The Wisconsin Office of Rural Prosperity is offering an opportunity for rural and Tribal communities to join Thrive Rural Wisconsin.
The deadline to apply is Nov. 13. Learn more: https://ruralwi.com/thrive-rural-wisconsin/
Thrive Rural Wisconsin is offered at no cost and provides project management support, technical assistance, and an opportunity to apply for a WEDC Capacity Building Grant. The program helps advance community-based economic development, small business initiatives, regional collaboration, and rural capacity building.
The Office of Rural Prosperity hosted a webinar that can b e reviewed here.
Program benefits include:
- Community assessments
- Work plan development for priority projects and project management support
- Fundraising mapping and funding identification
- Grant-writing consulting (process guidance, review, etc.)
- Creation of customized toolkits and resources to build capacity in grant-writing, grant compliance, or Thrive Rural focus areas
- Referrals to consultants, state agencies, and federal programs that help advance the projects identified in the work plan
- Exclusive invitation to apply for pre-development grants (~$25,000 per year) to advance a project and prepare for state and federal grant applications (e.g., feasibility study, architectural renderings, engineering studies, mapping, business plan, or curriculum design)
Eligible partners are limited to: county economic development organizations, nonprofits and tribal organizations.
Partners should be based in communities of 10,000 people or less that do not contain a metropolitan statistical area. A metropolitan statistical area is defined by having at least one urban area of 50,000 or more inhabitants.
