On September 4, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released the FY2025 Request for Applications (RFA) Rural Cooperative Development Grant (RCDG). The program provides a total of $5.8 million in funding to support the development of rural cooperatives through technical assistance. Eligible applicants must submit an application by 5:00 P.M. EST on September 15, 2025.
Background on RCDG
In FY25, Congress appropriated $5.8 million for the RCDG program to provide grants to cooperative development centers. The program has historically been administered by the Rural Business Cooperative Service within USDA’s Rural Development Mission Area. But in January, the Administration issued a government-wide review of federal grant programs to ensure alignments with Administration priorities. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is responsible for the RCDG application process, including uptake, review and awarding for FY25.
Carefully review the NIFA application process including the NIFA Grant Application Guide and the program notice on NIFA’s website.
The purpose of the RCDG program is to enable nonprofit institutions to establish and operate centers for rural cooperative development (Center). The primary objective of the program is to improve the economic condition of rural areas by helping nonprofit organizations who in turn provide technical assistance to start, expand, or improve cooperatives and mutually owned businesses in rural areas.
Applicants will be evaluated on a basis of 115 points in the following areas:
- Experience in technical assistance, including cooperative development; and effectiveness in accomplishing outcomes (30 points)
- Workplan and Budget Details (30 points)
- Commitment to Underserved and Economically Distressed Areas (15 points)
- Networking with other centers including joint technical assistance may take the form of a sector partnership, which designs and deploys training solutions at a regional or state-wide scale (10 points)
- Qualifications of Key Personnel (10 points)
- Matching Funds: Applicants who meet the 25 percent in-kind, cash, or combination match will receive full points (5 points)
- Regional and National in Scope (25 points) Consistent with 7 CFR 4284.530, USDA is establishing additional merit evaluation criteria to meet the Department’s key priorities,
goals, and objectives. The Agency will award 1 to 25 points if the Applicant demonstrates multi-organizational, multi-State, and/or national Cooperative Development approaches, with additional points awarded for the larger the scope of the approach. Points will be awarded as follows:
- i) 0 points will be awarded if the Application does not address the regional and/or national scope of the project.
- ii) 1 to 5 points will be awarded if the Applicant details programming in a single state with two or more partners.
- iii) 6 to 15 points will be awarded if the Applicant details programming in multiple states within one region with multiple partners.
- iv) 16 to 25 points will be awarded if the Applicant details programming in multiple regions with multiple partners.
New Terms Specific to the FY25 Notice:
New Application – An application not previously submitted to a program.
Sector Partnership – A partnership of businesses from the same industry who join with other strategic partners to train and place workers into jobs that the businesses need filled and intend to fill through the partnership. The strategic partners should include education and training institutions, such as community and technical colleges, and can also be comprised of public, private, and non-profit organizations. A sector partnership is focused on one specific industry and one or more specific roles within that industry. The lead entity of a sector partnership (i.e., Backbone Organization) serves as an intermediary across all the partners in the sector partnership. Sector partnerships are effective because: they are carefully built to include necessary partners before workforce solutions are designed; they cut across traditional economic development, workforce, education, and social services system silos; they are targeted to in-demand sectors with jobs; and they consider the economic realities of a regional or state-wide industry in assessing workforce demand and training needs.
For more information, or if you have questions about Grants.gov or Workspace Grants.gov, please contact: Support@Grants.gov.
For general questions about the NIFA grant application process, please contact the NIFA Office of Grants and Financial Management (OGFM) Support via GrantApplicationQuestions@usda.gov.
For specific RCDG program information, please contact:
Edwin Lewis, Ph.D., NIFA National Program Leader Edwin.Lewis@usda.gov
Izabella Jablonska, NIFA Program Specialist Izabella.Jablonska@usda.gov
If you are interested in learning more about NCBA CLUSA’s Advocacy work, please email advocacy@ncba.coop.
