The Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience Program (SAFER)
🏛 State Water Resources Control Board (California)
✓ Free, no account · Source: California Grants Portal · Last verified Nov 1, 2026
Can you apply?
This grant is for charter schools that are high-performing and serve underserved communities. Eligible charter schools must conduct at least 80% of their instructional time on-site. Schools apply during competitive funding rounds announced through the CSFA website and ListServ.
Geographic scope is California only. The State Treasurer's Office administers this facility assistance program. Funds support facility costs and infrastructure needs.
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Program description
In 2019, Senate Bill 200 (SB200) established the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water (SADW) Fund to address funding gaps and provide solutions to water systems, especially those serving DACs, to address both their short- and long-term drinking water needs. The SADW Fund is one of several funds that are part of the larger SAFER Program. Complementary funding sources administered by the State Water Board’s Division of Financial Assistance for drinking water projects include: General Fund allocations, the Cleanup and Abatement Account, Proposition 68 Drinking Water, Proposition 1 and Proposition 68 Groundwater, and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), which offers repayable, low-interest financing and loans with partial or complete principal forgiveness. Up to $130 million per year will be available from the SADW Fund for ten years (starting with Fiscal Year 2020-21) for local assistance and state operations. The amount available from complementary funding sources varies each year. The priority uses of the SADW Fund include: 1) addressing any emergency or urgent funding needs, where other emergency funds are not available and a critical water shortage or outage could occur without support from the Fund; 2) addressing community water systems (CWSs) and school water systems out of compliance with primary health standards, focusing on small Disadvantaged Communities (DACs); 3) accelerating consolidations for systems out of compliance, at-risk systems, as well as state smalls and domestic wells, focusing on small DACs; 4) providing interim solutions and initiating planning efforts for long-term solutions for state smalls and domestic wells with source water above a primary maximum contaminant level (MCL). Anticipated expenditures of the SADW Fund will be consistent with the priorities and will be used in conjunction with other available complementary funding available in the larger SAFER Program to address funding gaps. Priorities for the complementary funding sources part of the larger SAFER Program generally align with the priorities of the SADW Fund.
Who can apply
Eligible applicants
How to apply
Application links
Program contact
- 📧 DFA-OSWS@waterboards.ca.gov
- 📞 1-916-327-9978
Funding track record
Past applications & awards under this program (California Grants Portal) — how competitive it is.
By fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Applications | Awarded | Award rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-2022 | 28 | 28 | 100% |
| 2022-2023 | 21 | 21 | 100% |
| 2023-2024 | 31 | 31 | 100% |
| 2024-2025 | 37 | 37 | 100% |
| 2020-2021 | 18 | 18 | 100% |
| 2025-2026 | 17 | 17 | 100% |
Source: California Grants Portal
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