Gov. Beshear: Team Kentucky Partners With Nonprofit Grant Ready Kentucky To Help Communities Access Federal Grant Funding

GRANT Program provides support to enhance economic development and tourism opportunities 

FRANKFORT, KY. (March 3, 2025) – Today, Gov. Andy Beshear announced a Team Kentucky partnership is helping communities across the commonwealth access federal grant funding to improve quality-of-life initiatives and create new investment and job-creation opportunities.

So far Lawrence Co. officials are still waiting on a decision on its $85,000 grant application.

The Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development (CED) has partnered with nonprofit Grant Ready Kentucky (GRKY) to ensure communities have the resources needed to leverage federal grants and fund innovative projects across the commonwealth, including infrastructure upgrades, creation of recreational facilities, increased child care access and public transportation, among other eligible uses. The partnership builds on the Governor’s mission to strengthen the state’s communities by helping them increase their chances of winning competitive federal grant funding, which makes our New Kentucky Home an even better place to live, work and invest.

“This program helps pay the match part of federal grants,” Lawrence County Economic director Vince Doty said. “Some federal grants only pay 80 percent and the organization or local government pays the other 20 percent.”

Doty said the county needs $85,000 to pay its share of a recent grant application. The new program Grant Ready Kentucky is supposed to be for that reason.

“I have applied for this one time to help pay a cost share associated with a CDBG grant,” Doty said.  “The cost share is $85,000. We are still trying to get it approved.”

Doty did not say which project in Lawrence County needed the grant boost but it is expected it is the shell building on U.S. 23.

“This partnership is part of our commitment to better the lives of our people and position our communities for future growth and prosperity,” Gov. Beshear said. “I want to thank everyone at Grant Ready Kentucky for their support of community and nonprofit organizations. This work will help us identify and capitalize on federal funding opportunities to spur economic growth, job creation and quality of life improvements in our New Kentucky Home.”

In 2023, Grant Ready Kentucky championed the creation of the Kentucky GRANT match program, a bipartisan policy designed to better position Kentucky communities to be awarded federal grants for economic development and tourism projects. The GRANT Program of 2024, now administered by CED, provides up to $200 million in matching funds to help communities and nonprofits meet local match requirements for eligible federal grants. The program also provides applicants with grant writing support by combining real-life stories and the measurable impacts these federal grants will have if awarded.

Cabinet for Economic Development Secretary Jeff Noel said Kentucky is seeing amazing grant applications that connect all the right elements of state and local cooperation needed to win competitive federal grant funding: “We have committed $93 million, with total project costs of about $437 million. On this trajectory, we could see over $1 billion of projects leveraged with the $200 million program. The capacity building we are seeing with local communities that have historically struggled on these competitive grants are now presenting their grants in powerful ways that will help them access federal funding for years to come. Now that is a success story in and of itself on top of a leverage ratio that could exceed 5-to-1.”

Over the next two years, Grant Ready Kentucky will provide supplemental grant writing support and education to help communities maximize federal grant success.

Additionally, CED has enhanced its coordination with Kentucky’s 15 Area Development Districts. Area Development District staff are the local experts in workforce development, economic development and infrastructure across Kentucky and are vital to identifying and developing grant-eligible projects.

Lazer Editor and Publisher Mark Grayson contributed to this story.