Announcements
Changes to Evaluation Criteria in 2024
- Watch the April Criteria Changes Webinar
- 2024 Grant Criteria Change Fact sheet
- 2024 Project Need Changes and Map to Determine “Project Need-Statewide Priorities” Score
Typical Projects
- Adding lights to a field to allow evening games
- Changing an underused tennis court to a high-demand basketball court
- Changing the field surface, such as installing artificial turf, to allow more games per season or more seasons when the field may be used
- Expanding a youth-sized softball field to accommodate broader community uses
Who May Apply?
Small Grants Category
- Cities, towns, and park districts with a population of ten thousand residents or fewer.
- Counties with sixty thousand residents or fewer. The project must be in an unincorporated area.
- Native American tribes
- Nonprofit organizations. The population of the jurisdiction where the project lies will apply.
Large Grants Category
- Cities
- Counties
- Park districts
- Native American tribes
- Nonprofit organizations active in youth or community athletic activities for at least three years
Funding Source
Funding comes from the sale of state bonds and is awarded every two years.
Grant Limits
- Small Grants=Up to $350,000 (total project cost including match must be no greater than $700,000)
- Large Grants=$25,000-$1.5 million
Match Details
Applicants must contribute match that equals the amount of the grant request.
Match may include the following:
- Appropriations or cash
- Bonds
- Donations of cash, labor, equipment, and materials
- Other grants
- Applicant’s labor, equipment, and materials
Some local agencies may reduce their match if they meet any of the criteria below:
- Communities in need
- Under-served populations
- Counties in need
- Federal disaster area
Eligible Projects
- Architectural and engineering costs.
- Areas associated with track and field events.
- Land acquisition for future development of eligible facilities.
- Outdoor athletic fields, such as baseball, lacrosse, and soccer fields.
- Outside pools for competitive events.
- Sport courts outdoors such as tennis or basketball courts.
- Support elements such as landscaping, restrooms, drinking fountains, bleachers, bike racks, scoreboards, signs, roads, driveways, fire lanes, and parking lots. These projects must include an “in bounds” item, which is an item found within the field of play or on the court or track and is essential for the competitive sport to occur. Refer to the Manual 17: Youth Athletic Facilities for more details or contact a grants manager. This requirement does not apply to stand-alone accessibility improvement projects in the Small Grants Category.
Ineligible Projects
- Acquisition or combination projects in the Small Grants Category
- Any facility intended exclusively or primarily for professional or semi-pro sports use
- Any work done on a facility not eligible for a YAF grant
- Consumable supplies such as light bulbs, toilet paper, fertilizer, chalk, and fuel
- Elements that cannot be defined as fixtures or capital items, such as uniforms, bats, balls, and coolers
- Indirect costs
- Indoor facilities such as gyms, courts, pools, ice rinks
- Multiple Small Grant Category applications at the same facility or location in the same biennium
- Organizational operating expenses or overhead including staff salaries
- Purchase of maintenance equipment, tools, or supplies
- Routine maintenance such as lawn mowing
- Signs or displays promoting tobacco products or alcoholic beverages
- Stand-alone acquisitions
- Utility payments such as monthly water or electric bills
Long-term Commitment
Land acquired with YAF grants must be kept available for outdoor recreation purposes forever.
Land or facilities renovated with these grants must be available for public youth or community athletic use for at least twendy years after RCO accepts the project as complete.