Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) – Grant Navigator 

WSB was selected by the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) for a three-year program to deliver Regional Grant Navigator (RGN) services across the Denver metro region to assist communities with accessing financial resources from the federal government to advance their goals. Under funding from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), with a deliberate focus on small, under-resourced communities, WSB engaged more than 50 municipalities, counties, and nonprofit organizations, providing grant research, subject matter expertise, application strategy, technical assistance, and partnership development services spanning transportation, broadband, energy, resiliency, and infrastructure sectors.

By program closeout, WSB’s engagement and technical assistance contributed to more than $59 million in federal awards, including a $25 million RAISE award to the City of Thornton, a $23.8 million PROTECT award to the City of Golden, and a $7 million broadband Capital Projects Fund award to a multi-county coalition WSB helped assemble.

As an RGN, WSB helped communities access IIJA, IRA and other federal programs. In the role of an RGN, WSB explored goals and funding needs for each community, researched federal grant programs for eligibility based on need, analyzed prioritized funding opportunities, made strategic recommendations for devising competitive applications, provided technical expertise on scoring criteria, catalyzed partnerships between jurisdictions and organizations to develop competitive funding proposals, and advised on other strategic and tactical funding questions. WSB also supported communities in accessing other free resources such as Colorado state-supported grant writing and cost-benefit analyses technical assistance. Furthermore, the Team coordinated securing Letters of Support from influential stakeholders to augment grant applications.

WSB was able to draw upon subject matter expertise spanning infrastructure planning, transportation engineering, sustainability planning and programming, water conservation, economic development, hazard mitigation, and federal grants and funding, allowing the team to move well beyond grant advisory services and into substantive technical production when communities were seeking funding. This technical depth and fundraising strategy were paired with focus on regional connectivity; for example, in pursuit of federal grants, WSB assembled a multi-county broadband coalition, connected micro transit programs to accelerate local mobility planning, and introduced sustainability and grant staff across multiple municipalities.

Throughout the program’s final year, WSB navigated a shifting federal environment marked by program pauses, revised eligibility criteria, and uncertainty, and ultimately delivered unanimous satisfaction, based on results from a program participant closeout survey seeking objective feedback from dozens of cities and counties who had leveraged WSB’s RGN role over the course of three years. Furthermore, qualitative feedback from program participants consistently described WSB’s RGN services as helpful, responsive, and beneficial. Ultimately, WSB coordinated a DRCOG RGN program that built a network of peer relationships, collaborative partnerships and shared knowledge that will continue to benefit communities after the program conclusion, as these colleagues pursue funding and other collaborative efforts.