Predevelopment capacity is an essential catalyst to economic and regional recovery. This capacity is often lacking, in small, rural, and distressed communities where a shortage of human or financial capital can limit the ability to undertake high-value projects. The Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Research and National Technical Assistance program awarded a $500,000 grant to the Milken Institute and sub awardee, the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) to launch a predevelopment training and project accelerator for small, rural, and underserved communities. This initiative will create a predevelopment technical assistance workshop series highlighting the basics of pre-development and specialized project development activities. The program includes the expansion of  the Milken Institute to expand the National Predevelopment Caucus, a series of monthly, national convenings that currently engages more than 200 community stakeholders, investors, NGOs, governments, policy experts, and project developers.

The Community Infrastructure Center is excited to announce its partnership with OpenGrants, an online platform designed to help grant seekers find federal, state and local grant opportunities based on eligibility, size, and deadline criteria. Through this partnership, the CIC is providing free access to this information to support project sponsors in locating and applying for grants and additional sources of funding both from private sector and philanthropy. This partnership also provides learning material through the platform to support grant writers in developing high-quality and competitive grants based on industry expertise.