Looking for federal funding for one of your projects? The State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) provides billions of dollars in funding to state, local, and Tribal governments to support their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Final Rule of the SLFRF provides various possibilities for enumerated eligible uses of funds, as detailed throughout this series, applicants can also use funding beyond the scope provided by the Treasury. Follow these steps to determine if your project is eligible for SLFRF funding. 

1. Identify a COVID-19 public health or economic impact 

The impact identified should be one that affects a specific household, business, nonprofit, or a class of one of the three aforementioned groups. Classes should be as specific as possible, with either a population and/or geographic basis. To be “impacted,” the affected entity should have been directly impacted by the disease of COVID-19 itself or the economic disruptions exacerbated or created by the pandemic. Regardless of being an individual entity or class, the applicant should provide documentation evidencing the impact’s occurrence. For individual entities, documentation of the individual is necessary, while examples from a few individuals can demonstrate an impact across a class.  

The impact identified should also be identified as a disproportionate impact, meaning that it impacted a class experiencing pre-existing disparities.  These disparities can be demonstrated through the entity’s own data, governmental or academic research, or analysis of other data sources. If quantitative research is not available, qualitative research will do. The quality of research should be evident. 

2. Design an appropriate response that mitigates or resolves this impact 

Responses to the impact could take the form of a service, program, or other intervention as they applicant sees fit. Regardless of the proposed solution, the response should be both related to the impact and proportional to the level of harm of the impact. For entities that were disproportionately impacted, the response can also work to address the pre-exiting disparities that the group experiences.  

Allowance for uses beyond those enumerated as eligible in the Final Rule of the SLFRF provides vast potential in funding for various projects, programs, services, and/or interventions. For further information on SLFRF funding potential, explore our series of blogs describing the ins and outs of the program.