Rural Communities Opportunity Grant

The Rural Communities Opportunity Grant, or RCOG, is a State of Utah funding opportunity administered through the state's business and economic opportunity infrastructure and the Center for Rural Development. The program is designed to empower eligible rural communities to take responsibility for economic development planning, projects, and activities and to manage economic opportunities that are specific to their communities. The grant focuses on addressing rural economic development needs and supporting projects intended to improve the overall economy of participating communities. RCOG funding is directed toward economic development activities that include business recruitment, business development and expansion, workforce training and development, infrastructure, industrial building development, and capital facilities improvements for business development. Applicants are expected to connect their proposed projects and activities to identifiable economic development needs. The source page does not provide specific award minimums, maximums, total program funding, number of awards, detailed spending prohibitions, or a period of performance. The program does require matching funds, with the funding match based on the community's population, but the source page does not state the applicable match percentages or amounts. Eligible applicants are rural communities meeting the program's stated geographic and governmental requirements. These include counties of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth class; cities, towns, and metro townships located within those counties; municipalities with populations of 10,000 or less in counties of the second class; and Associations of Governments. For the population-based second-class county eligibility provision, the source specifically lists qualifying cities and towns in Davis County, Utah County, and Weber County. These include Fruit Heights, South Weber, Sunset City, West Bountiful, Cedar Fort, Cedar Hills, Elk Ridge, Fairfield, Genola, Goshen, Woodland Hills, Farr West, Harrisville, Hooper, Huntsville, Marriott-Slaterville, Plain City, Riverdale, Uintah, and Washington Terrace. The RCOG application is competitive. Applications are scored based on application quality, the proposed budget, descriptions of economic development projects and activities, and the purposes, goals, and measurable outcomes associated with improving the community's overall economy. Applicants are required to justify both the economic development need for the grant and the amount of grant funding requested. These criteria indicate that applicants should clearly define the economic problem or opportunity being addressed, describe the proposed economic development activities, provide a supportable project budget, and identify purposes, goals, and measurable outcomes that demonstrate how the proposed work is expected to improve the community's economy. For the 2026 cycle, an Intent-to-Apply or pre-application period opened July 1, 2026 and closed September 1, 2026. The source states that the Intent to Apply/Pre-application opens grant proposal assistance and grant-writing consultations from GOED for eligible applicants who intend to apply. The provided language does not establish that completion of the Intent-to-Apply is mandatory for advancement or access to the full application, so it is not treated as a required pre-application gating deadline. The full grant opens September 14, 2026 and closes October 30, 2026. Applications are submitted through the linked GOED application portal. The source also identifies an annual reporting period of May 15 through August 1, 2026, although it does not provide additional reporting requirements on the supplied page. The source page provides RCOG information and instructions, Intent-to-Apply information and instructions, a one-page program resource, and a County Economic Opportunity Advisory Board guide and training resource. No award notification date or performance period is stated in the supplied source. The page provides the Utah business office contact information at business@utah.gov and 801-538-8680, with an office address of 60 East South Temple, Suite 300, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111-1041. Although an annual reporting period is identified, the supplied material does not explicitly state that the RCOG application itself recurs annually or provide a future application cycle beyond the September 14 through October 30, 2026 grant window.

Ensure strong justification of economic need align projects with business development workforce or infrastructure priorities and clearly define measurable economic outcomes