Baker Tilly helps midwestern city secure diverse funding for growth
Learn how Baker Tilly identified federal funding opportunities to support the feasibility of a city’s pipeline of economic development and infrastructure projects
Client background
The city's goals were to synchronize project timelines, enhance competitiveness for federal funding and secure a broader range of financial resources to expedite the completion of critical community projects.
The business challenge
A Midwestern city contracted Baker Tilly to align federal infrastructure grant opportunities with the City’s pipeline of economic development and infrastructure projects and to outline a strategy for pursuing federal funding over a five-year period. The City ultimately wanted to align its project timelines, increase competitiveness for federal funding opportunities, and diversify target sources of funding to accomplish critical projects at an accelerated pace.
Strategy and solution
Baker Tilly began by scanning key grant programs which received allocations from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as legacy grant programs from the US DOT, US EDA, and US EPA. The client provided Baker Tilly with a list of its key projects, including short-term projects with an estimated total cost of more than $130 million and medium- to long-term projects with a total cost of nearly $110 million, for which it hoped to secure federal grant funding. Projects included a brief description, total cost, approximate location, expected timeline, and positive community impacts. Baker Tilly conducted an eligibility assessment that reviewed each project against numerous federal grant opportunities.
Follow-up discussions with the client were conducted to refine Baker Tilly‘s understanding of potential eligibility as well as the City‘s evolving timeline and funding needs for projects. Ultimately, Baker Tilly delivered a matrix that identified potential federal and state grant opportunities, strategic practices to improve competitiveness, and prepared a five-year plan that provided recommended timelines for applying for and securing funding, considering City priorities and federal grant deadlines. The City incorporated this matrix into its capital project planning efforts, adding a needed additional funding source to its planning budget.