UPR – Business and Economic Development Center Capacity Building Program

To increase the eligibility of non-profit organizations, municipalities, state government agencies, and academic institutions to be able to receive federal and private funds in all regions of Puerto Rico, the University Center, in collaboration with the EDA, completed all tasks of the scope of work for the Hurricane Maria Capacity Building Program (HMCBP).

The two main components of the project were:

• Grant-writing Capacity Building Workshops
• One-on-One Economic Development Technical Assistance.

The focus for the Grant-writing Capacity Building Workshops was to increase the number of eligible applicants submitting federal proposals and one-on-one economic development technical assistance on request, primarily for potential grantees of the EDA 2018 disaster recovery NOFO. Experts from the Business and Economic Development Center, in collaboration with the staff of the Research and Development Center (R&D), held eleven workshops in four different locations, Mayagüez, San Juan, Ponce, and Fajardo, to deploy the capacity building and conducted clinics and site visits also in Vieques and US Virgins Islands. The project impacted close to 300 organizations and 48 municipal governments, focusing on DUNS registration, SAM registration, Grants.gov, proposal development, federal forms, and more.

The program received 71 potential grantees to revise and submit federal proposals to the US Economic Development Administration (EDA) through the Technical Assistance component. From those, 15 submitted a 900P, 6 completed a 900P draft, 28 submitted an abstract for revision, and 22 received an orientation with a grantee informational package. 7 out of the 15 that submitted the 900P received a grant from EDA. Those potential grantees received individualized counseling, including conference calls, emails, and virtual meetings to formulate economic recovery projects, assistance in grant writing, and pre-application completion for electronic submission in Grants.gov, among other types of assistance. 

Workshop Component:

• 779 Attendees
• 69 Municipalities represented
• 295 Non-Profits Organizations
• 46 Municipal Governments
• 44 – 501 c3 Federal Exemptions submitted with 33 approvals
• 58 – DUNS Numbers registered
• 25 – SAMs Registrations
• 16 – Grants.gov Registrations

Technical Assistance Component:

• 66 – Referred cases from NGOs, Academics, and Municipalities
• 18 – Abstracts submitted for review
• 7 – 900 Ps draft for eventually uploading
• 14 – 900 Ps submitted to PRO through Grants.gov
• 22 – Orientations

Impact: This initiative had an overall potential project impact of $72,569,841 EDA funding, including a match with an estimated 7,783 jobs created and 2359 jobs retained.

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