Expert advice for every grant — from EPA to DARPA

On September 23, 2026 NASA selected PRIMA as the first Probe Explorer mission — a $1.2 billion far-infrared observatory entering Phase B for a 2033 launch. Its competitor was disqualified before the final decision. And 75 percent of PRIMA's observing time goes to scientists who had nothing to do with building it.

PAR-28-027 was forecast on September 24, 2026: four awards, an $80,000 ceiling, a $10,000 floor, and a May 25, 2027 estimated deadline. The program's audience language changed between the expired PAR and the forecast, and the whole thing is a 19-month pipeline from forecast to first dollar.

NOAA-NMFS-PRPO-2026-31863 closes December 1, 2026: 10 to 40 awards, 12-month periods only, a $125,000 single-organization cap, a $150,000 tier that requires three collaborating entities, and a 25% match calculated on total cost that fails applications before review.

CDC-RFA-EH-27-0074 posted as a forecast September 22, 2026: 6 expected awards at $750,000 to $900,000. That is flat funding against the expiring cycle — and the only proven way in is the consortium model Arizona used to bring three states under one award.

The Citi Foundation announced its 2026 Community Finance Initiative grantees on September 23, 2026 — 70 nonprofits at $500,000 apiece. The competition closed with a February 18 letter of inquiry, and the audited-financials and no-fiscal-sponsor rules screened the field before a single proposal was read.

The FY2027 FAA Contract Tower Competitive Grant Program posted September 24, 2026 with an October 19 deadline. Two awards could consume the entire pot — and the eligibility gate closed months before the notice published.

RFA-ES-28-004 went up as a forecast on September 24, 2026: 10 expected awards at $500,000 to $750,000 each, recompeting a network that currently has six translation centers and one coordinator. The four new slots are almost certainly geographic.

PA-27-037 consolidates the Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Transition Award into a single parent announcement across 20 NIH components, with the next deadline December 8, 2026. The eligibility gate is not the science — it is a mandatory change of institution and mentor between the F99 and K00 phases.

PFund Foundation's FY27 Community Grants for LGBTQ+ nonprofits in Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Wisconsin and the Native Nations therein are due October 13, 2026 at 5 p.m. Central. The award band circulating in aggregator listings is wrong, the money lands in March 2027, and fiscal sponsorship is allowed.

On September 21, 2026 DOE selected 21 projects under DE-FOA-0003472 — five EGS field tests and 16 exploration wells — for up to $99 million of a $171.5 million authorization. The solicitation is structured to reopen for up to 72 months on roughly annual cycles. Here is how to position for the next one.

A September 18, 2026 proclamation renews the $100,000 H-1B payment through September 21, 2027. Courts have blocked collection since June. The cap-exempt carve-out that protects universities from the DHS fee rule does not appear here — and that gap decides how grant-funded labs should hire.

A draft executive order would have put OMB Director Russell Vought on a commission with final say over NIH awards after peer review. Sen. Collins killed it by pointing at a provision Congress already passed. Here is what the episode teaches applicants about the December 11 cliff.

The FY 2026 Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Program carries $6,526,269 across 22 awards, closing October 15 in Grants.gov and October 22 in JustGrants. A single statutory clause disqualifies most applicants before the narrative is written.

The FY 2026 Kevin and Avonte Program closes October 6 in Grants.gov and October 13 in JustGrants — $2,105,869, 14 awards at up to $150,000. The eligibility list includes 501(c)(3)s and FQHCs, and one performance objective requires a baseline you probably don't have.

The CFC portal was decommissioned March 4, 2026. No 2026 solicitation period has been announced, no application window opened, and OPM has not said the program is over. Here's what the channel actually was and how to replace it.

The Delta Conservancy's first Proposition 4 grant cycle funds community enhancement, ecosystem restoration, and paludiculture on subsided peat soils. Two funding caps, three priorities, no matching requirement — and a gate most applicants will miss.

TCUP lists eight funding tracks and roughly $10.3M a year, but the October 14, 2026 deadline applies to only three of them — CHAI, Pre-TI, and TCUP Partnerships — and each carries a restriction that disqualifies most applicants. Here is the track-by-track math.

HHS has obligated roughly half a percent of the FY2026 Teen Pregnancy Prevention appropriation with days left before September 30. Here is the full timeline, the replacement NOFO that closed in July, the August court ruling, and what grantees should be doing right now.

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation launched a $100 million venture philanthropy fund at CGI on September 22, 2026, seeded with $23 million and aiming at 20 to 30 companies. Here is what the structure actually means for investigators, for startups in the valley of death, and for every disease foundation now weighing the same move.

DOE named 31 grid projects across 26 states for $1.9B on September 24, 2026. Recipients bring $3.35B of their own money. Here is what the selection list reveals about how to win the next GRIP round.

BJA posted O-BJA-2026-172778 on September 24, 2026 — $25 million, roughly 50 awards at up to $500,000, dual October 20 and October 27 deadlines. The eligibility conditions are the real story.

At CGI on September 23, 2026, Global Impact Ventures committed $100 million over three years across economic opportunity, health, education, climate resilience and humanitarian needs. There is no application portal. The access route is the intermediary infrastructure — fiscal sponsorship, grantmaking administration, and a 250-organization network.

Comcast NBCUniversal named its 2026 Local Impact grantees on September 23. The unrestricted money is real, but a 30 percent expense cap and a zip-code gate filter more applicants than the merit review does.

The Terra Foundation for American Art takes inquiries for its next Convening Grants cycle through September 28, 2026, with invited proposals due November 30 for programs after May 1, 2027. Awards run $10,000 to $25,000 with 20 percent admin and 15 percent indirect allowances — and a disqualification list most applicants never read.

Candid launched a DAF-versus-foundation grantmaking dashboard on September 21, DAFgiving360 crossed $10 billion in a single fiscal year, and the 2026 DAF Fundraising Report found median DAF revenue up 75 percent against 12 percent for everything else. For a grants-driven nonprofit, that growth is arriving through a channel a proposal cannot reach.

The grantmaker formerly known as Open Philanthropy has two open calls that invert normal grant craft: Project Tailwind backs AI safety founders with $200k to $200M on a rolling basis, and Launchpad Funds seeds new global health funds led by a single accountable general manager. Expressions of interest close October 2, 2026.

Microsoft launched Community-First Grants on September 21, 2026 — $1 million to King County nonprofits, applications through October 23, grantees notified in November. The scope is small and the geography is narrow, but the eligibility gate inverts how corporate philanthropy normally works, and the things the announcement does not specify tell you more than the things it does.

PA-27-034, PA-27-035 and PA-27-036 replace the institute-specific R25 announcements that research education programs have been built around for a decade. NCI, NIDA and NIGMS have already expired theirs early. Here is what the consolidation actually changes: an 8% indirect cost ceiling, a US-citizens-and-permanent-residents participant rule, a cooperative agreement variant that only exists on one of the three, and no clinical-trial-allowed companion anywhere.

NSF 26-513 makes roughly $100 million available for up to 10 State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs at $4M to $12M each over five years. One award per state or multi-state region. One proposal per organization. And NSF is not buying you GPUs — it funds the coordination, the workforce and the faculty training, while the compute has to come from partners you have to already have.

OpenAI is funding independent research on how generative AI affects 13-to-17-year-olds. Grants run to $1 million, overhead is capped at 10 percent, the proposal is three pages, and decisions land by November 13. The compressed timeline and the indirect-cost math are the two things that will decide who actually gets to apply.

ARPA-H launched SPECTRA on September 17, 2026 under solicitation ARPA-H-SOL-26-163 — four technical areas with separate Solution Summary deadlines on October 18, December 2, and January 18. The enabling-technologies area closes first, five weeks after launch. Here is why the sequencing matters and how to read each TA.

As of September 12, NSF had obligated $6.3 billion across 6,200 grants versus $8.1 billion and 8,600 last year. AHRQ has made 61 awards. Judge Allison Burroughs ordered the government to report by September 28 on whether IES will obligate $180 million before it expires. Here is what actually happens to the money on October 1 — and what it means for your FY2027 application.

The Gates Foundation committed at least $1 billion over two years to equitable AI alongside its 10th Goalkeepers Report — 40% education, 40% health, 10% agriculture, 10% digital infrastructure. Five days later, 60 organizations signed a five-year goal to reach 3.4 billion speakers of underrepresented languages. Here is how implementing nonprofits should read both.

NSF announced ELEGANT on September 17, 2026, an Other Transaction Agreement Solutions Offering to translate low-dimensional semiconductor technologies into manufacturable platforms. Five translation themes, one Ecosystem Coordinator, and a rule that says you cannot bid for both. Here is how to read the structure before the deadline is published.

VA announced $1.17 billion in FY2027 homelessness grants on September 14, 2026 — $855 million in SSVF, $318 million in Grant and Per Diem, all starting October 1. The awards are settled. The NOFO that produced them raised the income ceiling to 80% of AMI, rebuilt the renewal priority ladder around third-party accreditation, and put rural expansion at the top. Here is what that means for the February 2027 cycle.

The Justice Department's timeline put September 2026 as the month it starts executing the Bureau of Justice Grants consolidation, folding OJP, COPS, and OVW into one component under a Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General. Phase 1 is a single NOFO template and a uniform review framework. The FY2027 request cuts BJG discretionary funding 30.3 percent to $3.057 billion while eliminating $939.4 million in earmarks. Here is what changes for applicants, what the legal fight does not change, and how to plan a FY2027 pipeline through it.