Last updated: August 12, 2026
Federal grant funding is the backbone of the community health center model, but the landscape in 2026 is more complicated than in prior years. The programs worth tracking aren’t just the ones currently accepting applications.
Three shifts should influence how you approach federal funding right now:
- Funding is stable but short-authorized. The 2026 Consolidated Appropriations Act modestly increased health center funding to $4.6B for FY 2026, along with $350M for the National Health Service Corps and $225M for Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education. But Community Health Center Fund authorization runs only through December 2026, the second consecutive short-term cycle. Build FY 2027 budgets against more than one scenario.
- Review priorities have shifted. The FY 2026 Health Center Program Service Area Competition explicitly ties funding to alignment with Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) priorities: chronic disease prevention and management, nutrition, reducing overreliance on medication, and environmental health. Applications that lead with health equity and social determinants language, which scored well in prior cycles, are now being evaluated through a different lens. This is the single most actionable thing on this page: The same project can score differently depending on how it’s framed.
- The agency structure is moving. HRSA is being consolidated into the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) alongside SAMHSA and other units, and grants management is migrating from the Electronic Handbook (EHB) to GrantSolutions. Expect processing delays, train backup staff on the new system, and build extra lead time into submissions.
Related resources: Rural Health Transformation Program funding is federal, but it is administered by states with their own application processes and timelines. We track those separately on our RHTP blog. For foundation, state, and regional opportunities, see our Non-Federal Grants blog.
How to use this page: Check the “Last updated” date above. Federal deadlines shift and agencies occasionally amend or extend notices; always confirm against the linked notice of funding opportunity before building an application timeline.
Currently Open Federal Grants: HRSA
HRSA-26-099: FY 2026 Expanding Nutrition Services: Open
Deadline: September 9, 2026
Funds: Increases access to nutrition services at HRSA-funded health centers, supporting prevention, management, and treatment of disease through nutritional and food-based interventions. Recipients use the funding to increase the number of nutrition services patients or visits.
Eligibility: Health Center Program award recipients with an active H80 award, funded under section 330(e) of the Public Health Service Act.
Award: $350,000
Explore the HRSA-26-099: FY 2026 Expanding Nutrition Services grant.
This is among the clearest examples of the MAHA funding lens in practice—nutrition services as a chronic disease intervention. Worth noting if you are framing other applications.
Currently Open Federal Grants: SAMHSA
SM-26-014: CCBHC Planning, Development, and Implementation Grant: Open
Deadline: August 17, 2026
Funds: Develops and establishes new Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics to address gaps in behavioral health services and improve wellbeing for people with mental health and substance use disorders.
Eligibility: Community-based behavioral health nonprofits, local government behavioral health authorities, and organizations operated by or under the authority of the Indian Health Service, Indian tribes, tribal organizations, or Urban Indian Organizations.
Award: Up to $1,000,000
Explore the CCBHC Planning, Development and Implementation grant.
SM-26-015: CCBHC Improvement and Advancement Grants: Open
Deadline: August 17, 2026
Funds: Helps existing Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) expand, enhance, and sustain services. Recipients must maintain all required CCBHC services while strengthening infrastructure, demonstrating compliance with certification criteria, conducting community needs assessments, and participating in technical assistance.
Eligibility: Community-based nonprofit behavioral health organizations, local government behavioral health authorities, and organizations operated by or in partnership with the Indian Health Service, federally recognized tribes, tribal organizations, or Urban Indian Organizations.
Award: Up to $1,000,000 per year
Explore the CCBHC Improvement and Advancement grant.
A note on SAMHSA: a substantial share of SAMHSA dollars reaches organizations through state block grants rather than direct federal competition. A common and costly mistake is applying directly to SAMHSA for funding that is actually administered by your state’s behavioral health authority. Confirm the pathway before investing in an application.
Currently Open Federal Grants: Delta Regional Authority
Delta Regional Authority Community Infrastructure Fund: Open
Deadline: August 24, 2026
Funds: Confirm against the DRA notice. The callout doesn’t specify the funded activities. DRA’s infrastructure funding generally supports basic public and community infrastructure; fill in the specifics the NOFO lists.
Eligibility: Projects serving the eight Delta Region states: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. (Confirm eligible entity types against the notice.)
Award: $250,000–$1,000,000
The DRA is a federal-state partnership agency, which is why we track this alongside federal opportunities even though states shape the process. For health centers in the Delta footprint, this is one of the larger infrastructure awards available right now.
Recurring Federal Funding Programs to Plan For
These programs are not currently accepting applications or are open only to specific cohorts. They are listed because they recur on predictable cycles and represent the largest and most reliable federal funding available to health centers. Winning organizations typically begin preparing between cycles.
Service Area Competition (SAC): Cohort-dependent
Status: FY 2027 notices are releasing now, on a rolling schedule.
Funds: Continued operational support under Section 330 for communities and populations already served by the Health Center Program. For most health centers, this is the single most consequential federal competition they face.
Eligibility: Applicants proposing to serve a service area listed in the Service Area Announcement Table: current Health Center Program award recipients seeking to continue serving their area, health centers not currently funded seeking to serve an announced area, and current recipients seeking to add an announced area.
How the cycle works—read this carefully. SAC does not run as a single annual deadline. Health centers are grouped into cohorts by budget period start date, and each cohort has its own notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) number and deadline, released from roughly May through August of the preceding fiscal year.
HRSA is also mid-way through a phased change to performance periods, which means two health centers of similar size may be on entirely different schedules this year:
- Health centers with performance period start dates of January 1, 2023; February 1, 2023; March 1, 2024; or April 1, 2024 should submit an FY 2027 SAC application.
- Health centers with start dates of January 1, 2024; February 1, 2024; May 1, 2024; or June 1, 2024 should receive a one-year extension with funding and submit an FY 2028 application instead.
Find your cohort: Check line 26, “Project Period Start Date – End Date,” on your most recent H80 Notice of Award. This is the fastest way to confirm which year you are applying in, and it is worth verifying now rather than assuming.
Award context: FY 2026 SAC notices ranged into the hundreds of millions across cohorts.
New Access Points (NAP): Not currently funded
Status: No NAP competition is expected in the current funding environment.
Funds: New service delivery sites providing comprehensive primary care, plus access to oral and behavioral health services. The primary route for an organization to become a new federally funded health center site.
Planning note: NAP competitions open only when HRSA announces a round, and none is anticipated under current appropriations. Organizations planning geographic expansion should not build a growth plan around a NAP cycle that is not funded. The Look-Alike pathway below is the available alternative.
Health Center Program Look-Alike: Open continuously
Status: Applications accepted at any time.
Funds: No federal grant funding. Look-Alikes receive FQHC Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, access to 340B Drug Pricing, automatic Health Professional Shortage Area designation, and access to National Health Service Corps providers.
Why it matters: With NAP unfunded, Look-Alike designation is the practical path to FQHC benefits for organizations that would otherwise be waiting on a competition that is not coming. The economics differ from a Section 330 award, but the reimbursement and 340B access are often the larger financial drivers.
National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program: Between cycles
Status: The FY 2026 cycle closed March 31, 2026. The FY 2027 cycle has not posted; historically, these open in late winter.
Funds: Repays up to $75,000 in student loans for clinicians committing to at least two years at an NHSC-approved site in a shortage area. A parallel substance use disorder workforce track offers comparable or higher amounts for addiction treatment clinicians.
Eligibility: Licensed primary care, dental, and behavioral health clinicians at NHSC-approved sites. Every FQHC is an automatically approved site. Half-time options are available.
Why it matters: This is the highest-leverage non-330 workforce funding available to health centers, and it requires no competitive application from the organization itself. It is a recruiting and retention tool you can offer immediately.
HRSA-27-069 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, Part C: Between cycles
Status: The FY 2026 cycle has closed. Watch for FY 2027, currently forecasted to open in January 2027.
Funds: HIV primary medical care, support services, and oral health services for people living with HIV.
Why it matters: Part C capacity building funding does not require an existing Ryan White patient population, which makes it an accessible entry point for health centers looking to add HIV primary care or transition from referral to direct treatment. Health centers considering Early Intervention Services funding in future years should treat a capacity building award as the logical first step.
HRSA-27-017 Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education: Recurring
Status: Funded at $225M for FY 2026. FY 2027 is forecasted and estimated to open soon, with a forecasted application due date of September 29, 2026.
Funds: Supports primary care residency training in community-based settings, including health centers.
Why it matters: For health centers with the clinical volume to support residents, THCGME addresses recruitment at the source. Residents trained in community settings are substantially more likely to stay in them.
Before You Apply
A few things that consistently separate successful federal applications from unsuccessful ones in the current environment:
- Reframe before you rewrite. Applications built around health equity and social determinants language should be re-examined against MAHA priorities. The underlying work often already qualifies—chronic disease management, nutrition, prevention, substance use services—but your narrative and outcome measures must lead with those priorities explicitly.
- Confirm the funding pathway. Check whether the program you are targeting is a direct federal competition or administered through your state. This is the most common mistake we see.
- Verify your SAC cohort now. Line 26 of your most recent H80 Notice of Award tells you whether you are applying in FY 2027 or FY 2028. The difference in preparation time is a year.
- Account for system lag. With the EHB-to-GrantSolutions migration underway, alongside HRSA staffing reductions, processing delays are a realistic risk. Train backup staff, submit early, and keep screenshots and copies of every submission.
- Prepare between cycles. For every program on this page currently marked as between cycles, the work that wins the next round—needs data, outcome metrics, partner commitments, budget narratives—can be done now. This is where grant support tends to pay for itself, well before a notice posts.
How VMG Health Can Help
Federal grant competitions reward organizations that were prepared before the notice posted. By the time a NOFO appears, the work that wins it either exists or it doesn’t.
Our grant writing services team provides full-cycle support for healthcare organizations: identifying which opportunities are worth pursuing, aligning proposals with current federal review priorities, and producing applications that hold up under merit review. For health centers weighing bigger structural questions, like Look-Alike designation, service expansion, or whether a given opportunity fits the organization at all, our community health optimization and FQHC development team supports exactly those decisions.
If you are trying to decide where to focus this cycle, reach out to our team and we can talk it through.
