Midwest Dairy is offering free grant-writing support for on-farm projects through an exciting new pilot with Lasso. Lasso will identify, apply for and manage grant funding opportunities for you. Reach out to nicole@joinlasso.com or (312)-833-7726 by August 15th for more information.
Free Grant Writing Support
We’re excited to announce a new pilot with Lasso. Our pilot goal is to increase our dairy farmers’ awareness and access to public funding opportunities for on-farm projects.
The Lasso team will be your grant-writer in a box: for your farm and project of interest, they will identify, apply for and manage grant opportunities on your behalf.
If selected for this pilot, you will receive the Lasso grant-writing services for free.
Benefits to You
By participating in this pilot, you can access more funding with minimal time investment. Lasso will:
- Identify opportunities across federal, regional, state, and local grants that could support participants and their upcoming projects
- Help participants receive funding without the headache and time-consuming paperwork of putting an application together
- Make sure all participants complete their requirements both before submitting the application and after receiving the award
To Participate In This Pilot
- Be open to government grants
- Have a project in mind (details below) with potential installers / vendors / service providers identified
- Be open to appear as a case study for Midwest Dairy
- Note: Only high level information would be included (e.g., context, project type, result and benefit from grant funding)
Working with Lasso
Typical steps of working with Lasso:
- First: they talk to you to get context on your farm and proposed project to understand your operations and needs.
- Second: they share all eligible funding from federal, state, regional and local sources – they go through the long list of requirements to make sure you are not only eligible but competitive.
- Third: they put together the application from start to finish. They’ll manage all stakeholders, inputs needed, and narratives to create a high-quality application
- Finally: Once you get the award, they’ll make sure all your i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed to help you get reimbursed as soon as possible.
Once you have selected a project, identified vendors / installers, and received at least 1 bid, we will be able to kick off your process.
First we pre-score applications. Once pre-scoring is done, we can advise whether it’s competitive and how to go forward. If we go forward, we sign an NDA with you and work on the application. We need a few documents from both you and the installer for a successful application, we can share a list these upon kicking work off on a project.
Grant Opportunities
REAP (Rural Energy for America Program) Brief Overview
- Available for agricultural producers and rural small businesses
- Covers 50% of project costs, up to $1M
- Eligible projects include:
- Renewable energy systems (e.g., solar, wind, anaerobic digester)
- Energy efficiency improvements (e.g., milking robots, grain dryer upgrades, replacing diesel generator with solar, lighting, refrigeration, heating, ventilation and cooling)
- Deadline: September 30th, but the latest day to start working with Lasso on this grant is August 30th.
State-Specific Opportunities
There are state-specific opportunities like Minnesota’s AGRI and Iowa’s “Choose Iowa” grants. These grants will help you cover the costs for projects like:
- Renewable energy systems (e.g., solar, wind, anaerobic digester)
- Energy efficiency improvements (e.g., milking robots, grain dryer upgrades, replacing diesel generators with solar, lighting, refrigeration, heating, ventilation and cooling)
- Buildings or facilities to raise livestock or produce livestock products
- Development of pasture for use by livestock, including but not limited to, lanes, watering systems, and fences
- Equipment for livestock housing, confinement, feeding, and waste management
Contact Lasso
Contact Lasso for More Information
To learn more about Lasso’s grant writing capabilities or to begin the application process, please contact Nicole at Lasso by email at nicole@joinlasso.com or by phone at 312-833-7726.