Grant Overview
Application Opens: March 15, 2024
Deadline to Apply: May 15, 2024
WEBINAR LINK
Follow the link to learn about the Greener Grounds Grant. Questions? Contact grants@keeplouisianabeautiful.org.
Louisiana is home to more than 400 festivals and events annually. Across the region, locals, and tourists come together to celebrate the state’s vibrant offerings of food, music, history, and culture. With these events often comes a completely avoidable and solvable issue — litter.
We all love to laissez les bons temps rouler, but we must ensure the waste inevitably created by outdoor events does not threaten our environment. Keeping your site clean not only enhances your attendee’s experience but stops the detrimental cycle of mismanaged waste becoming litter that will clog Louisiana’s storm drains or enter the waterways, an issue that will ultimately harm the state’s coastline, wildlife, and water quality.
Keep Louisiana Beautiful partnered with French Quarter Festivals, Inc. to create Greener Grounds Guidebook and Workbook to provide practical ways that you, as an event organizer, can plan to manage and reduce waste, increase recycling and prevent litter at your event. This grant supports the implementation of the best practices outlined in the guidebook.
Grant Description
Purpose: The purpose of KLB’s Greener Grounds Grant is to provide funding for resources, and to provide education via the Greener Grounds guidebook and workbook, to aid event organizers in incorporating practical ways to plan and manage operations resulting in better waste reduction, increased recycling and litter prevention at large Louisiana outdoor events
Type:
- Reimbursement grant up to $10,000 for 3,000+ attendee-per-day events; up to $5,000 for 1,000+ attendee-per-day events
- Minimum 15% cash match, in-kind donation or volunteer hours value required.
- Completion of the Greener Grounds Workbook is a condition of grant reimbursement
Eligibility:
- Municipalities and Parishes that organize large-scale community special events
- Not-for-profit large outdoor events – festivals, fairs, concerts, and parades – Non-profit applicants must submit their IRS Determination Letter
- Outdoor events with a minimum of 1,000 attendees per day
- Event attendance must be open to all Louisiana citizens
- Event must be in Louisiana and must be held outdoors
- Event must be held after execution of the Grant Agreement and before the Final Report is due with enough time to complete the Greener Grounds Workbook and all Final Report requirements
- All applicants must submit Form W-9
- All applicants must be in good standing with the Louisiana Secretary of State
- All applicants must be a State Certified Vendor. Register: doa.la.gov/doa/osp/vendor-resources/
- Application must be submitted by the deadline and be completed in its entirety
Funding Guidelines:
ELIGIBLE for Funding:
- Trash receptacles – permanent or disposable
- Recycling receptacles – Clear Stream, permanent or disposable
- Trash/Recycling bins and bags
- Waste Station signage and banners
- Litter prevention and recycling signage and banners
- Litter prevention and recycling education to attendees
- Promotions strictly regarding litter prevention, recycling, and waste reduction efforts at event
- T-shirts for volunteers working waste stations and grant efforts – not to exceed 10% of total grant budget
- Water and food for volunteers working waste stations/grant efforts – not to exceed 10% of total grant budget
- Litter removal supplies such as litter grabbers, shovels, and rakes
- Expenses related to labor provided by not-for-profit organizations for servicing of collection containers – not to exceed 15% of total grant budget
NOT Eligible for Funding:
- Rental of dumpsters, roll-offs, or other large solid waste and recycling containers
- Expenses related to labor provided by for-profit organizations for servicing of collection containers
- Transportation, handling, and/or tipping fees associated with waste, recycling and composting
Terms and Requirements: Failure to abide by all the requirements and/or submit the completed final report by May 31, 2025, will result in non-reimbursement for this grant and ineligibility during the next grant cycle. To be awarded a grant, applicants agree to the following:
- A Grant Agreement (Agreement) must be signed between the KLB Executive Director, the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism’s (DCRT) Appointing Authority and the grant recipient (Grantee) before reimbursable work can begin on the grant project. Grantees must abide by the approved grant budget as documented in the Agreement.
- All Grantees must attend a mandatory informational webinar before KLB will issue an Agreement.
- A minimum 15% cash match, in-kind donation or equivalent volunteer hours value is required.
- Community engagement and volunteer support are required.
- Grantees must review the Greener Grounds Litter Prevention and Waste Reduction Manual.
- Grantees must adopt litter prevention and waste reduction practices for the event. Examples include glass (back of house), plastic bottle and aluminum can recycling; composting; and creation of Waste Stations with proper signage and maintenance schedule.
- Grantees must complete the Greener Grounds Workbook and upload it with the Final Report and reimbursement request. The entire event planning committee should complete the workbook together.
- A grant award acknowledgement letter must be sent to Grantee’s state representatives and senator. A copy must be submitted with the Final Report.
- A press release announcing the award of the KLB grant must be sent to local media. A copy must be submitted with the Final Report.
- Two social media posts must be made:
- Within 30 days of the Agreement being executed, Grantee must announce on social media channels the award of a KLB Greener Grounds Grant and how the grant will help the community. Tag Keep Louisiana Beautiful – on Facebook and Instagram tag @keeplouisianabeautiful and – on Twitter tag @keeplabeautiful.
- At the grant project’s end, a second social media post must be made with photographs highlighting the grant’s impact on the event’s litter and waste management efforts.
- Photos of both media posts must be uploaded in the Final Report.
- Changes in the grant scope and/or budget as outlined in the Agreement must be pre-approved by KLB.
- Grantees must include the KLB logo on all grant-related print materials, banners, t-shirts, signs and other marketing and promotional materials.
- A completed Final Report that includes the completed Greener Grounds Workbook, photographs, copy of press release, copy of acknowledgement letters, photos of social media posts and reimbursement request with proper receipts and documentation must be submitted to KLB by May 31, 2025. The Final Report may be submitted before the deadline upon project completion but will not be accepted after May 31, 2025.
- Grantees must register for, conduct, and submit a report for a KLB Love the Boot Week event tentatively scheduled for April 18-27, 2025.
- The grant cycle begins once Grantee attends the mandatory virtual meeting and the Grant Agreement is signed by KLB’s Executive Director, DCRT’s Appointing Authority and the Grantee. The grant cycle ends for all Grantees on May 31, 2025.
Greener Grounds Guidebook and Workbook
