Closed · P21AS00509 · CFDA 15.916 · Discretionary
Land and Water Conservation Fund Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program
Federal grant opportunity posted by National Park Service, cataloged on Grants.gov.
- $300K-$5M
- Award range
- Closed
- Status
- September 24, 2021
- Close date
- -
- Expected awards
The verdict
Land and Water Conservation Fund Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program is a closed discretionary listing from National Park Service that offered $300,000 -- $5,000,000. Future funding cycles may be published under the same CFDA number.
- $300K-$5M
- award range
- Closed
- application status
- 15.916
- CFDA program
Opportunity snapshot. This Grants.gov announcement - Land and Water Conservation Fund Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program - is cataloged under number P21AS00509 and tied to CFDA assistance listing 15.916, posted by National Park Service. Grants.gov currently shows the opportunity as closed, first posted on May 10, 2021 and last updated on December 12, 2025. The funding category is Discretionary, delivered as a grant.
Award economics. The award range on file is $300,000 -- $5,000,000. The agency has projected $150.0 million in total estimated funding for this announcement. Cost sharing or matching funds are required, meaning applicants must contribute a portion of the project budget from non-federal sources, factor this into your financial plan before drafting the proposal. Federal award ranges are often upper bounds; actual allocations reflect program appropriations, the strength of the applicant pool, and the evaluation committee's scoring.
Deadline and action path. This opportunity closed on September 24, 2021. Future funding cycles may be published under the same CFDA number, so monitoring the parent program page is the most reliable way to catch re-announcements. Every Grants.gov submission requires an active SAM.gov registration and a Unique Entity ID. Review the Eligibility section below carefully, federal eligibility categories (nonprofit, state or local government, tribal, individual, educational institution, small business) have distinct registration and reporting requirements. Pre-application outreach to the listed agency contact is permitted and often welcomed, it helps clarify scope and scoring priorities. Before acting on the deadline or award figures above, verify them directly on the official Grants.gov listing, amendments can change dates and amounts after this page was last refreshed.
Award Range
$300,000 -- $5,000,000
Close Date
September 24, 2021
Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 11:59 PM, ET, on the listed application due date.Pre-applications from the state LWCF lead agencies are due to the NPS via Grants.gov by 10 pm ET on Friday, September 24, 2021. The state LWCF lead agencies may establish earlier deadlines for project sponsors to submit their proposals for review for nomination to the national competition. Applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov. Applications sent by facsimile, email, or mail delivery will not be accepted. Applications that are not received by the deadline will not be considered. The NPS will accept pre-applications that: 1) were accepted in Grants.gov by the stipulated time, based on the time/date stamp in Grants.gov and 2) have been validated in Grants.gov, even if they are not forwarded to the DOI’s grant management system before the deadline.You are encouraged to submit your application well before the deadline and not wait until the last minute. The uploading and transfer process can take a while, especially when Grants.gov is getting heavy use. In addition, after the application is submitted it gets validated before it is forwarded to the NPS. Normally this happens within a few minutes to a couple of hours, but it can take Grants.gov up to a day or two to validate or reject an application. You can monitor your application’s status by email. You will receive four (4) emails from Grants.gov in the submittal process: the first confirms successful receipt and contains a Grants.gov tracking number; the second confirms that the application has been validated; the third confirms the application was “received” by the agency, and the fourth assigns an NPS tracking number. If you do not get the first email, you should assume the application did not even successfully submit to Grants.gov. If you do not receive all four emails, you should assume the application was not actually forwarded to NPS, notwithstanding the email about receipt, in which case you should let your NPS program officer know. Sometimes there are glitches that prevent actual transmission, for example, applications that exceed 200mb in size do not get forwarded to the DOI system. Most problems occur at the validation step so you should always check the second email; if there was a problem it should be described in this email. Technical difficulties with application submittal should be directed to the Grants.gov help desk. NPS staff can confirm receipt of submission but cannot resolve issues with Grants.gov or extend the application deadline due to difficulties with submission via Grants.gov.
Posted
May 10, 2021
Est. Total Funding
$150,000,000
Instrument
Grant
Cost Sharing
Required
Description
The LWCF State and Local Assistance Program was created by Congress in 1964 to assist in preserving, developing and assuring accessibility to present and future generations of U.S. citizens and visitors “such quality and quantity of outdoor recreation resources as may be available and are necessary and desirable for individual active participation in such recreation and to strengthen the health and vitality of the citizens of the United States[.]" This is accomplished in part by authorizing and providing grants to states, and through states to local units of government and federally-recognized Indian tribes, for projects that will provide outdoor recreation opportunities to the public through the acquisition of lands and waters for parks and other outdoor recreation areas, as well as through the development of new, or the renovation of existing, outdoor recreation facilities.The LWCF State and Local Assistance program is operated by the National Park Service (NPS) in partnership with designated lead agencies in each of the 50 states as well as American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Congress allocates money from the LWCF for this program, which is then allocated to the states based on a legislative formula. To be eligible for LWCF grants, states must maintain an approved Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP), which must be updated at least once every five years. Among other things, SCORPs are used to assess the supply and demand for outdoor recreation resources and set priorities for the use of LWCF funds. In 2014, in coordination with Congress and the Secretary of the Interior, NPS created the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (ORLP) Program, a competitive grant program administered under the authority of the LWCF Act. NPS designed the ORLP with input from Congressional Committee staff, the States, and other interested parties. As designed, the goal of the ORLP Program is to provide new or significantly improve recreation opportunities for economically-disadvantaged communities in larger urbanized areas (as designated by the Census Bureau) that are under-served in terms of parks and other outdoor recreation resources. With Congressional support, the NPS has funded and issued grants pursuant to the ORLP each year. ORLP grants are selected through an NPS-lead national competition following a solicitation and nomination by the States, and such grants do not count against State apportionments.
Eligibility
Grants.gov lists this opportunity under eligibility category code 00. These codes correspond to applicant types (state/local government, tribal organization, nonprofit, educational institution, individual, small business, etc.) defined in Grants.gov's own eligibility reference. See the current Grants.gov eligibility categories or check the official listing below for this opportunity's exact eligibility statement.
Official Listing on Grants.gov
View full details, application forms, and submission instructions.
Parent Grant Program
Outdoor Recreation — Acquisition, Development, Planning
U.S. Department of the Interior
Agency Contact
Ginger Carter ginger_carter@nps.gov
Key Dates
Frequently Asked Questions
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Disclaimer: This information is sourced from Grants.gov and SAM.gov and is for informational purposes only. Opportunity details, deadlines, and eligibility requirements change frequently. Always verify current information directly on Grants.gov before applying. PlainGrants is not affiliated with any federal agency.
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Related
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| Sources | the SAM.gov Assistance Listings and Grants.gov |