Agriculture Conservation Experienced Services (ACES) Program | USDA NRCS NHQ ACES 24 NOFO0001365

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NRCS NHQ ACES 24 NOFO0001365

The Agriculture Conservation Experienced Services (ACES) Program is a Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) grant opportunity designed to expand conservation technical assistance capacity by tapping into the skills of experienced individuals age 55 and older. Through ACES, these older workers support NRCS conservation-related programs and authorities by helping deliver on-the-ground technical services such as conservation planning assistance, technical consultation, and support for the design and implementation of conservation practices. A central feature of the program is that ACES participants are not USDA employees and are not employees of a state agriculture department, which allows NRCS to add capacity without creating federal positions, while also ensuring the participants wages do not affect their retirement annuities.

The funding opportunity is structured a bit differently than a typical grant. Under this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NFO), there is no immediate funding awarded at the time of selection. Instead, NRCS expects to select up to five eligible nonprofit organizations and issue them national cooperative agreements. Those national agreements make the selected organizations eligible to enter into subsequent, individual agreements that actually provide funding for services as NRCS needs arise. Because of that structure, there is no guaranteed minimum or maximum award amount, and funding levels will ultimately depend on future individual agreements, available appropriations, and NRCS workload demands.

Eligibility is limited to nonprofit private agencies and organizations that qualify to receive grants under the Community Service Senior Opportunities Act (42 U.S.C. 3056 et seq.). In the posted opportunity data, eligible applicants are described as nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education). The selected nonprofit organizations function as the employer-of-record for ACES participants and are responsible for the people-operations side of the program, including advertising positions, recruiting candidates, hiring, and managing payroll. NRCS, on the other hand, supplies the operational backbone for the work itself, including providing funds, office space, position descriptions, work assignments, and day-to-day oversight of the ACES roles. Positions can cover a wide range of skill sets and education levels, reflecting the variety of conservation technical assistance needs across NRCS programs.

In terms of costs, NRCS-funded amounts are intended to cover more than just hourly wages. The NFO indicates that NRCS funding also covers fringe benefits, federal payroll taxes, unemployment compensation, and pay increases, which is important for nonprofits because it clarifies that the cooperative agreement is meant to address the full employment cost of placing participants, not just base pay. ACES participants remain outside of federal employment status, which also means federal employment benefits and federal employee rules do not apply to them in the way they would for USDA staff.

Geographically, the ACES program is national in scope. Services may be delivered across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and also in NRCS Caribbean and Pacific service areas, specifically Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, plus Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. This broad footprint signals that selected organizations should be capable of supporting recruitment and placement at scale, potentially across multiple regions, rather than operating only in a single local area.

The timeline reflects both near-term application and selection milestones and a longer-term transition for when the new national agreements take effect. Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on January 13, 2025. NRCS indicates it anticipates making selections by March 1, 2025, and executing awards by May 15, 2025, though these dates are estimates and can change. Separately, NRCS notes it has existing ACES agreements that expire on August 30, 2025, and that new awards will be made effective August 31, 2025, for a five-year period. In practice, that means the competition is happening in early 2025, but the next full agreement cycle is aligned with the expiration of current agreements at the end of August 2025.

This NFO is explicitly issued ahead of final FY 2025 appropriations and apportionment, which is a standard federal caveat but an important one: continuing resolutions or a final appropriations act could change the amount of money available or the pace at which NRCS can issue funded task-level agreements under the national cooperative agreements. The opportunity also notes that resulting awards will be governed by the 2024 Revisions to Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations, including 2 CFR Part 200, which become effective October 1, 2024. That is the main federal framework for grant and cooperative agreement administration (covering items like cost principles, audit requirements, and uniform administrative rules), and applicants should expect the revised rules to apply to awards made under this NFO.

Administratively, the opportunity is listed as a discretionary program using cooperative agreements as the funding instrument, and it is tied to multiple CFDA (Assistance Listing) numbers: 10.904, 10.912, 10.916, 10.921, 10.923, 10.924, 10.931, and 10.932. The statutory authority is grounded in Section 1252, Subtitle F of Title XII of the Food Security Act of 1985, as amended and revised by later farm bills, and implemented in accordance with the Community Service Senior Opportunities Act. For applicant support, NRCS directs Grants.gov technical issues to the Grants.gov support desk, and limits program-content questions to clarifications about the NFO itself (for example, dates and specific requirements), rather than pre-reviewing eligibility arguments or proposal quality.

• The Natural Resources Conservation Service in the agriculture, environment, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Agriculture Conservation Experienced Services (ACES) Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.904, 10.912, 10.916, 10.921, 10.923, 10.924, 10.931, 10.932.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-09-30.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-01-13. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.

Apply for USDA NRCS NHQ ACES 24 NOFO0001365

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