T4America Blog

Interested in learning more about or applying for this year’s TIGER grants? Join us on 3/24

Though the future of the program is perpetually up in the air, $500 million in competitive federal funding is available for smart, local transportation projects this year in the TIGER program, and Transportation for America is here to help you learn more about the program.

Is your community interested in applying for a TIGER transportation grant? Are you looking for help and support in preparing the best possible grant application?

The fiercely competitive TIGER program is one of the few ways that local communities of almost any size can directly receive federal dollars for their priority transportation projects. Projects vying for funding compete against each other on their merits to ensure that each dollar is spent in the most effective way possible, spurring innovation, stretching federal transportation dollars further than in conventional formula programs, and awarding funding to projects with a high-return on investment.

But the program is, as stated above, fiercely competitive. Over the life of the program, the requests for funding have been 50 times greater than what’s been available. There are far more losers than there are winners in the TIGER program. Being prepared with the best possible project and application is key to winning, and T4America can help.

Join us for a free, public webinar on Thursday March 24 at 4 p.m. EST on the latest round of TIGER funding with some pointers from T4America senior policy advisor and USDOT veteran Beth Osborne, and Smart Growth America director of research Michael Rodriguez on how to win funding for your project.

Register for Webinar

The webinar itself will cover what makes applications competitive, what USDOT has been looking for throughout the program’s seven rounds so far, the role of the benefit-cost analysis, the importance of the non-federal match (i.e., local dollars brought to the table), how shovel-ready a project needs to be, the importance of support from local elected officials, and typical mistakes to avoid, among other helpful areas of interest.

During this discussion, we’ll also have information about T4America’s technical assistance offerings and opportunities for professional consulting on your project. Our technical assistance program can actually help with grant application writing, review, and drafting of the benefit-cost analysis. We can also provide detailed advice and valuable insight into the TIGER process for those that might just want more details than a webinar would provide. 

Benefits for T4America members

T4America members also have the option of receiving limited free technical assistance for TIGER. Logged-in members will see information about that below. Interested in joining as a T4America member? Find out more information here.