Iowa Awarding Innovation

Iowa’s Governor Kim Reynolds recently announced the recipients of the first round of a new funding source, the Rural Innovation Grant Program. The intent of the program, as described by IowaGrants.gov, is to “Support creative, non-traditional ideas that focus on current issues and challenges faced by rural communities associated with the themes of community investment, growth, and connection.”

Grant Details

To receive funding applicants need to submit an application for projects that fall under one of three program focus areas:

• Focus Area 1: Growing Rural Iowa
  • Supporting community leaders as they think holistically and act collaboratively to inform and connect leaders to rural issues; grow vibrant community gathering places; and develop tools to train and educate the next generation of leaders.
• Focus Area 2: Investing in Rural Iowa
  • Supporting projects that develop creative, scalable development solutions including but not limited to projects that address rural housing solutions; infill and reuse strategies; and affordable, sustainable designs.
• Focus Area 3: Connecting Rural Iowa
  • Supporting projects that improve and expand opportunities for diverse members of Iowa’s rural communities to utilize high-speed broadband service.

The grant awards can range from $1,000 to $20,000 and require the applying entity to match at least half of the funds requested. Grants are also limited to communities under 20,000 residents in size. Communities under 5,000 even get a five point bonus in the project scoring.

The Projects

For this first round of funding a total of 17 grants were awarded to communities throughout the state. A number of the projects were quite intriguing:

• Stanton, IA – Stanton received $20,000 toward a sizable ($553,400) downtown improvement project. At first this award only intrigued me as this little town is only 10 mile away from my home town. But there are great things afoot with Stanton’s project. Through their consultant’s website you can see that Stanton has big plans for a small town.
• Lenox, IA – Another southwest Iowa town that received funding for a project in their downtown. But this one involved their proposed pocket park. As stressed in the recent Park it in your Pocket post, pocket parks are an efficient way to add to your park system.
• Fort Madison, IA – Fort Madison plans to use the funds for free public WiFi in their downtown.
• Webster City, IA – A community organization called All Cultures Equal will use the $9.400 in grant funds to help finish and equip a commercial kitchen for entrepreneurs. It is an interesting project for food-based start-up businesses. More on the project is available through their local paper’s website.
• Jefferson, IA – Awarded $20,000 towards a coworking space in a historic building.

To see a full list of the grant recipients and the projects awarded, check out the award listing.

Additional information on Iowa’s Rural Innovation Grant Program, check out the grant information page on IowaGrants.gov or the Empower Rural Iowa webpage. For links to the IowaGrants.gov page and more financial and technical assistance opportunities, check our Rural Resurrection’s Tool Kit page.