On July 19, 2023, 29 Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) for Designation Renewal System (DRS) grant opportunities were forecasted on grants.gov. Included are 25 NOFOs for Head Start/Early Head Start grants and 4 NOFOs for Early Head Start Expansion and Early Head Start – Child Care Partnership (EHS-CCP) grants.
All competitions are estimated to open on September 5, 2023 and the estimated due date for applications is November 6, 2023. NOFOs are listed below, with the estimated number of awards for each. Detailed lists of service areas up for competition will be posted on the Office of Head Start Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) Locator, though as of the publishing of this blog post (July 19), this information is not yet available.
Head Start/Early Head Start Grants (145 expected awards)
- Alabama – 8 expected awards
- Alaska – 3 expected awards
- Arkansas – 5 expected awards
- California – 6 expected awards
- Colorado – 5 expected awards
- Connecticut – 2 expected awards
- Florida – 7 expected awards
- Georgia – 4 expected awards
- Illinois – 5 expected awards
- Indiana – 7 expected awards
- Kansas – 2 expected awards
- Kentucky – 2 expected awards
- Maine – 2 expected awards
- Maryland – 3 expected awards
- Massachusetts – 1 expected award
- Michigan – 9 expected awards
- Minnesota – 5 expected awards
- New York – 16 expected awards
- North Carolina – 2 expected awards
- Ohio – 20 expected awards
- Pennsylvania – 5 expected awards
- Puerto Rico – 15 expected awards
- Texas – 5 expected awards
- Virginia – 2 expected awards
- Wisconsin – 4 expected awards
EHS Expansion and EHS-CCP Grants (6 expected awards)
- Charles City, Gloucester, King William, King and Queen, Middlesex, Mathews, New Kent and West Point Counties, Virginia – 1 expected award
- Hillsborough County, Florida – 2 expected awards
- Charleston County, South Carolina – 1 expected award
- Dickson, Houston, Humphreys and Stewart Counties, Tennessee – 2 expected awards
The timeline for DRS grant competitions is 9 weeks. This is a typical turnaround time for Head Start/Early Head Start grant applications, however this coincides with the start of a new program year for many grantees. Therefore, if your program is in DRS, we recommend getting an early start on application planning. This includes program design and budget planning. It is also incredibly important to have up-to-date data on community needs that your program can use to justify its program design. Consider updating your program’s community assessment, if you haven’t recently done so.
If your program is in DRS, we can help. Foundations for Families offers services to help programs get ready for a competitive grant. We also offer a variety of consulting services to help programs through the DRS process, ranging from toolkits and coaching to comprehensive grant writing. If your program needs assistance preparing for or writing a DRS grant proposal, please contact us.
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