The American Rescue Plan (ARPA or ARP), signed into law in March 2022, continued many of the programs started by the CARES Act (2020) and Consolidated Appropriations Act (2021) to address issues related to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the bill signed into law, ARPA distributed $8.5 billion towards Minnesota’s COVID-19 response and recovery, to be further allocated to the state, counties, and localities with expenditures allowable through 2026.
In both Minnesota and nationally, the nonprofit community advocated for the infusion of federal funding to provide a robust and wide variety of opportunities provided through direct relief, RFPs, and contracts for services. As of October 2022, most of the $8.5 billion has been allocated, with a very small portion of the funds going specifically to nonprofit organizations.
Of that $8.5 billion, much of the state’s $2.7 billion flexible ARPA dollars were allocated to the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, which provided an untargeted tax benefit for employers across the state (including nonprofit organizations that represent 14 percent of the state’s workforce). Additionally, some portion of the $500 million in frontline worker relief payments went to nonprofit workers. Minnesota’s portion of Federal Program-Specific funds are supplementing already-existing programs.