Technical Assistance ToolkitCase Study: Regional Climate Collaboratives Technical Assistance Program
Summary
The Regional Climate Collaboratives Program (RCC) is a capacity-building grant program administered by the Strategic Growth Council that funds capacity-building activities and collaboration that drive community-focused climate action. The program funds emerging, and established Collaboratives throughout California made up of different partners like local governments, California Native American Tribes, community-based organizations, and many more. SGC received $20 million to administer Round 1 and Round 2 of the RCC Program, with a total budget of $2.1 million for application and implementation technical assistance (TA). This case study covers the TA offered in Round 1 of the program.
TA Providers
Application TA: Estolano Advisors/Better World Group, California Coalition for Rural Housing, Institute for Local Government
Implementation TA: Amplify Communities, Farallon Strategies, Ersoylu Consulting
TA Recipients
Application TA: 60 Collaboratives across California; 43 of those Collaboratives submitted an eligible Full Application.
Implementation TA: 6 awarded collaboratives across California
Total Budget
Application TA: $388,000
Implementation TA: $950,000
Program Description
Application TA: SGC selected a diverse team of four organizations to assist RCC applicants across rounds 1 and 2 of the program. After applicants submitted a Pre-Proposal, SGC paired them with an individual TA provider to support them in the development of their Full Proposal. The TA providers worked with each applicant to develop a TA work plan to support the development of their application. The services offered included but were not limited to:
- Mapping support
- Workplan and budget development
- Application coordination
- Review of narrative responses
- Interview Support, if needed
- Collaborative Partnership Structure Development
Implementation TA: SGC selected an experienced Implementation TA provider team, including three organizations that will work with the six RCC round 1 awardees throughout the grant term. The will offer the following three types of support:
- Operational Activities: Help the collaboratives develop, refine, and maintain their structure, systems, and processes as well as foster and sustain their partnerships.
- Evaluation: Provide grantees with an Evaluation Framework that guides the creation and implementation of their individualized Evaluation Plans, which will enable Collaboratives to assess their progress in advancing the RCC Program Objectives.
- Peer Learning: Facilitate quarterly networking and training sessions, which will provide a platform for collective learning and problem-solving between grantees throughout the grant term.
Outcomes
RCC received far more applications in Round 1 than SGC anticipated, receiving 86 pre-proposal and 45 full proposals that included a total of 300 partners for a program that had only enough funding for 5-7 grants. The program was eight times oversubscribed and received applications from all over the state, covering 42 of California’s 58 counties (pre-proposals covered 56 of 58 counties.)
In total, 60 applicants received application technical assistance. From the applicant survey and additional feedback received from TA recipients, it was evident that the TA services and providers made a positive impact on the overall application process. Many recipients answered that they would have not applied to the program without TA support.
The Implementation technical assistance is only beginning for the Round 1 RCC grantees, but so far the grantees have been appreciative of this support and the initial peer learning sessions have been fruitful.
Program Development
This section provides a step-by-step description of how these outcomes were achieved through program design and implementation.
Step 1. Getting Started
The Regional Climate Collaboratives program development began after the program received an appropriation of $10 million for Round 1 of the program in the 2021 Budget. At this time, program staff engaged in a variety of public engagement activities and conducted research to inform the design of the grant program and the application and implementation TA it should offer. Program staff hosted four listening sessions, seven focus group discussions, and numerous key informant interviews with community-based organizations, Tribes, local and regional governments, and other partners throughout the State.
Throughout this engagement process potential applicants communicated their need for application technical assistance. Originally, staff had only planned to offer implementation technical assistance, because they anticipated the application itself would be simple and streamlined. However, it was clear from engaging with under-resourced communities and partners that further TA support was necessary to develop viable and competitive proposals.
The development of RCC was also informed by SGC’s past technical assistance efforts through the California Climate Investments (CCI) TA program. The CCI TA program had shone a light on the capacity needs of many under-resourced communities that often struggled to assemble competitive grant applications without support from TA providers. Through those programs, SGC staff recognized that TA was necessary to ensure that the regions that needed TA the most would have the capacity to develop an application.
Step 2. Setting Goals and Intended Outcomes
The RCC program has four objectives that the awarded collaboratives made of cross-sectoral partners are enabled to meet throughout their three-year grant term. These objectives are:
- Build Social Infrastructure
- Develop Equity-Centered Processes
- Develop Actionable Plans & Projects
- Center Community Engagement and Decision Making
The program is meant to target the most under-resourced communities in the state, offering funding to help them build capacity to enact community-led climate action. During the public engagement process, RCC program staff frequently heard the phrase, “you have to have capacity to build capacity.” To ensure that collaboratives in the most under-resourced areas of the state were able to apply, program staff budgeted for third-party application TA to ensure that under-resourced communities would have support developing their applications. Through offering this application TA, staff aimed to make the program more accessible to under-resourced applicants, such as rural communities, tribes, and small, under-staffed organizations that had engaged less frequently in State grants than other communities.
Program staff also decided to offer implementation TA to ensure that awardees would have support with the day-to-day operational activities of their collaboratives and to maximize the success of RCC awardees. Staff wanted to facilitate peer-to-peer learning amongst collaboratives, and also provide evaluation support to help collaboratives track the outcomes of their work. Through the implementation TA, SGC aimed to ensure the successful implementation of the state’s investment in RCCs and ensuring that the collaborative’s work would have long-term impacts in the communities they serve.
Step 3. Determining the TA Structure
SGC staff decided to work with third-party technical assistance teams for both the application and implementation TA. Third-party application assistance would allow SGC to offer meaningful assistance to applicants through that application process without compromising the competitive process. SGC also opted to work with a third-party TA team for the implementation TA because it did not have the internal staff capacity to work closely with each collaborative to support their day-to-day operational activities. Additionally, because the implementation TA providers would be providing evaluation support, it was beneficial for an outside consultant to support evaluation activities in order to ensure neutrality in the evaluation process.
Step 4. Identifying a Funding Source
SGC program staff were able to utilize funding from the 2021 local assistance appropriation of $10 million to support both the application and implementation technical assistance. SGC was also able to supplement the TA budget using cost savings from SGC’s state support (administrative) funding.
Step 5. Selecting TA Providers and Recipients
SGC staff developed a scope of work for each TA effort and utilized the Request for Proposal process to select and execute contracts with two teams of TA providers to offer RCC application and implementation assistance (See the Contracting Best Practices section for more information on the RFP process).
The TA teams selected to offer both types of technical assistance were selected because of their collective experience providing technical assistance and capacity building for under-resourced, low-income, rural and tribal communities. Both teams also demonstrated strong subject-matter expertise as well as a commitment to equity, and diverse skills and experience that would be beneficial to support RCC applicants and awardees with a broad array of service needs.
Implementation assistance was made available to all RCC awardees. In order to select the application TA recipients, SGC staff utilized the pre-proposal process to screen prospective applicants and assign TA providers to those who demonstrated readiness to apply to RCC Round 1. SGC reviewed pre-proposal applications and paired each applicant with a TA provider with the best-fitting expertise to support them. The TA providers worked with applicants develop individualized work plans for the full-proposal application phase, based on the applicants most pressing needs. Some of the services the TA providers were able to offer included: mapping support, workplan and budget development, coordination, narrative review, and support with applicants selected for an interview.
Step 6. Develop a Feedback Loop
SGC staff held regular check-ins with both the application TA and implementation TA teams to ensure they were gathering feedback on the application and implementation process in real time. After the Round 1 Application closed, program staff also administered an applicant survey that prompted feedback on the application process and technical assistance services received The scope of work for both TA contracts includes a final report as well, which will include feedback from the TA providers on the RCC application and implementation processes and recommendations from program staff to consider in subsequent rounds.
Due to an unexpectedly high number of applications received in Round 1, the TA providers offered TA to 60 applicants, which was far more than originally anticipated. Based on feedback from applicants and TA providers after Round 1, program staff will be prioritizing technical assistance services for applicants that demonstrate readiness and include a high percentage of under-resourced communities in their project area. In addition, program staff began the capacity building phase of the technical assistance earlier in the Round 2 timeline based on feedback from Round 1.