Federal agencies are reshuffling priorities, foundation giving is hitting new highs, and compressed timelines are punishing organizations that aren’t prepared. Here’s what every grant-seeker needs to know.
| Foundation giving growth
+4.2% Overall increase in 2024 | Mid-size foundations
+13.6% Outpacing the field | NOFO window (projected)
21-30 days Once backlog lifts |
A Federal Landscape in Flux
The repeal of several Biden-era executive orders and the temporary disbursement pause triggered by OMB Memo M-25-13 have introduced genuine uncertainty across agencies. Many departments are still reviewing program structures, compliance requirements, and eligibility criteria from the ground up, a process that has delayed timelines and left applicants in a holding pattern.But uncertainty is not the same as scarcity. The overall federal outlook for FY2025-2026 remains strong. Once the pause lifts, experts anticipate a compressed wave of backlogged Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) released simultaneously across multiple agencies with dramatically shorter application windows than the field has come to expect.
The MASA Shift: Workforce Development Reimagined
Perhaps the most significant structural change on the horizon is the proposed Make America Skilled Again (MASA) initiative, which consolidates eleven federal labor and education programs into a unified workforce development framework. MASA represents a meaningful philosophical reorientation , away from broad program siloes and toward outcomes in AI-driven education, IT and healthcare workforce pipelines, climate-resilient skills development, and apprenticeship expansion.KEY 2026 FEDERAL PRIORITY AREAS
- Workforce development (MASA-aligned: AI training, healthcare, IT pipelines)
- Climate resilience and energy infrastructure
- HRSA health workforce grants, especially behavioral health and rural providers
- HUD fair housing enforcement and housing stability programs
- NEA/NEH cultural preservation and community resilience
Five Years of Funding Shifts, Compressed
The current moment is best understood against the arc of the past five years. From 2019 to 2021, federal funding was dominated by COVID-19 emergency relief. The 2022-2024 period saw unprecedented investment through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, channeling major dollars into energy, transportation, broadband, and climate resilience. Then, in 2024-2025, the Trump administration initiated a period of review that paused or restructured much of that prior momentum.The practical effect is a pent-up demand that has no precedent in recent grant cycles. When the backlog clears, organizations can expect simultaneous releases across agencies, reduced pre-NOFO technical assistance, accelerated review periods, and fiercer competition from applicants who have been waiting just as long.
Private Philanthropy: The Counterweight
While federal uncertainty has dominated headlines, private philanthropy has quietly reached a new high-water mark. According to Foundation Source’s 2025 Report on Private Philanthropy, overall foundation giving increased 4.2% in 2024 , but the standout story is mid-size foundations, whose giving jumped 13.6%, driven by economic recovery, equity and sustainability priorities, and more strategic, data-driven grantmaking approaches.The catch: expectations have risen in lockstep with the dollars. Nonprofits pursuing foundation funding in 2026 should expect more competitive application processes, higher bars for demonstrating measurable impact, and greater scrutiny of accountability and reporting systems.
The Case for Being Grant-Ready Before the NOFO Drops
In a normal grant cycle, organizations have the luxury of reading an announcement, assessing fit, and then beginning proposal development. That window is closing. Federal grants increasingly require detailed implementation plans , not conceptual sketches. Engineering, environmental, and procurement reviews routinely exceed the application window. Internal approvals from boards, legal counsel, and finance teams must be secured well in advance.Competitive scoring consistently favors shovel-ready projects. An organization that can demonstrate it has done the pre-work , community partnerships confirmed, match funding identified, evaluation frameworks established , will outperform a stronger-sounding proposal that is thinner on specifics.
BUILDING A REALISTIC 2025-2026 FEDERAL PIPELINE
- Forecast opportunities 6-12 months ahead using federal agency forecasts
- Develop scopes, budgets, and partnership agreements before NOFOs are published
- Prioritize by alignment, match capacity, competitiveness, and organizational readiness
- Maintain rolling proposal templates across workforce, health, housing, and climate
- Ensure staffing, reporting, and compliance infrastructure is in place before applying
The Coordination Challenge
Successful federal applications have always required more than a good writer. They require executive leadership aligned on strategic priorities, finance teams prepared for budget modeling and indirect cost compliance, program staff who can translate vision into implementation specifics, legal counsel conversant in federal procurement rules, and data teams capable of meeting evidence requirements that have grown considerably stricter.That kind of cross-departmental coordination doesn’t assemble itself under deadline pressure. It has to be built deliberately, in advance, as an organizational capability rather than an ad hoc response to a specific opportunity.
The 2025-2026 funding environment rewards preparation above almost everything else. Federal backlog will eventually release into a highly competitive sprint. Private foundations are raising their standards alongside their giving. The organizations positioned to capture meaningful funding will be those that treat grant-readiness as a standing operational priority not a reactive scramble when the next announcement.
As always, we are here to help you write or review your federal proposals. We secured more than $10M in federal funding in 2024 for organizations.