SCC is improving the way it does business. We’ve heard from conservation districts and other partners that SCC has opportunities to improve its processes and programs.
We are working on a variety of projects with the end goal of providing the best possible service to conservation districts, while increasing efficiency, transparency, and accountability.
This is about much more than adopting a new technology to replace an outdated one. This is about ensuring that SCC has the capacity to deliver on the increased number of conservation resources entrusted to it.
Our monthly roundtable meetings are an important way for conservation districts and SCC to share information and stay connected. Meetings areconducted via Zoom and registration is required. Please contact your regional manager for more information.
Our monthly roundtable meetings are an important way for conservation districts and SCC to share information and stay connected. In an effort to make sure these meetings are better serving the communication needs of conservation districts, we’ve developed a tool to source topics for the roundtables.
Use the tool below to add your topic idea to an upcoming roundtable, which can include subjects for focused discussion. Please take time to list any questions you may have about the topic as well. Use the “thumbs up” feature to up-vote other topic ideas. Topics with the most votes will be incorporated into upcoming meetings. We will reach out to topic submitters to plan out any conversational sessions.
Please note that to be considered for the next roundtable meeting, your topic must be submitted at least five business days before the meeting. View a list of previously submitted topics and when the topics were discussed.
The Ombuds Working Group is actively reviewing all feedback submitted on the Grants Manual. Comments have been grouped by topic, and dedicated teams are developing recommendations for each area. These recommendations may include additional training, process updates, or policy changes within the Grants Manual.
The Ombuds Working Group was launched in early 2025 in response to stakeholder requests for a more transparent, participatory, and comprehensive revision process for the SCC Grants and Contracts Policy Manual. Through multiple feedback channels, including surveys, online comments, and broad staff engagement, the group collected more than 500 comments across 41 topic areas. These topics ranged from cost share and vouchering practices to organizational clarity, travel policies, and philosophical approaches to grant administration. The working group includes district representatives, regional managers, SCC staff, and WACD, all collaborating to evaluate feedback and craft improvements.
To manage the breadth of input, Tiger Teams were formed in early 2026 and assigned to thematic areas such as cost share and DIPs, policy, process and help, travel, and cross-cutting workgroup-wide topics. These teams use a standardized 'Topic Sheet' framework to analyze feedback, consider legal and administrative requirements, explore alternatives, and justify recommendations. Throughout the process, the group emphasizes not just rewriting the manual but strengthening overall grants administration practices.
Implementation will occur gradually and in alignment with SCC review cycles, major organizational changes, and other process improvement efforts such as Tech Transition initiative. Policy changes will follow a formal schedule including draft reviews in late 2026, a public comment period in early 2027, and a target implementation date of July 1, 2027. Non-policy improvements, such as guidance documents or FAQs, may roll out earlier or later depending on complexity and staff capacity. SCC and Working Group members will continue updating stakeholders through regular meetings and the SCC Business Improvement webpage, where ongoing feedback is welcomed and more details of this project are available.
Ten years ago, SCC administered about $35 million in grant funding from two fund sources to conservation districts and other partners. Today, we administer about $100 million from eight fund sources, and our systems and processes have not kept pace with growth. We scaled up our capacity to deliver essential grant dollars quickly to conservation districts but did not transform our processes to reflect the greater complexity of our funding and programs.
SCC is working to improve our grant program administration and is partnering with conservation districts to make sure our new processes center on district experience.
