant process, beginning with research and analysis to match project priorities with programs at the state, federal and local and regional levels as well as how to make it competitive. CSAC Grants Initiative consultants will give county staff advanced notice when grant opportunities will be available “so we can get partnerships in play,” including background information and materials. More’s grant cycle included the application period — “probably the smallest step in the entire process,” she said — and the waiting period. “In a more modern take on the grant cycle we’re seeing questions come back from funding agencies,” she said. “They might have questions on the different elements of your application — how you’re going to manage the funds and so forth — we participate and help advise during that period. That can take anywhere up to six months to get that final review and final notice back from the funding agency that your funds are awarded.” The CSAC Grants Initiative will also be involved in the reporting and compliance stage of a grant, More said. “Custom for Del Norte is actually the inclusion of grant writing,” she said. “We’ll do the grant writing for you start to finish, work with staff who will give us all the information we would need and then we would write the narrative and do the budgets and we do all the forms to take that off of your staff and put it on ours.” Though they’re not on the grants technical advisory committee, the CSAC Grants Initiative proposal drew applause from Starkey’s colleagues, District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson and District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard. Wilson echoed Hooper’s staff report, saying that the proposal fits well into the county’s strategic plan and takes the burden away from individual departments who are too small to consistently pursue extra funding. “So many opportunities are lost to Del Norte County [because] we do not have someone dedicated to writing grants and pushing forward,” he said. Wilson also pointed out that in addition to being able to find the time to pursue grants, Del Norte often lacks the ability to provide matching funds, which is often a requirement. Howard said Del Norte is like many rural counties that don’t have the ability to pursue state and federal grant opportunities. CSAC’s contract with the Ferguson Group allows rural communities to have a competitive edge. “Having this competitive edge, more importantly from a group that knows what they’re doing will really allow us to move forward,” Howard said. Despite the Board’s optimism, Gail Tarbell, a county resident who has experience as a grant writer, was skeptical. She asked supervisors to question how often More and her team at the Ferguson Group would be available to Del Norte County staff and whether they would really represent what the community’s needs are to potential funders. “It really is good to have a strategy, but I know it’s hard to find a good grant writer,” she said. Starkey urged Tarbell to read the CSAC Grants Initiative contract and assured her that the county’s grants committee would continue to be involved. “We’ve really fleshed this out and we — Supervisor Borges and I as well as our admin staff — are feeling really comfortable with the services they’re able to provide us,” Starkey said. “We’re going to be staying on top of the work this service is going to provide and we’ll be able to report that back to the full board.”