How to Secure Federal Broadband Grants (Contributed) Federal funding will soon be available to local governments and nonprofits to expand broadband for telehealth and at-home learning in the wake of COVID-19, but competition will be steep. Federal grant funding in the upcoming COVID-19 relief plan has $10 billion earmarked to go toward expanding broadband and related technologies. But when the starting gun goes off, the goal is to distribute all of the money as fast as possible to local organizations that can use it to improve services for telehealth, at-home work and school. As it was during this past summer’s CARES Act funding distribution, it’s an environment that gives few applicants a second chance to make a good first impression.