There are two types of Applicants. The applicant must be either a Technical Assistance Provider or an Ultimate Recipient, and must meet eligibility requirements before being considered for Agency assistance.

Applicants applying as Technical Assistance Providers must:

Be a public body or a private nonprofit corporation, (such as States, counties, cities, townships, and incorporated towns and villages, boroughs, authorities, districts, and Indian tribes on Federal and State reservations);

Be legally established and located within one of the following:

A State as defined § 3570.252; or

The District of Columbia; and

Have the proven ability, background, experience (as evidenced by the organization's satisfactory completion of Project(s) similar to those proposed), legal authority and actual capacity to provide Technical Assistance and/or training to Ultimate Recipients as provided in § 3570.252. To meet the requirement of actual capacity, an Applicant must either:

Have the necessary resources to provide Technical Assistance and/or training to associations in Rural Areas through its staff,

Be assisted by an affiliate or member organization which has such background and experience and which agrees, in writing, that it will provide the technical assistance, or

May contract with a nonaffiliated organization for not more than 49 percent of the awarded grant to provide the proposed technical assistance.

Nonprofits applying as Technical Assistance Providers must be designated tax exempt by the Internal Revenue Service.

Applicants applying as Ultimate Recipients must be:

A public body,

An Indian Tribe, or

A Nonprofit corporation that demonstrates Community ties to the Rural Area by:

Obtaining substantial public funding through taxes revenue bonds, or other local Government sources, and/or substantial voluntary community funding,

Having a broadly-based ownership and control by members of the community, or

Demonstrating all of the following characteristics:

Members of the organization are primarily from the local rural community,

Membership is open to all adults in the local rural community,

Members of the organization have ultimate control of the proposed community facility; and

The organization receives the majority of its funding from its members or their volunteer efforts.