Local First Arizona’s Economic Recovery Center Reports Significant Wins in its First 6 Months of Operation
Since its inception in May of 2021, the Center has
won $4.6M in grants for applicants across Arizona.
PHOENIX (February 28, 2022) — In May of 2021, Local First Arizona launched the Arizona Economic Recovery Center (AZERC) to assist organizations and small rural towns statewide with building their capacity for small and large projects that have the potential to grow, contribute to, or transform the economic health of Arizona. Since its inception, the AZERC has assisted a multitude of rural towns, nonprofits and tribal organizations to win grant awards surpassing $4.6 million.
Services that help research opportunities, identify and connect funding sources to communities in need, grant writing, facilitation and management projects are provided at no charge because of sponsorship funding provided by: the State of Arizona, Vitalyst Health Foundation, Freeport-McMoRan Foundation, SRP, Arizona Complete Health, Arizona Community Foundation and Arizona Generation and Transmission Cooperatives.
Katie Boddy, Local First Arizona’s senior manager of economic development for the AZERC, mentions that “grants are difficult to win. Organizations and communities need someone — sometimes a team — to assist with developing material, writing narrative content and navigating the submission processes in order to request available funding. And even then, they’re highly competitive.”
That’s where the Arizona Economic Recovery Center (AZERC) comes into play.
An initiative of Local First Arizona, the Center provides pro bono resources to qualifying entities to build community capacity, improve collaboration and assist with managing grant-related projects. The initiative was created to enable qualified Arizona cities, towns, counties, tribal communities and nonprofits to win competitive federal, state and foundation grants. And it’s working. The numbers show the impact and the beneficiaries can attest to the assistance and relief that follow funding wins. Here’s a snapshot:
More than $4.6 million in awards has been funded to organizations using AZERC capacity building resources.
215 organizations from all 15 counties in Arizona have been assisted resulting in successful grants in 13 counties.
108 consultants have been deployed to assist grant efforts of rural and tribal towns and organizations in every county.
100% of participants to date have found the expert consulting and processes provided were helpful in increasing their capacity – not just now, but into the future.
Recipients of awards continually express gratitude by saying that it “means so much … to have this level of support” and the “list of funding opportunities [are] incredible … so comprehensive and better than all others.”
The Arizona Economic Recovery Center was integral to our grant writing process,” says Kathleen Yetman of the Prescott Farmers Market. “[They] connected us with a consultant who provided guidance, resources and data to make our case stronger. Thanks to [this] help, Prescott Farmers Market was awarded a grant of nearly $350,000!
Pinal Hispanic Council received a $40,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). “[This] grant award would not have been possible without the wonderful assistance from the Arizona Economic Recovery Center,” says Ralph Varela. The funds were awarded from the Emergency Rural Health Care Grant to cover information technology equipment and room improvements at the Pinal Hispanic Council outpatient facilities located in Eloy, Coolidge and Douglas.
The City of Sierra Vista received more than $19,000 from the Visit Arizona Initiative to fund their budget for marketing – a crucial element of staying in business. "The grant will allow me to better manage my division budget,” says Judy Hector. “With inflation, we are experiencing cost overages in nearly all purchases and have been curtailing marketing buys to help make ends meet. The grant fund will allow us to continue [our] program.” Her experience writing marketing grants was limited and the AZERC was very helpful in helping her fine-tune her submission and distill the most important information to be awarded the grant.
This visual (Infographic) gives a look at the progress and fulfillment of the program.
Follow this link to find out about assistance and supporting the AZERC.
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About Local First Arizona
Founded in 2003, Local First Arizona (LFA) is a community and economic development organization working to strengthen local economies. LFA’s areas of focus include developing entrepreneurship, rural and urban community development, racial equity, environmental action and food access. LFA is the largest local business coalition in the U.S. and advocates for independently-owned businesses of all sizes by assisting local owners with technical assistance designed to help them compete and collaborate, which ultimately strengthens Arizona's economy and builds hometown pride. Visit www.localfirstaz.com for more information and a directory of more than 3,000 locally-owned businesses.