Land & Water Conservation Fund Grants

 

Overview

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) Program is a federal program authorized by Congress for the purpose of acquiring federal lands and assisting states and local governments with funds to acquire lands and develop and renovate outdoor recreation facilities.  LWCF funds are appropriated by Congress to the U. S. Department of the Interior, National Parks Service (NPS), and NPS allocates the funds through state agencies as a grant program to state and local governments.  Grantees must match the grant award dollar for dollar.

The LWCF Program, first authorized in 1965, has resulted in Georgia receiving over $120 million in matching grant funds. The program was reauthorized and received permanent funding in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 respectively.  With the permanent funding, it is anticipated that Georgia will receive $5-7 million annually.

In order to efficiently administer the grant funds, LWCF moved to a bi-annual grant cycle.  With two years of allocations to award, an estimate of $10 million will be available to local governments during the 2022-2023 grant cycle.


Program Reminders

LWCF requires a dollar-for-dollar match for all grant request.

The minimum grant request is $25,000 ($50,000 total project).

The maximum grant request is $500,000 ($1 million total project).

Only one application can be submitted for an LWCF project per jurisdiction.

For those who have applied for LWCF grants in the past, be mindful that scoring criteria has changed.


Educational Videos

How to better your LWCF application (October 2023)

2nd-level application webinar (September 2023)

 

Pre-application webinar (January 2023)

LWCF Overview

Applicants & Project type

Funding

Pre_application

Criteria

Second level application-etc

Final q&a


Contact Us

Rayne Gaston, Compliance Specialist (closed/prior grant information)

404.463.8632  |  rayne.gaston1@dnr.ga.gov

 

Antoinette Norfleet, Grants Manager (project proposals and current/active grants)

404.463.8629  |  antoinette.norfleet@dnr.ga.gov

 

Taylor Brown, Grants Chief

404.463.8601 |  taylor.brown@dnr.ga.gov

 

 

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