Notes from our Chief Furry Officer (CFO)

Woof, fellow workforce warriors! Still feeling pretty proud of my skunk costume from Halloween (though some colleagues genuinely mistook me for the real thing – oops!). My keen nose has been glued to grants.gov lately, sniffing out new funding opportunities like they're hidden treats. And just like I can track a squirrel's path through the park, our Evaluation and Analytics team has been telling the story of our program partners and the impact of their prog— sorry to cut this short, but that squirrel is really… Oh! SQUIRREL! Gotta run – I mean, time for an outdoor strategic planning session!

The Story of Your Programs - Evaluation and Analytics

New Growth Group's Evaluation & Analytics team provides comprehensive research and assessment services for public sector initiatives. We partner with federal, state, and large-scale projects to:

• Transform complex data into actionable insights
• Design and implement rigorous program evaluations
• Develop custom analytics tools and dashboards
• Support evidence-based decision making
• Build evaluation capacity within organizations

Currently, we are working on evaluation projects including NSF evaluations, Strengthening Community Colleges evaluations, Department of Education Title III evaluations, analytics projects, labor market analysis, and more.?

One example of our work is a partnership with MAGNET, PolicyBridge, and Towards Employment to evaluate an innovative manufacturing sector on-ramp program focused on recruiting and training Black workers. This collaboration examined program effectiveness and outcomes, providing insights to strengthen workforce development initiatives in manufacturing. For more about the program, click here for MAGNET’s blog post on the subject.

Grants Forecast

Each month, our team will share some of the grants we’re tracking. This month we're focusing on "cyber."?

November Focus: Cyber Stuff

The goals of the CyberCorps? Scholarship for Service (SFS) program are aligned with the U.S. strategy to develop a superior cybersecurity workforce. The program goals are to: (1) increase the number of qualified and diverse cybersecurity candidates for government cybersecurity positions; (2) improve the national capacity for the education of cybersecurity professionals and research and development workforce; (3) hire, monitor, and retain high-quality CyberCorps? graduates in the cybersecurity mission of the Federal Government; and (4) strengthen partnerships between institutions of higher education and federal, state, local, and tribal governments. Link to the grant: Search Results Detail | Grants.gov

Department of Labor Forecast - The Cybersecurity Upskilling Initiative will fund job training programs that upskill incumbent and dislocated workers who already have Information Technology (IT) credentials and experience but need additional qualifications and specialization to meet employer demand for high-skill cybersecurity occupations. Grants will be awarded to sector partnerships to design and implement cybersecurity training programs. Link to the grant: Search Results Detail | Grants.gov

Future Manufacturing - Three areas have been identified for support under this solicitation: Future Cyber Manufacturing Research, Future Eco Manufacturing Research, and Future Biomanufacturing Research. This solicitation seeks proposals to perform fundamental research to enable new manufacturing capabilities in one or more of these thrust areas. This solicitation will support the following two award tracks: Future Manufacturing Research Grants (FMRG) - up to $3,000,000 for up to four years; and Future Manufacturing Seed Grants (FMSG) - up to $500,000 for up to two years. Link to the grant: Search Results Detail | Grants.gov

What Else Is New

While federal grant guidance updates may not make for thrilling vacation reading, their ripple effects touch every organization receiving federal funds. The latest revisions to these rules (released October 2024) bring significant changes that grant recipients need to start planning for now. Think of it as the 'tax code' of federal funding – not the most thrilling read, but getting it right is crucial for compliance and success.

Commonly referred to as Uniform Grant Guidance the latest revisions seek to simplify the world of federal grants.?

?A link to the 2024 revisions can be found here.??

Here are some of the highlights from these revisions:?

• Value of items considered “equipment” goes from $5,000 to $10,000.?
• Increasing single audit threshold (point at which a Federal funding recipient must conduct a third party audit) from $750,000 to $1,000,000.
• De minimis indirect rate increases from 10% to 15%.
• Increases from $25,000 to $50,000 the amount of a subaward or contract that can apply to calculating indirect cost amounts.
• Allows for grant funds to be used for grant closeout.?
• The costs related to data and evaluation are allowable and may be charged as direct costs or allowable to be used under indirect costs.
• Directs agencies to write their funding announcements in plain language - and allows for translation into other languages.?
• Emphasizes the importance of engaging organized labor (for example as eligible entities, in procurement, and in competition).?

A summary and language directly from the Office of Management and Budget here.?

Because New Growth focuses so much on the Department of Labor, here is a link to the DOL web page focused on these revisions. It’s part of WorkforceGPS, so if you don’t have a login you can create one for free.?

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