Align Grant Coordination Workgroup

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Salish Sea References

• Watershed Characterization Mapper
• The Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
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• WDFW's Salmonscape Map

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In 2015 The Washington State Department of Ecology and the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office convened a workgroup to explore improving the efficiency and effectiveness of natural resources grant programs in Washington state. That group was reauthorized in 2023 with a broader range of state agencies.

Grant Administration Streamlining was identified as an early target for Coordinated Investment resulting in formation of this coordination group by directors Kaleen Cottingham (RCO) and Maia Bellon (Ecology). The ongoing Continuous Improvement effort has identified a "funding system first" approach to improving overall ecosystem recovery, and has defined collaboration with the grant coordination workgroup, as its initial focus.

Chronology

• 2015 - Founding of the workgroup under RCO & WDOE 2015 water and salmon charter.pdf and NOAA and RCO describe strategies for application efficiency.
• 2016 - The group begins work with support from a Lean Fellow from the Washington State Office of the Governor
• 2019 - NOAA supports workshops to explore standardization of applications (described in File:Cereghino 2019 DRAFT project description problem focus group.pdf)
• 2020 - The workgroup funds the Conservation Project Budget Standards effort but the product is not adopted and promoted by large funders.
• 2022 - NOAA ends staff support for the group along with recommendations for funding system improvement
• 2023 - The group is reinvigorated under a broader coalition of state executives under RCO et al 2023 Align grant coordination MOU.pdf

Workgroup Documents

• File:RCO et al 2023 Align grant coordination MOU.pdf describes a new agreement between RCO, Ecology, WDFW, PSP and WSCC to improve grant processes.
• File:RCO & WDOE 2015 water and salmon charter.pdf defines the initial charter for grant coordination.
• http://fundfinder.wa.gov is a website being developed to support easy access and comparisson of a variety of grant sources
• File:Water and salmon A3.pptx - describes the groups purpose and focus
• File:Water and salmon 2016 april governors breifing.pptx - describes work to date

Grant System Improvement References

• Cereghino 2022 funding system improvement to leadership council - presents a culminating assessment of funding system weaknesses and describes a pathway for establishing feedbacks to support improvement.
• SRFB 2019 large project barriers - a presentation of the results of a survey of projects sponsors about what is preventing them from working on large projects.
• Cereghino 2019 DRAFT project description problem focus group - output of a day-long workshop to define strategies for reducing redundancy in project applications over a project lifecycle.
• MC2 2018 lead entity lean study - a intensive examination of funding processes in the RCO state salmon system.
• Ryan-Penula et al 2017 LIO plan summary analysis - summarized "gaps and barriers" identified by LIOs
• Canty 2015 NEP riparian easement advisory describes feedback to EPA about how to develop an effective program that achieves reach scale protection and restoration in the riparian zone.
• Cereghino 2015 grant administrative streamlining describes an analysis of the steps necessary to develop a shared information architecture that could accelerate collaboration.
• Cereghino 2015 accelerating estuary restoration describes the barriers faced by 65 regional project managers working on large estuary restoration, including a critique of some dynamics in the grant system.
• Cereghino 2015 coordinated investment concept provides a series of images describing coordinated investment, including three slides with diagrams describing grant administration streamlining.
• Sahandy & Daily 2014 watershed proviso recommendations uses interviews to explore barriers to efficient local watershed coordination that could be solved by grant programs.
• Blackmore 2009 obstacles to salmon recovery projects summarizes interviews that explore barriers to large project implementation in Puget Sound salmon recovery.
• Cereghino 2009 conservation marketplace concept provides a 1 page argument for grant streamlining.