Playground equipment grants in Georgia

Both the Land and Water Conservation Fund state office and the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program are run by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Both programs give matching grants that require your group to supply part of the project money to secure the award.

Towns, recreation authorities, and conservation nonprofits follow these plain steps for the state process:

• A pre-application goes first to the state stewardship program. Then you wait to be invited before a full application is sent for parks of regional and state significance.
• The Land and Water Conservation Fund office sets the application rounds and deadlines; when applying there, you should plan for a 50 percent local match.
• You must pay project bills first, then receive a reimbursement, meaning the program repays its share after work finishes.
• Communities with 25,000 people or more should apply to the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership for up to 50 percent reimbursement.

Based on their population, towns can also apply for federal aid. Rural communities of 20,000 residents or fewer can ask for community facilities grants. The smallest places with the lowest incomes can get costs covered up to 75 percent. Direct block grants, with no match, go to cities of 50,000 or more when their park serves low- and moderate-income residents; smaller towns use the state program.

Plan on about $1,000 for each child playing at once when you buy playground equipment Georgia dealers deliver. Add freight, installation and the ground under it. A full estimate of the whole project helps your committee show grant reviewers the plan for covering your local match.

Each child playing at once needs 75 square feet of ground surfacing; freight costs about 15 percent of the equipment price, and installation adds 25 to 35 percent. Most committees weigh engineered wood fiber against poured in place rubber. The first is wood chips milled to soften a fall; the second is a rubber surface without seams, mixed and troweled over the ground.

On 2,250 square feet, 30 children playing at once means a structure around $30,000. Budget $4,500 for freight and $7,500 to $10,500 for installation. The full project comes to $53,300 to $63,000 with rubber tile material, $55,500 to $72,000 with rubber mulch material, and $55,500 to $90,000 with turf material. The listed prices for rubber mulch, turf, and rubber tiles cover only the material; your dealer quote will include the extra cost to lay it.

Our grants finder helps schools, churches, and nonprofits that cannot get municipal park grants find private programs to combine and reduce their cash share. Public grants pay you back later, but playground equipment manufacturers use matching funds to discount the equipment price directly.

Pay in full for a play system above $75,000 and, in the contiguous United States, GameTime contributes up to 100 percent of that purchase. Full payment on systems between $25,000 and $75,000 earns up to 80 percent, while systems above $25,000 bought with credit terms earn up to 65 percent. Since these matching funds cover only the play system, separate budgeting for freight, surfacing, and installation is still needed.

If your organization has operated a sun-safety program for a year or longer before you apply, you can also request up to $8,000 toward a permanent shade structure. Once you know the number of children playing at once, one short quote request lets playground equipment dealers and manufacturers' representatives quote your site's equipment, surfacing and installation.