VT UCF's annual grant cycle follows the following cadence:

• Grant categories are announced in the fall
• Grant applications are due in January
• Grant awards are decided and announced in February

Applications are submitted through an online form.  Please note that once an application is started in the form, applications cannot be saved or restarted. We highly recommend that applicants use the grant application worksheet on the grant category's page to develop, edit, and save your work prior to completing the application form and submitting.  

Exemplary grant applications:

1) clearly define the problem you hope to solve,
2) outline a detailed plan with achievable metrics for what will be accomplished, and
3) define the roles and responsibilities of those involved. 

Highly ranked grant applications also follow grant guidelines and are submitted as complete packages and on time.

Yes! If you will be involved in the administration or implementation of a funded project, it is your responsibility to read and understand the executed (signed) grant agreement, particularly Attachments A and B, which outline your specific project's scope of work and the payment provisions (how to get the money!).  

Your executed grant agreement was sent directly to the designated individual in your municipality or organization that provided the e-signature to execute the grant. If you are involved in the administration of a funded project and this person did not forward you or send you the grant agreement, we would be happy to share it with you. Simply send elise.schadler@vermont.gov an email request and we'll send you the PDF. 

VT UCF grant funds are not awarded as a single check -- they are released as reimbursement payment after the grant recipient submits an invoice based actual expenses. The funds awarded are available for payment according to Attachment B: Payment Provisions in your grant agreement.  

For 2026 Communities Caring for Canopy grant recipients, funds will be available for payment in accordance with the following schedule:

• Actual expenses up to 75% of the total award amount submitted at a mid-project reporting date of December 31st, 2026, after the submission of a progress report, expenditure documentation, and an invoice, and
• The balance (at least 25% of the total award amount) upon completion of the project with submission of a final report, expenditure documentation, and an invoice. If the project includes tree planting or tree maintenance, a site visit with VT UCF staff is required prior to submission of the final report and invoice.

For 2025 Tree Maintenance & Removal Grant recipients, invoices shall be submitted no more than once per month based on actual expenses, unless a more frequent submission schedule is requested by the grantee and approved by FPR.

An invoice should be on municipal or organizational letterhead and must include at a minimum:

• An unique invoice number
• An invoice date
• The subaward (grant) number
• The grantee's name
• The grantee's address (to which the reimbursement check should be sent)
• The total amount of reimbursement being requested.
• Itemization of actual and reimbursable costs, broken out by budget category as presented in Attachment B of the subaward agreement.  
  • Please note that as of 2026, grantees must also indicate in which state fiscal year (7/1 - 6/30) that activities covered by the invoice occurred.  
• Documented cost-share (if required), broken out by by budget category as presented in Attachment B of the subaward agreement.

Note that the itemization of charges may be summarized in an attached MS Excel sheet or similar format, or on the invoice itself. 

Click here to see a sample invoice.
 

No, you are not required to submit scanned receipts with your invoice.

However, per Attachment B of your grant agreement, "Subrecipient agrees to maintain records of cost of work for a minimum of three (3) years from the end of the grant period.'

Accordingly, many grantees choose to submit scanned receipts with their invoice(s) as a best practice so that we can include these records of cost of work in their grant file.  

For grant recipients, as outlined in Attachment B of your grant agreement, invoices shall be address to the below and emailed to elise.schadler@vermont.gov.  

ATTN:
Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation 
Elise Schadler, Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program 
111 West Street 
Essex Junction, VT 05452

Note that the optional mid-project invoice must be accompanied by a mid-project progress report (see section below for a template) and that the required final invoice must be accompanied by a final report and other documentation (see section below).  

Yes. Once an applicant is notified that their project will be funded by a UCF grant and while the development of the grant agreement is in process, work may begin on a project.

Attachment B of UCF grant agreements states that: 

Up to 90 days of Pre-award costs are allowable under this agreement as determined by the State and as related to scope of work in Attachment A. 

In other words, completed project work that occurred as early as 90 days before the grant agreement was executed is eligible for reimbursement as long as the costs are properly documented. 

Procurement is the term to describe sourcing, securing, and paying for goods and services outside of your organization. Common examples of procurement include purchasing supplies or materials, contracting a consultant, or contracting for services such as tree planting, maintenance, or removal.  

As a subawardee, it if your responsibility to be aware of and to follow the established procurement procedures and policies of your organization or municipality.  

To learn more about procurement, click here for Procurement Guidance for Grantees, developed by our colleagues with the FPR Outdoor Recreation Grants program.  This guidance is largely applicable to Urban & Community Forestry grant recipients.  

Note that 2025 Tree Maintenance & Removal grants do NOT require match

Historically, VT UCF grants have required 50-100% match. This means that whatever funding amount your municipality or organization has been awarded needs to be matched partially or entirely by monetary or in-kind services. So, if the award requires 1:1 match and you have received a $5,000 grant, you need to document and demonstrate at least $5,000 worth of additional contributions to the project. This shows that the total value of the project is actually $10,000 or more. 

Most grant recipients choose to include volunteer in-kind match - the value of volunteers working on the project - as some portion of their documented match.  

In Attachment A (page 2) of your grant agreement, condition number 4 reads: Comply with OMB guidance subparts A through F of 2 CFR Part 200 as adopted and supplemented by the USDA in 2 CFR Part 400. This language refers to the federal rules and guidelines on valuing and documenting match. To support Subrecipients (aka our grant recipients) in appropriately keeping track of and documenting volunteer match on grant projects, the Forests, Parks and Recreation business office has developed Subrecipient Guidance for Valuing and Documenting Match from Non-Federal Sources.  

In a nutshell, if you will be using in-kind volunteer services as match, you should provide documentation of volunteer match.

• A template to document match from a single volunteer completing multiple tasks on multiple days is provided as a printable pdf.
• A sample sign-in sheet for a group event or training is provided as an Excel Worksheet or a printable pdf.

It is acceptable to use the Independent Sector's Value of Volunteer Time to assign a value to volunteer time contributed to a project.

The Subrecipient (grant recipient) can determine the rate (hourly dollar value) at which they value volunteer in-kind services based on the guidance provided in this document in consideration of their own municipal or organizational policies and grant accounting.  

In the absence of a local, established policy for volunteer valuation, please use the Independent Sector estimated national value of each volunteer hour.  

A project mid-progress report is only required if a grant recipient chooses to submit an invoice prior to the end of the project, per the optional payment schedule presented in Attachment B.  

If the recipient so chooses, the mid-progress report and an invoice shall include a detailed statement demonstrating work accomplished to date according to the scope of work as detailed in Attachment A (Scope of Work) of your grant agreement. 

2026 Communities Caring for Canopy mid-project report template coming soon.

.

Your final report is a summary of what you were able to accomplish with the grant funds and documentation of your spending and cost-share/match. Your final report should directly address the deliverables that were outlined in your grant agreement. If you have achieved all deliverables before the end of the project period you may choose to submit the final report and invoice and close the project out early.  As outlined in Attachment B of your grant agreement, the final report should include the following:

• A detailed narrative statement demonstrating final work accomplished according to the Scope of Work as presented in Attachment A.
• Provide digital copies of all products developed as part of this grant, if applicable. (This might include master plans, maps, inventories, or other printed materials.).
• If applicable, photographs of the project, sent as individual files.

It is not required that awardees use the templates below as long as the required final report components are addressed. Please note that the templates below are fillable PDFs; you must save them to your own computer BEFORE beginning to fill them out. 

2024 Urban & Community Forestry (UCF) and 2025 Tree Maintenance & Removal  (TMR) grant recipients may use the optional UCF & TMR Final Report Template (fillable PDF).  

2024 Urban & Community Forestry grants and 2025 Tree Maintenance & Removal grants were funded by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.  Our partners at the USDA Forest Service, federal Urban & Community Forestry Program have asked us to assist in collecting expanded information about projects in process to aid in telling the story of this unprecedented investment in urban and community forestry nationwide (and in Vermont).  Accordingly, there are additional optional reporting components included in the linked template.

2026 Communities Caring for Canopy (CCC) grant recipients may use the optional CCC Final Report Template (fillable PDF), coming soon!

Final reports and final invoices should be submitted together as separate documents in a single email and sent to elise.schadler@vermont.gov. The final report can be submitted by anyone (town staff, the volunteer project coordinator, etc.). 

Once reviewed and approved, the final report and invoice are sent to the FPR Business Office to process payment and to close out the project.