Dear [firstname],

I hope this message finds you well as we begin the new year. As we look ahead to 2026, I want to thank you for your continued partnership and dedication to strengthening our communities. I look forward to working together in the year ahead to build on our shared progress.

This past year, our district was awarded over $164 million in federal grant funding. These resources have helped improve our community by funding projects around infrastructure, childcare, scientific research, health care, housing, and more. If you are interested in how federal funding from 2025 is being directed to projects in your community, you can view a new interactive map of grant awards in Colorado’s District 7 on my website here.

I know the Trump Administration’s attempts to freeze federal funding continue to cause us all difficulty and confusion as litigation unfolds in the courts. Please know that I am working hard every day to fight back and continue delivering for our constituents.

Due to the ongoing lack of clarity from the Trump Administration on many federal programs, I highly recommend you follow relevant agency newsletters and the grants.gov webpage for your grants of interest in case they have been canceled, paused, or may have changed eligibility criteria. If any of these changes have affected you or your organization, please feel free to share your perspective with my office here.

There have been many changes to grants.gov recently, so I recommend you follow @grantsdotgov on X (formerly Twitter) to help you navigate the federal grant application process. The grants.gov team also sends a regular newsletter designed to help you access grants, which you can find here.

Nonetheless, I remain excited to share upcoming grants and federal funding opportunities for local governments, universities, community organizations, businesses, and individuals.

You can find up-to-date information on open federal grants here. This spreadsheet will be updated throughout the month and includes a wide variety of grants related to agriculture, community development, disaster prevention and relief, food and nutrition, transportation, and much more. The grants can be easily sorted and filtered by category to help find grants related to specific needs.

Additionally, you can find an extensive list of funding opportunities for local governments updated regularly by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs here. This user-friendly dashboard features federal and state funding opportunities, which can be filtered by category, program, award type, awarding agency, and eligible applicants.

In addition to a list of open federal grants below, you can find a section on technical assistance resources for grant applicants, information on grants expected to open in the future, and a tip of the month for grant applicants.

Upcoming Grants:

This month, major federal grants are open for projects related to health care, seniors, the arts and humanities, rural support, housing and more. Below are some available federal funding opportunities, listed by category and deadline. The following grants are currently open and accepting applications at the time of this newsletter's publication.

Health Care and Public Health:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has an open Nursing Home Staffing Campaign, which provides funding for a variety of nonprofit and educational organizations to carry out projects supporting nursing home staffing recruitment and retention. The deadline to apply is March 27, 2026. 

The Environmental Protection Agency has a Wildfire Smoke Preparedness in Community Buildings Grant Progra,m which supports efforts by public pre-schools, local educational agencies, and non-profit organizations to prevent and abate wildfire smoke health hazards in public buildings. Interested applicants should apply by April 15, 2026.

Seniors:

AmeriCorps has an open 2026 Seniors RSVP Competition program, which provides funding for nonprofit organizations, institutes of higher education, and local governments providing programming for seniors. Interested parties should apply by March 26, 2026. Applicants can also learn more about the funding opportunity during a variety of webinars scheduled to be held on the program (more information and signup link here).

Arts and Humanities:

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is accepting nominations for the 2027 NEA National Heritage Fellowships, with two rounds of application materials due by May 11, 2026 and May 22, 2026. This program provides funding and support for artists within folk and traditional art forms.

Rural:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for its most recent round of funding for the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant Program through March 31, 2026. This program provides funding for local utility organizations, nonprofits, and businesses in rural areas to carry out economic development projects.

Housing:

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grants provide funding for improving existing public housing and providing supportive services to residents. The application deadline is March 9, 2026.

The Colorado Department of Local Affairs has $45k in incentive funding within the Local Planning Capacity grant program available to eligible local governments that adopt or implement an expedited review or Fast Track process for affordable housing by June 30, 2026. 

Veterans:

The Department of Labor has the open Home Veterans' Reintegration Program, which provides funding for programs that support veterans experiencing and at risk of homelessness. Interested applicants should apply by March 6, 2026.

Arts and Culture:

The Institute for Museum and Library Services has recently opened a variety of funding programs, including the National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program, the Museums for America (MFA) program, the National Leadership Grants for Museums program, the Inspire Grants for Small Museums program, the 21st Century Museum Professional (21MP) grant program, and the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian program. All of these programs have an application deadline of March 13, 2026.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has a Research Grants in the Arts category for nonprofit organizations and local governments to carry out research projects related to arts and culture. The deadline for this program is March 23, 2026.

Education:

The National Science Foundation has opened up its Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program for universities, colleges, and nonprofit organizations to carry out programs to recruit, train, and retain K-12 STEM teachers. The application deadline is August 25, 2026.

Water:

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has an open water grant program for local governments, special districts, and nonprofit organizations to address contaminants in water systems. Interested parties should look into the PFAS grant program (application deadline is March 13, 2026).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Community Water Assistance Grants provides funding to rural local governments and nonprofit organizations looking to prepare for or recover from an emergency threatening the availability of safe drinking water. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

Technical Assistance:

Something I often hear when meeting with local governments and organizations is that they are interested in taking advantage of federal funding opportunities, but do not have the capacity to submit a competitive application. Thankfully, you don't have to go through this process alone. My office has compiled a list of resources provided by state and federal government agencies designed to help grant applicants here.

I often hear from groups that find a grant that interests them, but they aren’t sure when the grant application will reopen, or they feel the deadline is too soon for them to write a competitive application. To help groups plan for upcoming grants, my office has compiled a list of past opening and closing dates for major grants here.

Childcare:

The Colorado Department of Early Childhood and the Office of Economic Development and International Trade are providing free technical assistance for local governments, developers, institutes of higher education, public schools, and child care providers who have a child care facility project in the planning phase. Interested parties must apply by March 2nd, 2026, and can find more information here.

Water:

The Environmental Protection Agency is offering free technical assistance for water stakeholders, such as drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities to work to prepare for natural disasters through their Strengthening Water Infrastructure for Tomorrow (SWIFT) initiative. Interested applicants can apply for assistance as well as view other forms of free water-related technical assistance here.

Local Governments:

The Colorado Department of Local Affairs is continuing to provide free technical assistance for local governments through their Regional Planning Roundtable Commission. Interested parties can apply here, with applications being accepted on a rolling basis.

Rural Hospitals:

Through funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Rural Health Information Hub provides free technical assistance for rural hospitals here. HRSA also provides and funds the following free technical assistance programs for rural health care institutions: the Targeted Technical Assistance for Rural Hospitals Program (TTAP) (interested parties can apply here), the Rural Hospital Stabilization Program, the Rural Emergency Hospital Technical Assistance Center, and the Rural Healthcare Provider Transition Project (interested applicants can apply here).

Environmental:

The Internal Revenue Service is offering monthly virtual office hours to help entities with the pre-filing registration process on the IRA/CHIPS Pre-filing Registration Tool. Pre-filing registration is a required step for applicable entities and eligible taxpayers to take advantage of the elective payments or credit transfers available under the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act. Interested individuals can find more information here.

Grants on the Horizon:

The Environmental Protection Agency has recently announced a plan re-opening of the popular Clean School Bus Program, and has issued a Request for Information in preparation for another round of funding becoming available later this year.

The National Endowment for the Arts’ next cycle of Grants for Arts Projects funding is set to re-open in mid-May with an application deadline of July 9, 2026. This program provides funding for nonprofit organizations and local governments to carry out arts projects.

The Colorado Department of Local Affairs plans to open its Housing Planning Grant Program on March 2, 2026, with a deadline of March 30, 2026. This program supports local governments in carrying out housing planning activities such as Needs Assessments and Action Plans.

The Colorado Department of Local Affairs plans to open its Community Schoolyards Grant Program on March 2, 2026, for local governments and school districts to plan and implement capital construction projects in schoolyards. The application deadline is set for April 1, 2026.

Application Tip of the Month:

Some grants will actually have scoring criteria and expected application formats outlined within their Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) announcement. When this is the case, you can use the scoring criteria and expected sections within your application to inform what belongs in your application and what parts need to be prioritized in order to score competitively among applicants.

Reminders from last month's newsletter:

You can always find a full list of the resources and grants (some of which are still open) from previous grant newsletters on my website here. 

If you know someone who would like to be added to my monthly grants newsletter, they can sign up for the newsletter here.

If you would like to request a letter of support from my office, please fill out a letter request form here and email any questions to co07grants@mail.house.gov. Please allow at least one week of processing time. Letter of support requests received within a week of the deadline may not be processed in time.

Please reach out with any questions, requests for letters of support, or if you would like my office to keep an eye out for federal funding in specific areas.

Thanks for reading,