Watershed Information and Education Program  Go back

The SD Discovery Center is currently not accepting any proposals for 319 I&E minigrants. Please sign up for the Watershed Newsletter to receive notice of the next grant cycle.

This Request for Proposals (RFP) solicits proposals to conduct watershed information and outreach projects in South Dakota.

I. Background

A. The 319 Information and Education Project (IEP) was established in 2004 with a grant to the South Dakota Discovery Center (SD Discovery Center) as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Section 319 Nonpoint Source (EPA 319) grant program. The goal of the IEP was and is to implement a comprehensive statewide effort to promote and facilitate public understanding of watersheds and related water quality management issues in an effort to contribute to the protection, restoration and maintenance of water resources. The project was continued in 2007 for three more years.

B. The IEP is guided by the South Dakota Nonpoint Source Information and Education strategy adopted by the Nonpoint Source Task Force on September 21, 2000. Allocation of IEP funds and major policy actions are directed by the Nonpoint Source Task Force Information and Education Sub-Committee (Sub-Committee) with day-to-day management of the IEP handled by staff of the SD DISCOVERY CENTER.

D. Execution of IEP goals is to be achieved, in part, through a competitive grant process. Grants are awarded twice each year (spring and fall cycles). Grant funds are available to individuals, organizations and institutions seeking to conduct activities consistent with IEP priorities.

II. Goals & Priorities

A. The goal of the 319 program is to protect and restore the beneficial uses of the state’s surface and ground water resources by controlling nonpoint source pollution. The 319 program takes a predominantly non-regulatory approach, relying upon voluntary implementation of those practices which reduce, mitigate or prevent nonpoint source pollution. A non-regulatory approach requires an informed and educated citizenry that is willing and able to support and implement nonpoint source pollution reduction practices and initiatives. Information and outreach projects develop stakeholder and citizen awareness of watersheds, non-point source pollution, its impacts and methods of prevention.

B. Priority Topics. Mini-grants will be made available to qualifying groups with projects that address priority topics. Priority topics are:

Hint: Copy and paste the following sections into a Word Processing Document.  Make sure you have all sections, Summary Sheet, Project Description and Budget, in your new document.  The double dashed lines indicate a new page.
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Page 1: Project Summary Sheet.
Project Title Name:
Contact Information
Project Coordinator:
Address:
Phone:
Email:

Which priority topic does your project address ?
□ Wetlands and Watershed ecology
□ TMDLs
□ Nutrient and manure management (no demonstration projects)
□ “Smart Growth” and low impact development
□ Volunteer monitoring
□ The value of keeping land in CRP.

Outcomes (select all that apply):
□ Knowledge and awareness of local or statewide issues and concerns related to watersheds and nonpoint source pollution.
□ Knowledge and awareness of urban and innovative agriculture watershed protection practices.
□ Participation in activity or activities that maintain, protect or restore watersheds.

Project Overview:
Audience:
Activities:
Evaluation:

Start & End Dates:
Amount Requested:
Match:
Total Project Cost:
*Applicant Signature & Date:
Applicant Title:
*Signatory must be a representative who is able to commit the organization to the project.
 
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Page 2 - 7: Project Description

1. Need
Why is this project needed in South Dakota?

2. Audience
Who is your direct audience? How many do you expect to reach? Is there a secondary audience? Describe your audience including, where applicable, age (e.g. student vs. adult), geographical region (statewide vs. watershed), stakeholder role (e.g. landowner, producer, general public). If you are reaching those that will in turn inform, instruct, educate or serve as a model for others (the secondary audience), describe the expected secondary audience.

3. Priority
Which priority topic does your project address ?
□ Wetlands and Watershed ecology
□ TMDLs
□ Nutrient and manure management (no demonstration projects)
□ “Smart Growth” and low impact development
□ Volunteer monitoring
□ The value of keeping land in CRP

4. Activity
Describe and explain your activities (what you are going to do).

5. Results
What will the results of the project be?  What changes will ideally occur as a result of the project? The results section differs from the activity section in that the activity section describes what you are going to do and the results sections describes what you expect will happen. 

For example, if you are going to do an outreach campaign, your activity section will describe the brochures, the public service announcements and the workshop while the results sections will describe what happened as a result of your outreach campaign.

The results of the project should fall into one of the three broad categories below.  Please select one category and then elaborate on how your project can achieve these results.
□ Knowledge and awareness of local or statewide watershed issues and concerns related to watersheds and nonpoint source pollution.
□ Knowledge and awareness of urban or innovative agriculture watershed protection activities.
□ Participation in activity or activities that maintain, protect or restore watersheds.

6. Project Sustainability
Is this a one time project or is there potential for it to continue after the funding period? If there is potential for it to continue after the funding period, describe how that will happen. Include who will manage and maintain any equipment bought as part of the project.

7. Sponsors
Who is the project sponsor and who are the partners? Identify the lead sponsor and cooperating organizations. Briefly describe the role and responsibility of each organization. Explain what resources the lead organization has that will help ensure project completion. If a cooperating organization is supplying cash match, a letter of commitment from that organization is required. If there are two lead sponsors on a project, a draft cooperative agreement should be attached.

8. Evaluation
How will you measure your audience’s learning or awareness or awareness? Each project should utilize at least one of the methods below to evaluate the effectiveness of their project. If appropriate, projects will be strengthened by using two evaluation methods.

a. Numbers reached. Document the number of people who received information from this project. If possible, include demographic information about the audience. Describe how you will collect this information.
b. Survey. The target audience will be surveyed. Depending on the project, the survey can be informal and self initiated (a guest book, comment cards, recording of verbal comments from project participants by coordinators) or formal and a required part of the activity (an evaluation form). Describe your survey methods.
c. Pre/post survey. The target audience is surveyed regarding their knowledge, attitudes or actions before the project then re-surveyed after the project using the same instrument to assess change. This is an effective method to use for workshops. Describe what changes (knowledge, attitudes or actions) you will be surveying.
d. Outside indicators of behavior change. These might include increase purchases of no-phosphorous fertilizer, increased usage of no till drills, or some other indicator that watershed friendly behaviors were occurring. Describe the outside indicator of behavior change and how it will be measured.

9. Milestones
What are your milestones? Prepare a one-page table or chart which shows the expected progression of work on that project as discussed above. Milestone chart must include project report submissions.

10. Budget
See attachment two. On the budget page of your proposal, explain the budget and the line items showing that costs, both direct and matching, are reasonable for project scope.

Letters of Commitment
Letters of commitment from organizations providing cash match are required. Letters of support from agencies providing in kind match strengthen the proposal.

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Page 8: Budget

1. Please complete the following chart to show your total project costs.

* Ownership of equipment purchased with I&E funds that costs more than $500 and that has a useful life-expectancy that exceeds the length of the project will be retained by the SD Discovery Center at the end of the project.

** Indirect costs included in the grant proposal budgets must be clearly identified and the method or methods by which indirect costs are calculated must be explained. State-supported universities should use the South Dakota Board of Regents rate for the state funds, which is 60% of their federal share.

Formula to determine match:
Amount requested/0.60 =Total Project Costs
Total Project Costs - Amount Requested = Required Match