Browse Ambrook’s collection of grants, loans, discounts, cost shares, easements, and insurance for travel.

As funding allows, FACT awards scholarships of up to $400 for livestock and poultry farmers to attend educational events—including virtual events—to learn knowledge, skills and best practices related to humane animal management, business and farm finance, and/or value-added production processes. 



Current livestock and poultry farmers who reside in the U.S. and express an intention to learn about humane animal husbandry methods are eligible. Farmers must own or be employed by a farm that raises livestock (ruminants, swine) and/or poultry. 
- FACT encourages limited resource farmers, beginning farmers, veteran farmers, BIPOC farmers, and farmers belonging to other historically underserved or marginalized groups to apply for a scholarship.
- FACT is only able to award one scholarship per farm/household each year.
- Farmers who received a scholarship within the past 12-month period are not eligible for a scholarship due to limited funds. 
- Events focused solely on aquaculture, equine husbandry, and beekeeping are not eligible.
- Scholarships will not be awarded for conferences or events that have already been completed.

A lump sum of money for a specific purpose that does not need to be paid back.

Grant

Certification

Distribution

Diversification

Events

Trade Show

Stewardship

Certified Organic

Trade Relief

Legal & Finance

Labor

Within 14 days of attending the event, scholarship recipients are expected to complete a short report form about their experience at the conference. Scholarship recipients are invited to share photos of their farm or animals with FACT to promote their farm and scholarship experience. Scholarship recipients will also be added to FACT’s farmer email list.

Forest Service

The CitSci&#x2004;Fund is a collaborative approach** **to resource management – each project will have one Forest Service Project Lead and one Partner Project Lead, and demonstrate how volunteers are meaningfully involved. The competition is open to all Forest Service units along with their partners. All recipients participate in a learning cohort intended to accelerate learning and success of projects.

The project incubator model is uniquely designed to nurture projects in different phases of development through coaching, training, and shared learning. Projects can enter the incubator at any Phase and then apply for the consecutive Phase during the next eligible funding cycle. Projects that successfully complete Phase 3, are considered “model projects” that could be replicated on other Forest Service units. Over the course of the incubator, projects are eligible to receive up to $60,000 over the course of 6 years.

The incubator has three phases of funding for projects in every stage of maturity:

- Phase 1: Ideation and Design - up to $10,000

- Phase 2: Implementation - up to $30,000

- Phase 3: Ongoing Implementation and Knowledge Transfer - up to $20,000



The CitSci Fund is a collaborative approach to resource management – each project will have one Forest Service Project Lead and one Partner Project Lead, and demonstrate how volunteers are meaningfully involved. The competition is open to all Forest Service units along with their partners. All recipients participate in a learning cohort intended to accelerate learning and success of projects.
The project incubator model is uniquely designed to nurture projects in different phases of development through coaching, training, and shared learning. Projects can enter the incubator at any Phase and then apply for the consecutive Phase during the next eligible funding cycle. Projects that successfully complete Phase 3, are considered “model projects” that could be replicated on other Forest Service units. Over the course of the incubator, projects are eligible to receive up to $60,000 over the course of 6 years.
The incubator has three phases of funding for projects in every stage of maturity:
- Phase 1: Ideation and Design - up to $10,000
- Phase 2: Implementation - up to $30,000
- Phase 3: Ongoing Implementation and Knowledge Transfer - up to $20,000

The CitSci Fund supports projects that use citizen science as a collaborative approach to resource management – all proposals must identify a Forest Service Project Lead and a Partner Project Lead and clearly identify how volunteers have been and will be engaged in the project. The outcomes from this program are being used to demonstrate how citizen science can help the Agency deliver mission results including the increased collection and analysis of usable data for resource management. Successful proposals will clearly state the nature of the work to be accomplished and how the proposed partnership and citizen science project will add value in realizing needed work. Projects that are addressing needs or interests identified by the community will be highly competitive. Partners that are providing matching funds above 20% and not reliant on volunteer time as part of these matching funds will be highly competitive. Projects can be on any topic including biological, social, cultural, economic, infrastructure, etc. Projects can take many forms from large-scale data collection using apps, to site-specific longterm research, to classroom curricula that immerse students in monitoring and evaluation. Projects must engage citizen scientists over a continuous period of time – single event projects will not be accepted. For example, a 24 hour bioblitz would not be a competitive project, but a bioblitz that takes place over an entire calendar year would be.

A payment that requires some percentage of matching contributions by the recipient.

Cost Share

Forestry

Forest Residues

Timber

- Project Plan
- Program Information and Instructions (2020)
- Sample Application Form
- Presentation Slides
- Review Criteria


Air Quality

Carbon Capture

High Tunnel

Landscape

Regenerative

Soil Health

Wildlife & Pollinator Habitat

Trees

Certified Grassfed

Cover Crops

Reduced Tillage

Proposal Evaluation
 Two teams of evaluators will review projects in two rounds with some overlap of reviewers. During the round one review each project will be assigned randomly to at least three reviewers who will score the project based on the Evaluation Criteria (See Evaluation Criteria document on program webpage). Two teams of Forest Service evaluators will review projects in two rounds with some overlap of reviewers. During the round one review each project will be assigned randomly to at least three reviewers who will score the project based on the review criteria. These scores are then normalized using Z-scores to remove bias from reviewers. From there, the top projects are determined by seeing where there is a marked drop-off in scores - this will determine the top 20% or so of the proposals. In the round two review, all proposals will be reviewed by the entire team using the same criteria and again normalized using Z-scores. At this point, the top projects that are equal to or less than the amount of funding available are then looked at to take into consideration if they represent geographic, disciplinary, and deputy area diversity. Finalists will then be notified and a call will be scheduled with both project team leads to ensure that they can complete the Commitments and Outcomes as described in the Instructions.

The Council may make a grant or loan if it determines a project is consistent with the goals of the Growth Through Agriculture Act. Projects should primarily add value to Montana's agricultural products and have the potential to create and/or retain jobs in Montana.
BEFORE beginning the application process, the applicant should be able to document exactly how the project will expand Montana agriculture. For example, the growth could be measurable either in terms of increased sales (by dollar amount or percentage) or in number of jobs created.
The Council strongly urges applicants to contact the Food and Agricultural Development Center network, Small Business Development Center network, and their local economic development organization for assistance with their GTA application, financial projections, business and marketing plans as necessary. In addition, the Department is offering the use of this one-page financials template for interested businesses that have been invited to apply and present for the main GTA program.
Projects may potentially be funded in a single application for a maximum total amount of $150,000 in the form of grant funding up to $50,000 and loan funding up to $100,000. Examples of project activities involve equipment purchases, advertising and promotion, and consultant services such as engineering costs. A $1 for $1 match is required for all proposals.

MT Growth Through Agricultural Program

The Growth Through Agriculture (GTA) program is a grant and loan program established by the Montana Legislature to strengthen and diversify Montana's agricultural industry through the&#x2004;development of new agricultural products and processes. Examples of eligible project activities involve equipment purchases, construction costs, advertising and promotion, and consultant services for engineering. The GTA program is administered by the Agriculture Development Council (Council) which is attached to the Department of Agriculture.

### New in 2023

The Growth Through Agriculture Program has added two new options this year:

- The Business Acceleration Program will award grants of up to $20,000 over two years to support early business development or expansion.

- The Market Development Program will award grants of up to $5,000 to help eligible businesses access and develop new markets for their goods.


**Cost-share Requirement** 

50% cost-share is required for all types of Growth Through Agriculture proposals including both grants and loans. For example, the GTA Program can reimburse 50% of an invoice paid by the business, thereby confirming cash cost-share, or “match” is in place. 


**Types of Funding Available**

Maximum - $150,000 made up of: 

- Up to $50,000 in the form of grant funding 

- Up to $100,000 in the form of loan funding



The Growth Through Agriculture (GTA) program is a grant and loan program established by the Montana Legislature to strengthen and diversify Montana's agricultural industry through the development of new agricultural products and processes. Examples of eligible project activities involve equipment purchases, construction costs, advertising and promotion, and consultant services for engineering. The GTA program is administered by the Agriculture Development Council (Council) which is attached to the Department of Agriculture.
New in 2023
The Growth Through Agriculture Program has added two new options this year:
- The Business Acceleration Program will award grants of up to $20,000 over two years to support early business development or expansion.
- The Market Development Program will award grants of up to $5,000 to help eligible businesses access and develop new markets for their goods.

Cost-share Requirement 
50% cost-share is required for all types of Growth Through Agriculture proposals including both grants and loans. For example, the GTA Program can reimburse 50% of an invoice paid by the business, thereby confirming cash cost-share, or “match” is in place. 

Types of Funding Available 
Maximum - $150,000 made up of: 
- Up to $50,000 in the form of grant funding 
- Up to $100,000 in the form of loan funding

Projects should primarily add value to Montana’s agricultural products, have prospects for achieving commercial success given the current personnel, experience and resources of the applicant and have the possibility to create and/or retain jobs in Montana. In addition, projects should either benefit additional agricultural producers and/or companies, and/or projects should accomplish research that will benefit Montana’s agriculture industry as a whole. An applicant that receives any two GTA grants within a two-year period will have a one-year cooling off period before applying again, starting in the current calendar year. Please contact GTA staff for any questions on this recent adjustment. 

Additional Loan Eligibility Requirements:
- The Council has the option to offer high and low interest loans up to $100,000 for those projects that meet the general criteria for funding listed above. 
    - To be eligible for a low interest loan, the applicant must have unencumbered collateral to secure the full amount of the loan. 
    - The Council can select up to two targeted areas for projects which would be eligible for low interest loans. These targeted areas will encourage specific types of projects and will inform the public of the Council’s particular interests. These targeted areas must be announced 60 days prior to becoming effective. 

Additional Grant Eligibility Requirements:
- The Council may award grants up to $50,000. In addition to meeting the general criteria for funding, grant applicants must demonstrate through their application that they meet at least one of the following additional criteria: 
    - The project will benefit additional agricultural companies, 
    - The project will accomplish research that will benefit agriculture as a whole, or 
    - The applicant is a nonprofit entity.

Eligible Costs:
Eligible costs under the GTA program include, but are not limited to: 
- Equipment 
- Consultant Services (professional, technical, operational) 
- Travel 
- Advertising and Promotion 
- Supplies and Materials 
- Communication (telephone, postage, printing, etc.) 
- Data Processing

A payment that must be returned to the provider following specified terms of repayment and interest rate.

Loan

- Growth Through Agriculture Program Guidelines
- GTA Business Acceleration Program Guidelines
- GTA Marketing Development Program Guidelines
- FAQ


Succession

$1 for $1 match is required for all types of Growth Through Agriculture proposals including both grants and loans.

Maximum $150,000 made up of: 
- Up to $50,000 in the form of grant funding
- Up to $100,000 in the form of loan funding

List of Agricultural Funding for Travel