The VA Is Giving $112 Million to Community Nonprofits for Veteran Suicide Prevention. Applications Close June 12.

Every day, roughly 17 veterans die by suicide in the United States. The Department of Veterans Affairs knows its clinical system alone cannot reach the veterans most at risk — the ones who never walk into a VA hospital, who don't have active VA benefits, who fell through every crack the system has. So three years ago, the VA did something unusual: it started writing checks to community nonprofits.

The Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program has since distributed $210 million to 111 organizations across 46 states, Washington D.C., Guam, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico. On March 13, the VA announced the FY2027 funding round: up to $112 million in new awards, with individual grants reaching $750,000. Applications opened April 13 and close June 12, 2026.

This is the largest community-based veteran suicide prevention funding opportunity in the federal government — and most grant seekers outside the veterans' services world have never heard of it.

How the Program Works

The SSG Fox program was authorized by the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019 and named for Army veteran Parker Gordon Fox, who died by suicide in 2020 at age 25. The program's design reflects a specific theory of change: that suicide prevention must extend beyond clinical walls into the communities where veterans actually live.

Grantees don't replace VA mental health services. They supplement them by reaching veterans who aren't engaged with the VA system — through outreach, peer support, case management, and connection to benefits. The program explicitly targets social determinants of health that clinical care alone doesn't address: economic hardship, housing instability, legal problems, social isolation, and lack of access to care.

Since launching services in January 2023, grantees have completed over 63,000 distinct outreach efforts and identified and engaged more than 13,000 individuals at risk. More than 90% of participants who complete program services report improvements in well-being, mental health, social support, and financial stability.

Those numbers matter for grant seekers because they represent the evidence base the VA uses to justify continued and expanded funding. The program isn't a pilot anymore. It's a proven model with congressional support and growing appropriations.

What $750,000 Buys

Individual awards can reach $750,000, and the scope of allowable services is deliberately broad. The VA structured the program to fund the full continuum of suicide prevention, not just crisis intervention. Covered activities include:

Outreach and identification — proactive efforts to find at-risk veterans in the community, not waiting for them to self-refer. This can include partnerships with homeless shelters, food banks, courts, employers, and faith-based organizations.

Mental health screening — required for all participants age 18 and older. Grantees must have the capacity to screen for suicide risk, substance use, PTSD, depression, and other conditions, either directly or through formal referral agreements.

Suicide risk and prevention education — training for families, community members, employers, and other stakeholders who interact with veterans. This isn't clinical training; it's community-level awareness building.

Case management — the connective tissue of the program. Case managers help veterans navigate benefits applications, housing programs, legal aid, employment services, and clinical referrals. For many participants, a case manager is the first consistent point of contact with any support system.

Peer support — veterans helping veterans, often through structured programs staffed by individuals with lived experience of military service and mental health challenges.

Emergency clinical treatment — immediate crisis intervention, including connection to the Veterans Crisis Line and emergency department care.

VA benefits assistance — helping veterans understand and access their earned benefits, from healthcare enrollment to disability compensation to education benefits.

Emergency needs support — housing, legal services, childcare, transportation, and financial counseling. These services address the acute stressors that frequently precede suicide attempts.

Innovative and nontraditional approaches — the VA explicitly funds approaches that fall outside conventional mental health programming. Grantees have used this flexibility for equine therapy, outdoor recreation programs, art therapy, and community-building initiatives tailored to local veteran populations.

Who Can Apply

Eligibility is broader than many federal grant programs. The following entities can apply:

• Incorporated private institutions or foundations
• Corporations wholly owned or controlled by private institutions
• Federally recognized Indian tribes
• Community-based organizations with networking capacity in their service area
• State or local government entities

The critical qualifier is demonstrated experience serving veterans or service members. Organizations don't need to be exclusively veteran-focused, but they must show that veterans are a core population in their service model or that they have the partnerships and expertise to serve this population effectively.

There are two priority tiers in the FY2027 competition. Priority 1 covers the 93 organizations currently operating SSG Fox grants — they can apply for new awards to continue existing services. Priority 2 is for new applicants or organizations proposing expanded service areas.

The VA has also signaled that it may prioritize organizations serving underserved rural communities, tribal lands, U.S. territories, areas with high concentrations of minority or women veterans, and regions with elevated Veterans Crisis Line call volumes. If your organization operates in any of these contexts, that demographic alignment is a significant competitive advantage.

The Application Mechanics

Applications are submitted through VA's Electronic Grant Management System (eGMS), not Grants.gov. This catches some first-time applicants off guard — the process requires separate registration.

Before starting an application, organizations need:

• An Employer Identification Number (EIN)
• An active SAM.gov registration (required for all federal funding recipients)
• A Customer Engagement Portal vendor file with VA
• An ID.me account for the authorized representative

The June 12 deadline at 4:59 PM Eastern is firm. Given the eGMS registration requirements, organizations that haven't previously applied to VA grants should begin the administrative setup process immediately — SAM.gov registration alone can take two to four weeks for new registrants.

The full Notice of Funding Opportunity is available on Grants.gov (opportunity listing) and through VA's Mental Health website at MentalHealth.VA.gov/ssgfox-grants/. Read the NOFO in its entirety before beginning the application — the VA evaluates proposals against specific criteria that are detailed in the document.

How This Connects to the Broader Veterans Mental Health Landscape

The SSG Fox program doesn't exist in isolation. On April 18, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to accelerate psychedelic drug research for serious mental illness, with explicit focus on veteran populations. The order requires the VA to collaborate with HHS and FDA on clinical trials and real-world evidence generation for psychedelic-assisted therapies. (Granted News)

For SSG Fox grantees, this creates a potential convergence. Organizations already embedded in veteran communities — doing outreach, screening, and case management — are exactly the kind of infrastructure needed to connect veterans with emerging clinical trials and innovative treatments. The executive order's emphasis on Right to Try access for psychedelic compounds means community organizations may eventually serve as a bridge between veterans and experimental therapies that are currently available only through formal research protocols.

Separately, ARPA-H's $139 million EVIDENT initiative is funding 13 research teams to develop objective measurement tools for behavioral health treatments, including multiple psilocybin studies. At least $50 million of EVIDENT's funding is earmarked for state-matched psychedelic research for serious mental illness — a pool of money that could flow to partnerships between research institutions and the kind of community organizations that the SSG Fox program already supports.

What Makes a Winning Application

The VA hasn't published its scoring rubric publicly, but the program's structure and past awards reveal what reviewers value:

Community embeddedness. The program's entire rationale is reaching veterans outside the VA system. Organizations that can demonstrate existing relationships with veteran populations — through current programming, partnerships with veteran service organizations, or geographic presence in areas with high veteran density — have a natural advantage.

Measurable outcomes. The VA tracks specific metrics: outreach contacts, screenings completed, services delivered, and participant-reported outcomes. Proposals should articulate clear outcome measures and data collection plans, not just describe services.

Partnerships. No single organization can deliver the full continuum of services the program funds. Strong applications typically describe formal referral agreements with VA medical centers, Vet Centers, county mental health agencies, housing authorities, and other service providers. The VA wants to see a network, not a silo.

Cultural competence. Veterans aren't a monolithic population. Applications that address the specific needs of women veterans, minority veterans, LGBTQ+ veterans, rural veterans, or veterans of specific service eras demonstrate the nuanced understanding the VA is looking for.

Sustainability planning. The VA funds grants in cycles, and organizations that demonstrate a path toward financial sustainability beyond the grant period — through diversified funding, fee-for-service models, or state and local partnerships — signal lower risk to reviewers.

The Deadline Is Closer Than It Looks

June 12 sounds like it's six weeks away. It's not — not if your organization hasn't started. SAM.gov registration, eGMS account setup, partnership letters, outcome frameworks, and budget development all take time. Organizations that are serious about applying should be in the NOFO right now and reaching out to their local VA medical center's suicide prevention coordinator this week.

The SSG Fox program represents something rare in federal grantmaking: a proven, well-funded program with explicit congressional support, expanding appropriations, and a demonstrated need that far outstrips current capacity. 111 organizations across 46 states are already doing this work. The FY2027 round is the opportunity for the next wave to join them.

Organizations searching for veteran-focused funding across federal, state, and foundation sources can use Granted to identify opportunities like SSG Fox alongside the broader landscape of mental health and social services grants.