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Rapid Response Grant Supports SRTS Innovation in Minnesota

Feb 23, 2012

Is the federal transportation reauthorization process getting you down? Take a page from the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota’s book and innovate state funding for your bicycle and pedestrian programs. Let Advocacy Advance help with a Rapid Response Grant.

BikeMN started a campaign last month to include a $3 million appropriation in the 2012 Minnesota Bonding Bill to launch a statewide Safe Routes to School grant program. Advocacy Advantage has awarded BikeMN a $3,000 Rapid Response grant to support their efforts.

Their idea has spurred the interest and involvement of the Minnesota Safe Kids Coalition, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Minnesota Childhood Obesity Legislative Working Group and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, and this grant will help them carry out their lead role. The $3,000 will be used to hire a lobbyist and have a professional presence at the state capitol during the process.

This campaign meets the grant’s urgency requirement. The Minnesota Legislature convened on January 24 for a 10-week session. Without the financial support of their efforts, BikeMN would need to wait until 2014. This precedent-setting allocation of general state revenue to SRTS would have lasting implications on how the state uses spends its transportation funds and could serve as a model for Alliance organizations.

Advocacy Advance is a partnership between the Alliance for Biking & Walking and the League of American Bicyclists with the goal to double federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs and projects by supporting advocacy efforts and agency collaboration at the state and local levels. Our Rapid Response grants can be used to fund campaigns that involve all types of public funding: federal, state, regional and city.

Thanks to the support of SRAM Cycling Fund, Advocacy Advance has $35,000 remaining to fund organizations met with urgent and unexpected opportunities to win, increase, or preserve funding for biking and walking. There is no application deadline for these rolling grants and accepted proposals will be funded within one month. Visit the Advocacy Advance website or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information on our grant program.

Rapid Response grants have funded the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin’s successful campaign to restore $2 million of the state’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Program, the BTA’s bike sharing success in Portland, and Active Living LaCrescent’s bridge accommodations campaign.