hhs-2025-acf-ofa-zb-0109_rev4.pdf

Office of Family Assistance

Notice of Funding Opportunity

Application due July 29, 2025

HEART—Helping Every Area of Relationships Thrive Opportunity number: HHS-2025-ACF-OFA-ZB-0109

Contents

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 4 Basic information 5

Eligibility 7

Program description 9

Step 2: Get Ready to Apply 28 Get registered 29

Find the application package 29

Learn more 30

View the webinar 30

Step 3: Prepare Your Application 31 Application contents and format 32

Step 4: Learn About Review and Award 53 Application review 54

Award notices 62

Step 5: Submit Your Application 63 Application submission and deadlines 64

Application checklist 66

Step 6: Learn What Happens After Award 67 Post-award requirements and administration 68

Contacts and Support 70

Before you begin 3

Appendices 72

Modifications 76

Endnotes 77

Contents 2

Before you begin If you believe you are a good candidate for this funding opportunity, secure your SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations now. If you are already registered, make sure your registrations are active and up-to-date.

SAM.gov registration (this can take several weeks)

You must have an active account with SAM.gov. This includes having a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI).

See Step 2: Get Ready to Apply

Grants.gov registration (this can take several days)

You must have an active Grants.gov registration. Doing so requires a Login.gov registration as well.

See Step 2: Get Ready to Apply

Apply by the application due date

Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on July 29, 2025.

To help you find what you need, this NOFO uses internal links. In Adobe Reader, you can go back to where you were by pressing Alt + Left Arrow (Windows) or Command + Left Arrow (Mac) on your keyboard.

Before you begin 3 https://sam.gov/ https://grants.gov/

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1:

Review the Opportunity

In this step

Basic information 5

Eligibility 7

Program description 9

Basic information Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Office of Family Assistance

Funding projects that support activities to promote healthy marriages, including marriage and relationship education skills and marriage mentoring.

Have questions?

See Contacts and Support.

Key facts

Opportunity name:

HEART—Helping Every Area of Relationships Thrive

Opportunity number:

HHS-2025-ACF-OFA-

ZB-0109

Announcement type:

Initial

Federal assistance listing:

93.086

Statutory authority number:

42 U.S.C 603(a)(2)

Key dates

Application submission deadline:

July 29, 2025

Expected project start date:

September 30, 2025

Summary The Helping Every Area of Relationships Thrive (HEART) program will provide funding for projects that support activities to promote healthy marriages and/or relationships to ultimately strengthen families. This funding will be designed for adult individuals or couples (age 18 and older). Projects will provide a broad array of healthy marriage and relationship promotion activities and services designed to integrate skills-based healthy marriage education, along with additional services to address relationship skills and job and career advancement opportunities. Projects will provide curriculum-based skills development and services designed to support seven family-strengthening activities:

• Marriage and relationship education/skills (MRES).

• Premarital education.

• Marriage enhancement.

• Divorce reduction activities.

• Marriage mentoring.

• Public advertising campaigns.

• Activities to reduce disincentives to marriage.

Additionally, projects are expected to include at least 12 hours of curriculum-based workshops and meet program participation targets. We are also interested in projects that implement one specific program model designed for a service population, such as adult individuals or adult couples.

This is one of three Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) funding opportunities. The others are:

• Relationship, Education, Advancement, and Development for Youth for Life (READY4Life) (HHS-2025-ACF-ZD-0013)

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 5 https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title04/0403.htm https://grants.gov/search-results-detail/355695

• Family, Opportunity, Resilience, Grit, Engagement—Fatherhood (FORGE Fatherhood) (HHS-2025-ACF-OFA-ZJ-0014)

Funding details Type: Cooperative agreement

Expected total program funding: $33,000,000

Total expected awards: 40

Minimum award amount for the first budget period (award floor): $400,000

Maximum award amount for the first budget period (award ceiling): $1,250,000

We plan to fund a five-year project period. The project period has five one-year budget periods.

Projects will be funded within three scopes of service, each with specific funding levels.

Non-competitive continuation grants will be offered for years 2 through 5 of the project period, subject to the availability of funds, satisfactory progress towards performance benchmarks, and a determination that continued funding is in the best interest of the federal government. For years 2 through 5, your funding level request for each year must be the same as (or lower than) the amount in year 1.

Awards made under this funding opportunity are subject to federal funds availability.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 6 https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/355696

Eligibility Eligible applicants These types of organizations are eligible for an award:

• State, county, city, or township governments.

• Special district governments.

• Independent school districts.

• Public- and state-controlled institutions of higher education.

• Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments).

• Public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities.

• Nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status with the IRS.

• For-profit organizations, including small businesses.

• Private institutions of higher education.

Individuals, including sole proprietorships, and foreign entities are not eligible.

Other eligibility criteria Faith-based and community organizations that meet the eligibility requirements are eligible to receive awards under this funding opportunity.

Disqualification factors We will review your application to make sure it meets these responsiveness requirements.

We won’t consider an application that:

• Requests funding above the award ceiling.

• Is submitted after the deadline.

• Is from an individual, including a sole proprietorship, or a foreign entity.

• Is received in paper format that didn’t have a previously approved exemption from ACF.

Application limits If you submit the same application more than once under this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), we will only acknowledge the last on-time submission.

An applicant organization may submit only one application in response to this announcement.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 7

Cost sharing This program has no cost-sharing requirement. If you choose to include cost-sharing funds, we won’t consider it during review. However, we will hold you accountable for any funds you add, including through reporting. If you don’t provide your promised amount, we may have to decrease your award amount or use other enforcement actions.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 8

Program description Statutory authority 42 U.S.C. 603(a)(2)(A)

Background Programs for adults to promote healthy marriages and relationships ACF’s investment in healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood (HMRF) projects aims to create and sustain stronger families. In recent years, ACF-funded healthy marriage and relationship education recipients have supported family strengthening through providing marriage and relationship education, parenting skills, and job and career advancement activities. ACF’s Helping Every Area of Relationships Thrive (HEART) grants will continue to support family-strengthening activities through one or more of a specific set of activities.

Assuring continued commitment to promoting this program Leadership in your organization, all community partners, and contributors supported through this grant are expected to be made aware of the importance of being equally invested in and committed to achieving all programmatic goals and objectives.

Strategic and structured collaboration among these groups is critical for the collective support of this program.

Program purpose and scope This grant is intended to help families and individuals improve their relationship skills and paths toward economic stability and mobility. Recent research, such as the ACF-funded Parents and Children Together (PACT) evaluation, has shown that healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs can improve relationship quality, co-parenting, and some aspects of economic stability, and decrease divorce (Moore, Avellar, Patnaik, Covington, & Wu, 2018 [PDF]).

Scope of services This program has three possible scopes of service. You must choose a scope based on your organizational capacity, and must apply for a funding level that aligns with that

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 9 https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title04/0403.htm https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/parents-and-children-together-pact-evaluation https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/parents-and-children-together-pact-evaluation https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/pact_hm_impacts_to_opre_b508.pdf capacity. You must design a project that aligns your scope with a clear, documented need for that specific level of intensity.

• Large scope: $750,000 to $1,250,000.

• Small scope: $400,000 to $749,999.

• Emerging scope: $400,000 to $749,999. This category is for organizations that are not prior HMRF award recipients and express a need for and willingness to participate in capacity-building technical assistance from ACF. This may include assistance with the following project aspects:

◦ Marketing and outreach of programming.

◦ Fostering partnerships.

◦ Delivering HMRF services—for example, curriculum-driven workshops.

◦ Recruiting and retaining program participants.

◦ Staffing, including hiring and management structure.

◦ Managing data.

Programmatic objectives and outcomes This project will help ACF to continuously improve programming and increase positive outcomes for individuals, couples, families, and children.

The objectives of this program include:

• Adults, including those who are married or interested in marriage, gain skills and tools that allow them to strengthen their relationships, especially with a romantic partner.

• Parents learn how to work together with their co-parent(s), in support of their children.

• Family structure is strengthened, including an increase in healthy marriages.

The short-term outcomes of this program include:

• Improved skills that lead to healthier relationships and marriages.

• Improved skills that lead to better parenting and co-parenting.

• Improved knowledge of and access to factors impacting economic well-being.

The long-term outcomes of this program include:

• Improved individual well-being.

• Improved family functioning.

• Improved family stability, including an increase in number of marriages.

• Improved parenting and co-parenting skills.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 10

• Improved child well-being.

• Improved economic well-being.

Program activities Program model Your project is expected to implement a specific program model(s), meaning an intervention that serves and is designed to meet the needs of its specific adult service population(s). Your model could serve one or more populations, such as married couples, noncustodial and custodial single parents, or formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. Based on past performance data, we find that implementing one program model will help you achieve your enrollment targets, whether that model serves one or more populations. You may propose more than one model, but we strongly encourage just one.

We seek clear, well-designed projects that can thoroughly articulate their approach and implementation. Important factors include:

• A structure for the activities and services you will offer, aligned with the project’s logic model, objectives, and outcomes.

• Staffing plans.

• Training plans for staff, including refresher training.

• Partnerships with other organizations, as appropriate, for recruitment of participants, delivering services paid through this grant, and referrals.

• Well-developed oversight and monitoring plans for paid partners providing service delivery that include clear, detailed line-item budgets and budget narratives.

• A plan for participants that aligns with the target number of participants and accounts for attrition, and includes:

◦ Recruitment, with reasonable plans for project marketing and outreach.

◦ Enrollment, with intake and assessment process, as applicable.

◦ Retention, with strategies to retain the largest number of participants through the program to completion.

• Curricula that meet standards for hours and delivery format, and a monitoring plan that ensures the fidelity of curricula—that is, whether the curriculum is delivered as intended.

• Whenever practicable, a cohort-based design where a group of participants receives the programming together, over time, from start to finish that aligns with participant needs or goals, including online cohorts when appropriate.

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• Additional services (such as case management, as needed) to address individual participant needs, support participation, and make links to services that are not fundable under this NOFO.

• A broad array of community-centered strategies to promote healthy marriage. If applicable, consider promising or innovative approaches to achieve job and career advancement.

• Systematic data collection and protection of personally identifiable information.

• Continuous quality improvement.

Your project should include strategies to ensure that participants complete the program model, meaning they participate in at least 90% of primary workshops.

Additionally, you should ensure that participants are tracked through enrollment, attendance, and completion, as well as other services you provide to address their needs.

Healthy marriage promotion activities You may select one or more of seven specified activities listed in the legislation, or combine them or their elements, to achieve targeted program outcomes:

• Public advertising campaigns on the value of marriage and the skills needed to increase marital stability and health. This activity cannot be a general campaign; it must support outreach for programming under other activities.

• Marriage and relationship education/skills (MRES), which refers to marriage education, marriage skills, and relationships skills programs that may also include parenting skills, financial management, conflict resolution, and job and career advancement.

• Premarital education and marriage skills training for couples and/or individuals interested in marriage.

• Marriage enhancement and marriage skills training programs for couples.

• Divorce reduction programs that teach healthy relationship skills and identify unhealthy relationship characteristics.

• Marriage mentoring programs that use healthily married couples as role models and mentors in at-risk communities.

• Programs to reduce the disincentives to marriage for people in income-based aid programs. This activity must be combined with one of five described directly before this bullet.

For example, your project could focus on marriage or relationship enhancement serving couples, and you could choose to incorporate:

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 12

• Job and career advancement services and financial management, which fall under the category of marriage education and relationship skills.

• Mentoring services, which fall under marriage mentoring.

Essential areas of focus for healthy marriage and relationship education Whatever your healthy marriage promotion activities (see previous section), you will need to provide programming that addresses these four essential areas of focus for healthy marriage and relationship education and skills-building:

• Communication skills, including expression, discussion, and negotiation skills.

• Conflict resolution, anger management, and problem-solving skills.

• Emotional intimacy skills, including emotional connectedness.

• Knowledge of the benefits of marriage.

Job and career advancement (optional) Stronger economic well-being can support healthier relationships and improve relationship satisfaction. As a result, ACF’s HMRE programs also include activities related to job and career advancement. We encourage you to incorporate activities that will help participants with lower incomes gain skills and secure employment, as well as financial literacy activities to strengthen budgeting skills, financial planning and management, and asset development. If you offer job and career advancement, you must implement at least three activities, which may include:

• Goal-setting.

• Budget planning.

• Financial sustainability.

• Asset building.

Employment development activities

If your job and career advancement activities include employment, you will need to ensure that while the participant is enrolled in the employment program, they are also engaged in:

• Classes or workshops.

• Coaching.

• Follow-up activities.

• Needs assessment.

If you choose to provide job and career advancement services, they cannot be provided alone. They must be combined with any of the seven healthy marriage promotion

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 13 activities. We encourage you to provide these services collaboratively, through community partnerships.

Public advertising campaigns You may implement public advertising campaigns to support program outreach (recruitment, retention) and provide direct services. The public advertising campaign cannot be general: You cannot conduct a public advertising campaign without a connection to a program that provides direct services.

Curriculum-based workshops It is expected that your project will deliver at least 12 hours of education based on your curricula over time, through one or multiple primary workshops. A workshop is a set of structured classes that take place in group settings. Participants in primary workshops are expected to attend and complete the classes. Additionally, OFA expects primary workshops to be:

• Delivered in more than two sessions.

• Delivered over two weeks or more (and not over a single weekend).

You must deliver workshops that use curricula that are:

• Evidence-informed: Evidence-informed or promising practices bring together the best available research, professional expertise, and/or input from individuals, families, and communities to identify and deliver services that have promise to achieve positive outcomes for families and communities.

• Skills-based: The curriculum should teach concrete skills and engage participants in trying out the skills.

• Relevant to the community context and the populations being served, including being age appropriate, particularly for adults ages 18 to 24 years old.

• Clearly and directly aligned with all NOFO programmatic objectives and outcomes as well as any project-specific goals and objectives.

Some adult relationships/marriage programs use a curriculum that has already been prepared and tested (sometimes called “off the shelf”), and other programs adapt or develop their own evidence-informed curriculum designed to meet the unique needs of their participants. If you adapt an “off-the-shelf” curriculum to make it more relevant, you will need to obtain written approval from the curriculum developer, and potentially OFA. Adaptations may include:

• Adjusting curricula to better meet the needs of participants served.

• Stitching together curriculum modules.

• Integrating additional modules into an existing curriculum.

• Implementing your own evidence-informed curriculum.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 14

All curricula materials, including trainer guides, participant workbooks and other tools must be maintained in both digital and hard-copy options by the program. Curricula is expected to be delivered with fidelity and consistency across program cohorts.

HMRE curricula may address the following topics. The first four are mandatory:

• Communication skills, including expression, discussion, and negotiation skills.

• Conflict resolution, anger management, and problem-solving skills.

• Knowledge of the benefits of marriage.

• Stress and Anger Management.

• Intimacy and emotional connectedness.

• Economic well-being, including budgeting, financial planning, and asset building.

• Community considerations for intimate relationships.

• The effect of past experiences on forming and maintaining relationships.

• Self-regulation and co-regulation to support healthy relationships and attainment of shared and personal goals.

• Parenting skills (if applicable).

Your curricula must also:

• Focus on the benefits of marriage.

• Include a staff development and training component.

• Include technical support provided by the curriculum developer to support implementation fidelity.

To ensure curriculum integrity, curricula designed for group-based settings must be delivered in groups, and you cannot use them in a one-on-one setting (except for make-up sessions).

You may also offer supplementary workshops, that is, workshops to supplement the primary workshops you provide, such as workshops to address specific topics that would benefit some but not all participants like understanding credit scores or thriving in step-families.

Domestic violence Given high rates of domestic violence (also called intimate partner violence), it is likely that you will serve people who are experiencing or have experienced domestic violence, or who have engaged in abusive or aggressive behaviors that meet the criteria for domestic violence or intimate partner violence.

You must commit to consulting with experts in domestic or teen dating violence, or relevant community or state domestic violence coalitions, when developing your

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 15 https://www.cdc.gov/nisvs/about/index.html program model and activities. You must work collaboratively with these experts to ensure that:

• All participants are provided access to accurate information about domestic violence and dating violence, including where to go for support or services.

• All participants are provided safe opportunities to disclose if they are or have been victims of domestic violence or dating violence.

• Project staff and volunteers receive training to respond to disclosures of domestic violence or dating violence by offering confidential referrals to domestic violence services.

You might consider some of these strategies as part of a comprehensive approach to addressing domestic violence in your project:

• Comprehensive training for staff on how domestic violence or dating violence affects program participants and what to do if the victim or perpetrator discloses abuse after initial screening or later in the program.

• Comprehensive domestic and dating violence screening and assessment as a first step in providing services and interventions.

• Universal education on domestic violence and/or dating violence to program participants, as an addition to or alternative for screening and assessment.

• Partnerships with community-based domestic violence agencies.

• Safety planning to prepare for and respond to disclosed incidents of domestic or dating violence, intervene in crises, and make referrals to other community-based domestic violence services.

Child maltreatment You must ensure that your employees are aware of and trained on your state’s reporting requirements for child abuse and neglect. OFA expects that projects will consult with expert organizations on preventing, detecting, and responding to child maltreatment. Your project must include teaching participants about preventing child maltreatment throughout childhood.

Participant eligibility and service populations Adults ages 18 and older are eligible to participate in this program.

Voluntary participation You must ensure that participation in programming is voluntary and inform potential participants that their involvement is voluntary.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 16

Program participation targets This program counts an individual as “served” when he or she has received at least 90% of primary workshops. A couple is “served” when both participants have received at least 90% of primary workshops. You should serve as many participants as reasonable, given the amount of funding requested and your program design. We have established minimum numbers of participants you can serve per year, based on your funding level request.

• If you are requesting $750,000 to $1,250,000 in funding, your project is considered large scope. You must serve at least 200 individuals, or 100 couples, per year, who will complete at least 90% of primary workshops.

• If you are requesting $400,000 to $749,000 in funding and have prior experience conducting activities under this funding, your project is considered small scope.

You must serve at least 120 individuals, or 60 couples, per year, who will complete at least 90% of primary workshops.

• If you are requesting $400,000 to $749,999 in funding, are not a prior HMRF award recipient, and are willing to participate in capacity-building technical assistance, your project is considered emerging scope.

◦ In year 1, you must serve at least 30 individuals, or 15 couples, who will complete at least 90% of primary workshops.

◦ In year 2, you must serve at least 60 individuals, or 30 couples.

◦ In year 3, you must serve at least 90 individuals, or 45 couples.

◦ In years 4 and 5, you must serve at least 120 individuals, or 60 couples.

To account for the project planning period, in year 1 large- and small-scope projects must serve, at a minimum, half of the number of individuals/couples listed here.

You will be held accountable to meeting the targets you propose in your application.

Addressing client needs Intake, enrollment, and assessment of needs Your project should incorporate rigorous intake and enrollment processes and strategies to assess participants’ needs, skills, and interests. You should use assessment processes or tools to help project staff make decisions about:

• The match between the program and the needs of the participant.

• Ways to increase participation in the program.

• Any additional strategies for each individual based on their abilities and needs.

• The individual’s placement in training, education, or employment programs, if applicable.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 17

Your strategies for intake, enrollment, and assessment should include the following, as appropriate:

• Comprehensive intake tools that provide information about participants to help staff determine their needs, skills, and interests.

• Training to help the intake staff and potential participants determine whether the program will meet their needs or whether they should be referred to a different program.

• Initial goal-setting by gathering information to determine how best to serve the participant. This information may be used to develop an Individual Development Plan (IDP) when appropriate.

• Assessments, such as domestic violence screenings, intake surveys, increase in participation, or family supports.

• Discussion about next steps after enrollment, such as assigning a case manager, reviewing the class or activity schedule, or increasing attendance.

Addressing individual participant needs Your project should include strategies to address individuals’ identified needs by providing direct services or links to community-centered support services. These services may include:

• Regular participant contact to help them meet their goals and to facilitate program retention, completion, and access to support services.

• More intensive services related to job and career advancement.

If you are providing employment and/or job and career advancement services, your assessment strategy must address both pre-employment needs and after hiring.

Your project must include:

• Regular contact with participants to help them complete the program and access support services.

• An orientation process that includes a risk and needs assessment and intake and enrollment procedures that will help structure the needs and goals of the participant.

• Development of IDPs, if appropriate, that chart participants’ short- and long-term goals, progress, and milestones. These might include education, job readiness, and employment plans.

Grant-funded participation supports If needed, your project can include participation support costs that will cover services to increase participation and improve program recruitment, retention, and outcomes.

Some past grant projects provided transportation assistance, childcare, or meals

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 18 during in-person workshops. We will discuss these services with you after award, during the planning period.

Partnerships We encourage you to use partnerships when designing and implementing your project.

Strong partnerships are critical to maximizing the effects of your project by leveraging resources, building community support, and increasing access to eligible community populations. Partnerships should be formalized through performance-based memoranda of understanding (MOUs) or third-party agreements.

Partners may serve as:

• Sources for recruiting program participants. However, you should not rely solely on partners for recruitment and outreach.

• Sources for developing, refining, and shaping program materials and plans.

• Implementors of programming.

• Referral agencies for services that are needed but not available through your project. That is, your staff might refer participants to these agencies for additional services.

If you partner with other organizations by issuing subawards, please see the limitations in the subawards section.

Housing We encourage partnerships with organizations providing housing assistance because you may not use grant funds to subsidize housing or provide housing vouchers or rental assistance. Consider working with community partners to connect participants to transitional, temporary, or permanent housing. Stable housing is a key factor associated with increased parent-child contact, family stability, and reentry.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Some parents and/or their children may receive cash assistance or other supports from the local TANF agency. You may want to establish collaborative relationships with the state or local TANF agency. The TANF agency can provide you with potential participants, and your project can provide activities that can help young parents meet their TANF work requirements.

Child support We encourage partnerships with local child support agencies because you may not use grant funds for child support payments or assistance. You might consider establishing strong, positive referrals to or in-kind collaborations with local child support agencies.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 19

These collaborations can help fathers understand their child support rights and responsibilities.

Other possible partners Your assessment of the community needs and community population should align with those of partnering organizations. We encourage you to consider partnerships with federal initiatives, local agencies, or other community programs. Such partners could include:

• American Job Centers, Workforce Investment Boards, and other Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act-funded employment training programs.

• Employers who offer apprenticeship programs.

• State, local, and tribal TANF agencies.

• Child welfare agencies and organizations.

• Legal aid and community action agencies.

• Criminal justice agencies including prisons, jails, prerelease centers, courts, probation, and parole organizations.

• Head Start programs.

• Healthy Start programs.

• Local substance and mental health agencies.

• Public health services, including health insurance navigators and enrollment specialists.

As a reminder, grant funds must be spent on activities that are reasonable and necessary for the goals of the program, which means that grant funds may not directly fund:

• Health services, including health care, mental health treatment, or substance abuse treatment; nor

• Legal support, in child support or in other areas such as criminal record expungement.

However, you may partner with organizations that provide these kinds of support.

Organizational requirements Project management and staffing Your organization and staff must demonstrate the capacity and experience to carry out the project activities. You must include the following key project positions:

• Project director.

• Project manager.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 20

• Data manager.

• Financial officer.

The project director should not be the authorized organizational representative. You must plan to hire one full-time project director or a combination of a project director and a project manager where the two positions equal at least one full-time position and where the project director holds at least a 0.5 full-time equivalence (FTE). We strongly recommend hiring at least one full-time lead responsible for the day-to-day operation and implementation of the program.

Geographic location You must have a physical presence in the community, city, or county where you provide services, even if some of your services are virtual. A physical presence means a demonstrated ability to directly monitor and oversee:

• Service provision.

• Staff and facilitator training.

• Programmatic, legal, and regulatory compliance in the service area.

• Agreements with partner organizations.

This physical presence is critical to ensure an understanding of the needs and resources of each community in which your program participants live, work, and strive to strengthen their families. In addition, having a physical presence enables participants to connect in real life with other caring adults.

Entrance conference and annual OFA-led HMRF recipient meetings You must attend the entrance conference, which will be during the first year of the grant. You must also attend annual OFA-led HMRF recipient meetings throughout the project period. The project director and up to three additional key staff must attend the entrance conference and annual meetings.

Planning period Large- and small-scope recipient organizations will be given up to six months for intensive and comprehensive implementation planning. Planning activities include:

• Updating and refining the need for assistance.

• Finalizing MOUs, interagency agreements, or other third-party agreements.

• Obtaining curriculum deviation approvals from curriculum developers, if needed.

• Finalizing domestic violence protocols.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 21

• Undertaking procurement activities, such as identifying needed goods or services, selecting vendors, and establishing purchase and delivery schedules.

• Hiring and training staff.

• Obtaining security clearances for project staff to work with correctional facilities, if applicable.

• Training staff and setting up operations to collect performance measurement data in the Information, Family Outcomes, Reporting, and Management (nFORM) system.

• Developing a continuous quality improvement plan and program flow diagram—that is, a pictorial representation of the sequence of the program from start to finish.

Emerging-scope recipient organizations will be given up to twelve months for intensive and comprehensive planning, capacity-building, and initial implementation, based on an individualized assessment of capacity strengths and needs.

Large- and small-scope recipient organizations may pilot their program models, or portions of their program models, during the planning period, as early as January 2, 2026, if they meet specific readiness criteria.

Emerging-scope recipient organizations may pilot their program models, or portions of their program models, during their planning period, as early as April 1, 2026. They must also meet specific readiness criteria before piloting their programs.

Program performance measurement, continuous quality improvement, and research requirements Performance measurement data You must collect, store, and report data on standardized performance measures in the nFORM system. These measures fall into three areas to provide information on what you are doing and who you are serving:

• Services provided through the grant.

• Client characteristics and outcomes.

• Program operations.

Among other activities, you will need to ask all participants to fill out two online surveys: one at the beginning of programming and one at the end of the last workshop session. You will also need to record information on participants, such as when each one attends a workshop session. The HMRF Grant Resources nFORM page links to the

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 22 https://hmrfgrantresources.info/nform2-resources surveys, the user manual, and other related documentation. You may use grant funds to purchase computers or tablets so participants can take the online surveys, headphones for those who wish to hear the computer read the surveys, and maintenance plans.

Continuous quality improvement Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is the process of identifying, describing, and analyzing program strengths and problems, followed by testing, implementing, learning from, and revising solutions. Collecting data through nFORM will give you valuable data that can facilitate CQI activities. We have also created templates that you may use to develop a plan for and carry out CQI activities. The HMRF Grant Resources CQI pages links to CQI resources.

You must develop, implement, and regularly update a CQI plan that uses data and resources to improve program performance and identify areas for further analysis and improvement. You must develop your initial plan within three months of award. You will be expected to show evidence that you are carrying out, updating, and refining the plan. Your CQI activities should be linked to the project’s objectives.

Federal research activities The federal government sponsors federally led evaluations and other research activities. The federal evaluations will be conducted by independent contractors with experience mounting small- and large-scale demonstrations, descriptive and impact evaluations, engaging communities meaningfully at each stage of the research process, and a range of other research activities.

If you are asked to participate in federally led research activities, whenever feasible and where there is interest, you are asked to engage fully and adhere to all research and evaluation protocols established by ACF to be carried out by its designee contractors.

Local evaluations Post award, you will have the opportunity to submit a proposal to implement a grantee-led evaluation, often called a “local evaluation.” You are not required to propose local evaluation activities in your application for this grant or after award. If you wish to propose a local evaluation post award, you should include funds in your first-year budget to partner with an evaluator to develop the evaluation plan proposal.

If your local evaluation plan proposal is approved, you will receive supplemental funds for the evaluation. See local evaluation reports from the 2015-2020 cohort of grants.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 23 https://hmrfgrantresources.info/continuous-quality-improvement https://hmrfgrantresources.info/continuous-quality-improvement https://hmrfgrantresources.info/continuous-quality-improvement https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/healthy-marriage-responsible-fatherhood/data-reports

Cooperative agreement—Description of ACF’s involvement OFA will work in close partnership with you and be substantially involved in various aspects of projects funded under this NOFO. Projects will be funded in the form of cooperative agreements that outline the roles of both ACF and the recipient. ACF’s involvement includes:

• Assigning a Family Assistance Program Specialist to monitor and collaborate with you to help you achieve project objectives and ensure proper management of federal funds.

• Providing significant guidance, consultation, and timely review on all project-related materials and deliverables.

• Reviewing, providing feedback on, and approving the project scope, activities, and work plan, including any changes to key personnel.

• Keeping you informed about expectations for successful performance. This includes discussing noncompliance as soon as possible and providing clear feedback on the conditions necessary for compliance.

• Organizing frequent consultations, meetings, briefings, teleconferences, and webinars to review current and planned activities, share information, and promote national coordination.

• Keeping you informed about OFA, ACF, and HHS priorities.

We do not expect that the cooperative agreement will change the project requirements for the recipients under this NOFO.

NOTE: Consistent with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. §§ 3501-3521), OFA will not conduct or sponsor—and a person is not required to respond to—a collection of information covered by such Act, unless it displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. If activities under this cooperative agreement are subject to PRA, OFA will work with the funding recipient to obtain OMB approval.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 24

Funding policies and limitations General policies

• We will only make awards if this program receives funding. If Congress appropriates funds for this purpose, we will move forward with the review and award process.

• Support beyond the first budget period will depend on:

◦ Appropriation of funds.

◦ Satisfactory progress in meeting your project’s objectives.

◦ A decision that continued funding is in the government’s best interest.

• If we receive more funding for this program, we will consider:

◦ Funding more applicants.

◦ Extending the period of performance.

◦ Awarding supplemental funding.

ACF does not allow funds awarded under this NOFO to support any costs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activities, including research in support of such initiatives, and any other initiatives that discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin or another protected characteristic. This also includes any diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives, and any discriminatory equity ideology in violation of a Federal anti-discrimination law. The definition of “discriminatory equity ideology” is in Section 2(b) of Executive Order 14190 of January 29, 2025, which can be found here: 2025-02232.pdf.

For guidance on additional types of costs that we restrict or do not allow, see General Provisions for Selected Items of Costs of the Uniform Guidance, 45 CFR part 75 (or, starting October 1, 2025, 2 CFR part 200).

Program-specific limitations and policies Use of funds If funded, your project may be used only for costs associated with the seven authorized healthy marriage promotion activities and their administrative costs. Projects may not implement a fee-for-service model, which means that program participants must not pay for services received under this NOFO.

We do not allow the following costs under this NOFO:

• Construction.

• Purchase of real property.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 25 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-02-03/pdf/2025-02232.pdf https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/part-75/subject-group-ECFR5d90ba314caea08 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-E/subject-group-ECFRed1f39f9b3d4e72

• Major renovation.

• Supplanting your other funding.

• Pre-award costs.

• Programming or activities that are not necessary and reasonable for the performance of the award, or not allocable to the project, such as services and activities that inculcate or promote gender ideology.

*The criteria used to determine whether other kinds of programming or activities are reasonable and allocable to a grant can be found at 45 CFR 75.403(a) (“Factors affecting allowability of costs”), 45 CFR 75.404 (“Reasonable costs”), and 45 CFR 75.405 (“Allocable costs”).

Indirect costs Indirect costs are costs you charge across more than one project and cannot be easily separated by project.

To charge indirect costs you can select one of two methods:

Method 1—Approved rate. You currently have an indirect cost rate approved by your cognizant federal agency.

Method 2—De minimis rate. Per 2 CFR 200.414(f), if you do not have a current federal negotiated indirect cost rate (including a provisional rate), you may elect to charge a de minimis rate. If you choose this method, costs included in the indirect cost pool must not be charged as direct costs. This rate is 15% of modified total direct costs (MTDC).

See 2 CFR 200.1 for the definition of MTDC. You can use this rate indefinitely.

Subawards As the prime recipient, you must maintain a substantive role in the project. We define a substantive role as conducting funded activities and providing services that are necessary and integral to completing the project. Monitoring your subrecipient’s activities alone as described in 45 CFR 75.352 (or, starting October 1, 2025, 2 CFR 200.332) is not a substantive role.

We do not fund awards where your role primarily serves as a conduit for passing funds to other organizations unless that arrangement is authorized by statute.

If they do not have one, all subrecipients must obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) through the System for Award Management (SAM.gov).

Subrecipients must meet the eligibility requirements of this NOFO.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 26 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/subtitle-A/subchapter-A/part-75/subpart-E/subject-group-ECFRffa2eaa9f93be60/section-75.403 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/subtitle-A/subchapter-A/part-75/subpart-E/subject-group-ECFRffa2eaa9f93be60/section-75.403 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/subtitle-A/subchapter-A/part-75/subpart-E/subject-group-ECFRffa2eaa9f93be60/section-75.404 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/subtitle-A/subchapter-A/part-75/subpart-E/subject-group-ECFRffa2eaa9f93be60/section-75.405 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/section-200.414 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/part-200#p-200.1(Modified%20Total%20Direct%20Cost%20(MTDC)) https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-45/section-75.352 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200#200.332 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200#200.332

Salary rate limitation The salary rate limitation in the current appropriations act applies to this program. You may not use awarded funds to pay a salary at a higher rate than the rate for Executive Level II. For the Executive Level II salary, please see guidance from the Office of Personnel Management on executive and senior level employee pay.

The salary limitation reflects a person’s base salary (including any portion of the salary that is paid for with indirect costs). It does not include fringe benefits or any income the person is allowed to earn outside of the duties of the applicant organization. This salary limitation also applies to subawards, contracts, and subcontracts under an ACF grant or cooperative agreement.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 27 https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/ https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/

Step 2:

Get Ready to Apply

In this step

Get registered 29

Find the application package 29

Learn more 30

View the webinar 30

Get registered SAM.gov You must have an active account with SAM.gov. This includes having a Unique Entity Identifier. SAM.gov registration can take several weeks. Begin that process today.

To register, go to SAM.gov Entity Registration and select Get Started. From the same page, you can also select the Entity Registration Checklist for the information you will need to register.

When you register or update your SAM.gov registration, you must agree to the financial assistance general certifications and representations. You must agree to those for financial assistance specifically, as opposed to contracts, because the two sets of agreements are different. You will have to maintain your registration throughout the life of any award.

Grants.gov You must also have an active account with Grants.gov. You can see step-by-step instructions at the Grants.gov Quick Start Guide for Applicants.

Need help? See Contacts and Support.

Find the application package The application package has all the forms you need to apply. You can find it online. Go to Grants Search at Grants.gov and search for opportunity number HHS-2025-ACF-OFA- ZB-0109. Then select the Package tab.

After you select the opportunity, we recommend that you select the Subscribe button to get updates.

If you can’t use Grants.gov to download application materials, you may request them from the grants management contact.

If you are also unable to apply through Grants.gov, see the section on exemptions for paper submissions.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Prepare 4. Learn 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 2: Get Ready to Apply 29 https://sam.gov/content/entity-registration https://grants.gov/applicants/applicant-registration http://www.grants.gov/quick-start-guide/applicants https://www.grants.gov/search-grants

Learn more Visit Applying for an ACF Grant Award on the ACF Grants page.

View the webinar For more information about this opportunity, a prerecorded webinar will be posted on ACF’s Healthy Marriage and Responsible…