The Alliance Collaborative is offering 20 grants for inspection services to COVID-19-impacted, U.S.-based non-profit organizations—and possibly to others that make a significant contribution to their local communities—that offer challenge course programming. The COVID-19 Adventure Program Inspection Service (CAPIS) grants, as they are called, apply to inspections on challenge courses, ropes courses, zip lines, and/or climbing structures. 
The grants will be awarded to organizations that have experienced economic difficulty resulting from COVID-19 shelter-in-place regulations, and will cover the cost of a single day inspection service, plus $100 toward the inspector’s travel expenses.
“We know that so many in our industry have been negatively impacted by COVID-19 and we wanted to offer some assistance to those who have been hit the hardest,” said Bill Weaver, general manager of The Alliance. “Our founding members are each donating the inspections as a way of demonstrating that The Alliance is here to support others in the industry and that we are all stronger together.”
Applicant organizations should be classified as 501(c)(3) by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and should have a professional inspection report available from 2019 or 2020. The Alliance will consider funding a limited number of grants for organizations that do not have these legal designations if the organization can demonstrate a significant contribution to or role within their community.
Applicant organizations must be incorporated and have programs that operate in the continental U.S. (offer excludes Alaska, Hawaii and US territories). Applicants do not need to be members of the Alliance Collaborative.
Inspection services will be provided by one of The Alliance’s Foundational Members: Challenge Works, Experiential Resources, Experiential Systems, Rope Works, or The Adventure Guild. The Alliance grant committee will choose the inspecting company, and the actual inspection will be conducted to ACCT, NAARSO or AIMS inspection guidelines as dictated by the requirements of an organization’s Authority Having Jurisdiction.
Grants are discretionary and will be determined based on an essay. Essays should address economic hardship and the value of the organization to its constituents. The Alliance Grant Committee will determine which applicants receive grants.
Grant applications can be found on The Alliance website at www.thealliancecollaborative.com. The deadline for applying is May 31, 2020. All winning applicants will be notified by June 15, 2020. All inspections must be scheduled and provided between June 16, 2020 and April 15, 2021.
For more information about the CAPIS grants, visit www.thealliancecollaborative.com or call 800-561-6209.
