11 May 2021

Community Connect Grants

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Community Connect Grants offers funding to eligible applicants that will construct broadband networks that provide service on a community-oriented connectivity basis in rural areas. Specifically, funds will be used for the construction, acquisition, or leasing of facilities, spectrum, land or buildings used to deploy broadband service for residential and business, and essential community facilities (such as public schools, fire stations, public libraries, and public safety stations). Up to 10 percent of the grant may be used for the improvement, expansion, construction, or acquisition of a community center that provides online access to the public.

More information is available here. Applications closed December 23, 2020.

3 May 2021

CDFI Fund New Markets Tax Credit Program

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Through the NMTC Program, the CDFI Fund allocates tax credit authority to Community Development Entities (CDEs) through a competitive application process. CDEs are financial intermediaries through which private capital flows from an investor to a qualified business located in a low-income community. CDEs use their authority to offer tax credits to investors in exchange for equity in the CDE. Using the capital from these equity investments, CDEs can make loans and investments to businesses operating in low-income communities on better rates and terms and more flexible features than the market.

This program is not currently accepting applications.

3 May 2021

ReConnect Program

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The ReConnect Program offers unique federal financing and funding options in the form of loans, grants, and loan/grant combinations to facilitate broadband deployment in areas of rural America that don’t currently have sufficient access to broadband, defined by the law as 10 Mbps (megabits per second) downstream and 1 Mbps upstream.

This program will generate private sector investment to deploy broadband infrastructure to provide high-speed internet e-Connectivity to as many rural premises as possible, including homes, community facilities for healthcare and public safety, schools, libraries, farms, ranches, factories, and other production sites. The ReConnect program offers three products: 100% Loans, 50% Loan-50% Grant combinations, and 100% Grants.

The application window closed February 22, 2022. For more information, see the funding opportunity announcement.

3 May 2021

Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grants

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The Distance Learning and Telemedicine program helps rural communities use the unique capabilities of telecommunications to connect to each other and to the world, overcoming the effects of remoteness and low population density. For example, this program can link teachers and medical service providers in one area to students and patients in another.

For more information, see the fact sheet. Applications closed June 4, 2021.