May 25, 2023

At an Imperial County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, CSAC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Graham Knaus thanked the Supervisors as they voted unanimously to become the first county to access the CSAC Grants Initiative (Initiative) annual consulting package.   

The Initiative – spearheaded by Immediate Past President and Siskiyou County Supervisor Ed Valenzuela – launched last year as a partnership between CSAC and The Ferguson Group (TFG) and is designed to help counties pull down  more federal, state, and foundation grants.  

Counties have historically received substantial external funds through relatively streamlined channels such as formula grants. But in recent years federal and state investments have created a wave of competitive funding opportunities, raising the stakes by making grant-seeking more intensive and grant expertise and strategy more valuable than ever before.   

The Imperial County contract was made possible through the Master Services Agreement (MSA) that CSAC signed back in March with TFG. Since then, CSAC’s Grant Program Director Brian Rutledge has been using it to build out the first cohort for the Initiative’s annual premium service packages.  

Before CSAC’s MSA the Initiative was already offering no-cost member resources to all California counties, which include an extensive catalogue of successful grant applications that all CSAC Members may access via the Project Idea Portal.  

With the MSA now active, the Initiative is offering counties access to a menu of premium services that are cost effective for budgeting purposes, streamlined for administrative purposes, and flexible for implementation purposes. Instead of contracting with TFG, for example, counties sign a sub-agreement with CSAC that enables them to use CSAC’s negotiated discounts  and simplifies the procurement process. 

The menu includes four annual consulting packages: Tier 1 at $50,000, Tier 2 at $100,000, Tier 3 at $250,000 and Tier 4 at $500,000, each of which gives counties access to 12 months of stable and reliable grant consulting support to  better identify their needs, develop viable projects, and create effective grant strategies.  

After working for several weeks to establish internal coordination with his colleagues and external relationships with CSAC and TFG, Imperial County CEO Miguel Figueroa presented his Board with a request to pursue a CGI annual consulting package  beginning on June 1, 2023 and lasting through May 31, 2024. 

The Imperial County contract was the first annual package to be approved by a county board. At CSAC, Grants Director Rutledge continues to work with additional  counties to build what is becoming the first official cohort of CGI premium service beneficiaries.  

Rutledge anticipates that in the next few weeks several more counties will finalize their first contracts and begin formally building a grant strategy, , and that a second cohort will be formed  in late Summer and early Fall.