The US Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan
congressional think tank,
recently drew attention to the challenges communities across
the country face in accessing and leveraging federal funding
opportunities.
In early May, GAO budget expert Jeff Arkin
testified before the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs to highlight three “broad challenges”
for national grantmakers:
Local capacity limitations
Federal programmatic fragmentation
Federal data limitations.
Arkin noted that “human capacity” can be a barrier to seeking and
managing grants — especially for local governments with limited
resources — because they often lack the institutional knowledge
that larger entities might have.
His comments underscored the motivation behind the creation of
the CSAC Grants Initiative: to provide California counties
with no-cost member grant resources and
discounted premium grant services with the goal of
making individual departments more successful with specific grant
applications and entire counties more successful with
comprehensive grant strategies.
Arkin and GAO’s additional comments also noted that federal
broadband programs are particularly complex and duplicative,
making it especially difficult for counties and other entities to
track and seek help in expanding broadband access.
In California, county leaders, managers, and staff can seek help
navigating the complexity of broadband grants and grants in other
policy areas by reaching out Brian Rutledge, who manages
the CSAC Grants Initiative. They can also watch the Foundation’s
webinar on
Why ACP Matters and How Counties Can Expand Enrollment and
look out for future webinars where we’ll have counties share
effective strategies for promoting affordable broadband.
