What Are Opportunity Zones

by: Michael Saunders

Opportunity Zones are an economic development tool that allows people to invest in distressed areas in the United States.

The purpose of the Opportunity Zone programs is to spur economic growth and job creation in low-income communities while providing tax benefits to investors.

Opportunity Zones were created under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Thousands of low-income communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories are designated as Qualified Opportunity Zones.

Taxpayers can invest in these zones through Qualified Opportunity Funds.   (continued...)

What Are Opportunity Zones
  Page 2

About The Author Michael Saunders is an editor of TopGovernmentGrants.com. He edits a site on Community Foundations that highlights the Social Progress Index for Counties around the country and Opportunity Zones within these foundations' areas of coverage.

Additional Government Grants Resources

7 Steps Towards Choosing The Perfect College
In most instances, the problem doesn't stop with finances. Students often find it hard to choose the right school for them, pick the course that best suit their needs and abilities.

---

First Time Homebuyer Programs in Georgia
In July 1996, the Governor and General Assembly made a vital decision to join together the Georgia Housing and Finance Authority (GHFA) with the Department of Community Affairs.

---

Financing Your Education with Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants
Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants assist those undergraduate students enrolled in a postsecondary education that cannot afford their educational expenses without financial assistance. The grant is in place to help them meet their educational expenses to the successful completion of a postsecondary degree.

---

Modeling Social Behavior Grant Program
The National Institutes of Health has collaborated with the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in order to establish the Modeling Social Behavior Grant Program wherein they intend to seek applications for the development and evaluation of innovative theories, as well as computational, mathematical, and engineering approaches that could better our understanding of a human being's social behavior.

---

Regional Ecosystem Prediction Program: Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research
The United States Department of Commerce has recently constituted the development of the Regional Ecosystem Prediction Program, specifically the Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research.

---

2013 Mid-Atlantic Research Set-Aside Program
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has recently established the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Research Set-Aside Program wherein it intends to solicit proposals that can successfully and efficiently address the Mid-Atlantic Research Set-Aside priorities relating to summer flounder, scup, black sea bass, longfin squid, Illex squid, Atlantic mackerel, butterfish, and bluefish.

---

National Science Foundation announces the Cyberlearning: Transforming Education Program
The Cyberlearning: Transforming Education is a program wherein the NSF will provide funding for research proposals that aim to explore opportunities associated with the promotion and assessment of learning techniques through the help of new technologies, taking advantage of the application of those technologies, and the utilization of those technologies in the process of promoting deep and lasting learning of content, practices, skills, attitudes, and dispositions that are essential in becoming an engaged and productive citizen.

---