Building Evidence to Promote Equitable Access to Funding

The federal government is an important source of financial assistance for starting, implementing, and sustaining community programs and initiatives. To obtain grant funds, organizations that manage these programs and initiatives must respond to a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). Depending on the complexity of a NOFO and the information requested, organizations may vary in their capacity to successfully compete for funding because of the extensive requirements associated with NOFOs. As a result, it can be helpful for government agencies to seek feedback from organizations about the structure and content of NOFOs, with the goal of removing unnecessary barriers to funding and increasing equitable access to federal support.

This spotlight describes how ACF’s Administration for Native Americans (ANA) partnered with the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) to gather evidence to improve ANA’s NOFOs and make them more equitable, given the varying capacity of organizations that apply for ANA funding. To complete this work, ANA and OPRE partnered with the ACF Evidence Capacity Support Project, led by Mathematica and its partner Child Trends.