In September the National Consumer Supporter Technical Assistance Center sent out three RFP’s for grants supporting peer-run organizations.

Two grants for Capacity Building at $5000 apiece were directed at helping existing organizations increase their ability to provide peer-run services and build their infrastructure to assist in increasing their sustainability.  Initially we planned to present two Organization Establishment grants for $15,000 to assist newly forming groups in building successful peer-run groups.  After reviewing the applications we decided to award one grant at this time and to offer another opportunity at a later date.  The third RFP was a $20,000 Recovery Grant for organizations who plan to provide innovative recovery based services.

The organizations chosen to receive the grants are:

Capacity Building Grants

• Ohio Center for Advocacy, Training and Support - Ohio
• Cornucopia, Inc.- Wisconsin

Organizational Establishment Grants

• Ohana Ame Kulanakauhale (OAK) - Hawaii

Recovery Grants

• Capital Clubhouse - Washington State

Over 150 applications were received in response to our RFP, consequently it took far longer for our grants committee to read and score them.  Many of the grant applications are clearly ideas that should be pursued.  The purpose of NCSTAC is to help peer-run organization become established, productive and sustainable; therefore a large number of applications did not match our mission.

Because of the shear number of applications we are not able to provide an analysis for each one. Depending on the availability of funds we plan to offer additional mini-grants later in the year.  We also plan to have a workshop on grant writing in the late spring.

If you have any further questions please contact Patrick Hendry at 703-838-7538.