Grants for Coordination of Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Welfare Services to Tribal Families at Risk of Child Abuse or Neglect | HHS 2025 ACF OFA FN 0015

Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2025 ACF OFA FN 0015

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), through the Office of Family Assistance (OFA), is offering a discretionary funding opportunity to support demonstration projects that strengthen how Tribal TANF programs coordinate with child welfare services for tribal families who are at risk of child abuse or neglect. This program is grounded in section 403(a)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 603(a)(2)(B)(i)) and is set up specifically as a pilot-style effort: the goal is to test, in real-world tribal settings, whether more intentional coordination between TANF and child welfare systems improves outcomes for children and families.

Awards are issued as cooperative agreements, which generally means recipients should expect an ongoing partnership and involvement from the federal program office rather than a simple “apply and spend” grant relationship. Projects must use funds for one or more of the statute-defined purposes. Those purposes include improving case management for families who are eligible for Tribal TANF; providing supportive services and assistance to tribal children who are in out-of-home placements (and to the families caring for them, including adoptive families); and delivering prevention services and supports to tribal families at risk of child abuse and neglect. The program is intended to help tribes connect income support, family stability services, and child protection responses in ways that reduce fragmentation and close gaps that families often fall into when programs operate separately.

The opportunity also signals what kinds of activities have been funded and encouraged in prior cohorts, which provides a practical roadmap for applicants designing a project. Examples include revising intake and assessment procedures so families do not have to repeat their stories across offices, creating informed consent and information-sharing documents that allow staff to coordinate legally and ethically across program lines, cross-training TANF and child welfare staff so they understand each other’s policies and tools, building joint case management procedures to align service plans, and improving information technology systems that make coordination possible in day-to-day operations. Successful applicants will be expected to clearly describe their approach and methodology, spell out the deliverables they will produce (for example, new protocols, training curricula, MOUs, shared screening tools, or data-sharing workflows), and describe the impacts they expect to see for families and systems.

Because this is framed as a pilot award, recipients are also expected to share what they learn with the broader Tribal TANF and child welfare community. In practice, that means documenting lessons learned, implementation challenges, and what worked well, so other tribes and tribal consortia can adapt or replicate the most effective strategies. The emphasis is not only on providing direct services, but also on building stronger coordination infrastructure that can last beyond the grant period.

Eligibility is narrow and tied to Tribal TANF administration status. Applicants must be Indian tribes or Alaska Native regional non-profits that administer a Tribal TANF program as of the publication date of the funding opportunity announcement. Consortia are also eligible if they are made up of two or more Indian tribes and the consortium administers Tribal TANF on behalf of, and at the direction of, those tribes as of the publication date. The term “Indian tribe” follows the definition in section 419(4) of title IV-A of the Social Security Act, which includes federally recognized tribes as defined at 25 U.S.C. 5304, with special limits for Alaska (only those tribal organizations listed in section 419(4)(B)). Individuals (including sole proprietorships) and foreign entities are explicitly ineligible and will be disqualified from review.

Key opportunity details include the Funding Opportunity Number HHS-2025-ACF-OFA-FN-0015, CFDA 93.086, an expected 8 awards, and an award ceiling of $215,000. The application deadline listed is 2025-07-29, and the opportunity was created on 2025-07-15. The administering agency is the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), and eligible applicant categories include federally recognized Native American tribal governments and Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments), as long as they meet the Tribal TANF administration requirement described above.

• The Administration for Children and Families - OFA in the income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Grants for Coordination of Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Welfare Services to Tribal Families at Risk of Child Abuse or Neglect" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.086.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-07-15.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-07-29. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $215,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 8 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments).

Apply for HHS 2025 ACF OFA FN 0015

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