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BRACE GRANT PROGRAM

At the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation (KGBF), we believe everyone deserves to enjoy clean, green, and beautiful spaces. Litter affects our quality of life, destroying our state’s natural beauty, harming or killing wildlife, and diminishing water quality. It also hinders economic development—property values decrease in littered neighborhoods, whereas clean environments attract families and businesses.

That’s why we’re excited to provide a grant opportunity that will enable more communities to thrive. The purpose of the BRACE Grant Program is to reduce litter, blight, and illegal dumping on public property and encourage code enforcement efforts. Funded through the Solid Waste Trust Fund (SWTF), the grant program is designed to provide assistance to Georgia communities to address these challenges.

The 2023-24 application period is now closed, but we invite local governments, public authorities, agencies, commissions, or institutions to apply next year. Priority will be given to communities with a population of 2,500 or less according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau Population and Housing Unit Estimates data.

Details & Resources

We invite you to review the following documents as you prepare your application.

BRACE Grant Program 2023-24 Guidelines (PDF)

BRACE Program 2023-24 Tips & Best Practices (PDF)

Project Budget Example (PDF)

BRACE Grant Program Application Questions for Review (PDF) 

You can also review BRACE Grant eligibility and application requirements via a recorded virtual session.

 FAQs

  • You may not include gifts, giveaways, prizes, awards, award ceremonies, recognition events, food and beverage, or salaries for employees that are not directly responsible for addressing the issues of litter, illegal dumping, blight, and/or code enforcement in your budget.

  • If your project includes recycling or beautification initiatives, those elements must tie directly to addressing the larger issues of litter, illegal dumping, blight, and/or code enforcement in your community.

  • BRACE grants are only available in $2,500 or $5,000 increments. The amount you request in your budget proposal must match one of those amounts exactly. If your budget for BRACE is less than $5,000, then you will only be eligible to receive $2,500. If your budget for BRACE is less than $2,500, then you will not be eligible to receive any grant funding. Your overall budget, including in-kind or other funding sources, may exceed the granted amounts.

  • Yes, multiple communities can collaborate on a single project. If that is how you choose to proceed, please have a representative submit one joint application. That representative should submit the application on behalf of a single community, with the other communities involved listed as the joint applicants. Only joint applications may choose to apply for the $10,000 grant option.

  • We encourage you to include as much detail as possible to help the judging team best understand your community need(s) in relation to litter, illegal dumping, blight, and/or code enforcement. This includes but isn’t limited to statistics, timeline information, details on local challenges, and projected outcomes. In your budget narrative, please be very specific on how you plan to utilize funding, including a breakdown of each line item.