MDNR Chesapeake & Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund

Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Program Contacts

If you have programmatic or custom model questions, please reach out to Ari Engelberg [email protected]

Programs and RFPs

2024 Chesapeake & Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund RFP

Program Website

Lead Funding Organization

Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Geographic Area

State of Maryland

Putting FieldDoc to use

Applicants are required to use FieldDoc to estimate nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment reductions. Any proposal that does not include calculations from FieldDoc will not be considered. Please take advantage of this documentation as a first step when utilizing FieldDoc. The DNR and FieldDoc staff are also available to answer follow-up questions to support your application to Grants Gateway.

New Application Submission Workflow

FieldDoc released new features and changes to the application workflow in November 2024. Users must follow the new workflow in order to make sure your application is received by the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund Program Managers.

Apply for funding

To create the FieldDoc portion of your application, first ensure that you have set up an account on FieldDoc. The following identifies the key components. Check out the FieldDoc Documentation for more detailed instructions for each step.

1

Create FieldDoc Account

The organization submitting the application must be the "owner" of the related records and Pact within FieldDoc. Collaborators and technical service providers can be added to the organization's workspace to assist with configuring the Pact.

🌱 Learn More: Create Account

2

Create a Pact

FieldDoc allows organizations to share data from their portfolio of nature-based activities with funding programs via Pacts. Each application should have a unique Pact. To create a Pact, you'll need the funding opportunity's unique Pact Code.

🌱 Learn More: Create a Pact

3

Link Activity Records to the Pact

Activity Records represent the work that will be completed through the proposed funding. Review the FAQs for specific guidance on what must be included at the application level.

🌱 Learn More: Activities

4

Add Programmatic Metrics

Once Activity Records are linked to a Pact, you can add programmatic metrics associated with the Funding Opportunity. These metrics should match those submitted in your Easygrants application.

🌱 Learn More: Metrics - Programmatic

5

Hit submit.

For Program Managers to review your FieldDoc data, you must submit the Pact by clicking "Submit."

Follow any additional guidance provided in the RFP to complete your application.

6

Link Pact & Activity to your Grants Gateway Application.

Copy the Pact URL from your Pact Overview page and paste it into the Grants Gateway overview field. Copy each Activity URL into each site page.

FAQs - Creating an proposal

Why aren't my Activities appearing in my Pact?

All Activities must be linked to a Pact. If you create an Activity through a Pact, the Activity will be a part of that Pact. If you create an Activity through your Activity Portfolio page or directly through a Project, you will need to manually link the Activity to a Pact.

Why can't my funder see my application?

1. Did you Create a Pact and assign the related Activity(ies) to the Pact?

2. Did you click "Submit to Funder"?

The Trust Fund Program managers can only see activity records that are included in a Pact created through their Pact Opportunity. Please reach out to [email protected] to get a code to create your Pact. Once Activity records are created or added to the Pact, you must click "submit to funder" for the records to be shared with Trust Fund program managers.

Where did Sites go?

Sites are in the process of returning a more generalized organizational folder called Sections. If you typically create multiple sites within your project, you must adjust your approach for this funding cycle.

This year, we recommend using Projects instead of Sites to organize and store your Activities within your organization portfolio. To maintain clarity, we recommend that you include the Site Name as part of the Activity Name. For example, within a Project named Smith Farm, you might name your activities as follows: Smith Farm Forest Buffer, Smith Farm Grass Buffer, and Smith Farm Cover Crop.

When it's time to create your Pact, you will link Activities directly from your portfolio. Projects will not restrict you from including multiple activities from different projects in the same Pact. You will share the Pact URL as part of your application rather than Projects.

How do I associate my activities to the Pact?

In the updated FieldDoc system, activities are the base data record. The system has expanded options for organizing and sharing activity records. This has resulted in multiple pathways through which you can create activity records and share them as part of funding applications.

There are two main pathways to create a Pact and add Activities. The order of operations no longer matters, but for a Program Manager to see an Activity, it must be part of the associated Pact.

Create a Pact and build your activities within the Pact

Create Activities and then Create a Pact that you then associate with your Activities

What URL do I share in my Trust Fund application?

Please share the Pact URL as part of your Trust Fund application.

How do I turn on the Sediment & Nutrient Load Reduction Models?

In FieldDoc 2.0, models are not automatically generated. Users must complete the data input as a final step and ask the system to generate the outputs.

🌱 Learn more: Model outputs