Midwest Dairy is offering free grant-writing support for on-farm projects through an exciting continued program 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 February 28, 2025, for more information on grants for the first half of the year.
Free Grant Writing Support
We’re excited to announce a continued program with Lasso. Our program’s 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 program, you will receive the Lasso grant-writing services for free.
Benefits to You
By participating in this program, 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 Program
- 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 25% of project costs, up to $1M
- Eligible projects include:
- Renewable energy systems (e.g., solar, wind, anaerobic digester)
- Energy efficiency improvements (e.g., grain dryer upgrades, replacing diesel generator with solar, lighting, refrigeration, heating, ventilation and cooling)
- Deadline: March 31, 2025, but the latest day to start working with Lasso on this grant is March 1, 2025
State-Specific Opportunities
- Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG):
- Max award: Up to $75,000 for planning grants, $250,000 for working capital
- Eligible projects: Producing or marketing a value-added agricultural product
- Planning: Conducting feasibility studies, developing business or marketing plans
- Working capital: Processing costs, marketing and advertising expenses, some inventory and salary expenses
- Deadline: Open, due April 17, 2025
- Dairy Business Builder (DBIA):
- Max award: Up to $100,000
- Eligible projects: dairy farm diversification, creation of value-added dairy products, enhancement of the value of a dairy commodity or by-product, or creation or expansion of a program for exporting dairy products
- Deadline: Opens February 3, 2025, and due April 2, 2025
Lasso Grant Showcase: Olmar Farms
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.