Housing Counseling Agency Grants 2026: 173 Funders
Quick Answer: If you're running a HUD-approved housing counseling agency, a Neighborhood Housing Services office or a nonprofit that teaches homebuyer classes and works out foreclosure plans, grants for housing counseling agencies come mostly from bank and family foundations, and they file those gifts under human services.
Full answer and how we checked it
Grantsights analysis of 990-PF human-services grants pulled November 1, 2026 found 173 foundations that made 483 grants to housing counseling and homebuyer education agencies, totaling $34,010,414. The median gift was $15,000. New York (25 foundations), Massachusetts (22) and Connecticut (18) lead, and California's free preview sample is the Banc of California Charitable Foundation.
This guide is for executive directors, counseling managers and grant writers at agencies that offer pre-purchase counseling, homebuyer education, foreclosure and default counseling, reverse mortgage counseling or rental counseling. It covers stand-alone counseling nonprofits, Urban League and community action counseling programs, and NeighborWorks members. Housing developers, down payment programs for individual buyers and fair housing enforcement groups have their own guides.
Data note: The housing counseling counts come from a Grantsights search of 990-PF human-services grants, pulled November 1, 2026, for recipients or purposes naming housing counseling, homebuyer education, foreclosure counseling or Neighborhood Housing Services groups. Grantsights checked 40 matched human-services recipients by hand, and 39 were housing counseling agencies; the miss was a multi-service agency. Habitat for Humanity homeownership programs and fair housing groups were left out of the pattern. The state table in the section on the human-services list draws on a wider Grantsights pull covering every 990-PF human-services filing, dated October 29, 2026.
In this guide (11 sections)
- 5 Kinds of Counseling Work and What Funders Want From Each
- Grants for Housing Counseling Agencies: What 990-PF Filings Show
- Housing Counseling Grants by State
- Why the Human Services List for Housing Counseling
- What HUD Doesn't Tell You About Housing Counseling Funding
- Budgeting a Counseling Program for a Grant
- Common Mistakes in Housing Counseling Grant Requests
- A Housing Counseling Agency's Funding Calendar
- Related Guides for Housing Counseling Agencies
- FAQ: Common Questions
- Sources
Foundations near you already fund this work. See three in your state that take requests, with how to apply. Free, about a minute.
Housing counseling source review, Grantsights, November 1, 2026: Grantsights checked HUD's housing counseling program page (opens in a new tab), its page for housing counseling professionals (opens in a new tab), the approval rules in 24 CFR 214.103 (opens in a new tab), the fiscal year 2026 grant forecast (opens in a new tab) and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation Act (opens in a new tab) against foundation filings that name counseling agencies. Where official sources stop: HUD publishes award lists, but no federal page says what a counseling session costs to deliver, so a request has to bring its own cost per client.
Foundations that fund this work
33,185 private foundations gave to food banks, shelters, housing programs and family services
From their own IRS Form 990-PF filings (tax years 2019 to 2025). Pick your state to see who gave there, with one foundation in full. About the list
Across the US, these foundations gave 206,147 grants totaling $7,313,379,620.
Historical giving does not establish an open application or eligibility for your organization. For-profit operators should check each foundation's applicant rules before buying.
The full list names all 33,185, state by state: what each gave, to whom, for what, and a link to its filings. One payment, no subscription.
Foundations ranked for housing counseling and homebuyer education agencies in
Ordered by how many grants they made for this work in your state and to how many organizations, invitation-only foundations last. Foundations that gave to housing counseling and homebuyer education agencies come first. From their own IRS 990-PF filings.
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5 Kinds of Counseling Work and What Funders Want From Each
Grantsights sorted the 40 hand-checked recipients by the service named in the filing, and 5 rough types came out. Each one draws a different funder, and the typical check behind all of them was $15,000. This table is illustrative, not data: client counts and costs vary a lot from one agency to the next.
| Counseling type | Who walks in | What a funder buys | What funders respond to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-purchase counseling and homebuyer classes | Renters planning a first purchase | Class seats, one-on-one credit coaching | Buyers who close, especially in lending areas a bank serves |
| Foreclosure and default counseling | Owners behind on a mortgage | Counselor hours, outreach to servicers | Homes saved, months of delinquency cured |
| Rental and eviction counseling | Tenants facing a notice | Case time, landlord mediation | Evictions avoided, households kept housed |
| Reverse mortgage (HECM) counseling | Older owners weighing a reverse mortgage | Required sessions before a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage | Seniors protected from scams and bad loans |
| Financial capability bundled with housing | Anyone with a credit or budget problem | Coaching that leads into a housing plan | Credit scores raised, debt reduced |
An agency that does all 5 shouldn't send one generic case. A bank foundation that writes mortgages in your county wants to hear about buyers. A health foundation reads eviction prevention as a housing-stability story, the same pitch that wins rent-help money in grants for homelessness prevention. Pick the row that matches the funder and lead with it.
Grants for Housing Counseling Agencies: What 990-PF Filings Show
Private foundations filing IRS Form 990-PF are a main source of private money for housing counseling, alongside HUD's own grant, fees from lenders and state housing finance agencies, and city housing contracts. According to IRS guidance on Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab), private foundations use the form to report their grants, so each gift in this guide can be traced to a filing. Grantsights analysis of 990-PF human-services grants pulled November 1, 2026 found 173 foundations that made 483 grants to these agencies, totaling $34,010,414.
The average is about $70,400 a grant, and it hides how small most checks are. The median was $15,000, a quarter of gifts were $5,000 or less, and the top quarter started at $43,250, according to the same November 1, 2026 pull. Plan a first ask around the median. A six-figure request to a funder you've never met is a red flag to most program officers.
Bank foundations at the top
2 bank foundations dominate the biggest checks. Among the 100 largest gifts in the pull, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation made 15 worth $9,222,067 and the Wells Fargo Foundation made 12 worth $5,960,000, so those 2 funders alone account for at least 44% of the $34,010,414 total, according to Grantsights analysis of the filings. The 10 largest gifts add up to $12,285,067, about 36%.
| Funder | Agency | State | Grant | Purpose as filed | Tax year | Paid for counseling? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPMorgan Chase Foundation | Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida | FL | $1,900,000 | Underserved small business expansion | 2023 | No |
| JPMorgan Chase Foundation | Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County | CA | $1,500,000 | Neighborhood revitalization | 2025 | Not stated |
| Wells Fargo Foundation | Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore | MD | $1,500,000 | Housing access and homeownership in West Baltimore | 2024 | Not stated |
| Wells Fargo Foundation | Community Ventures Corporation | KY | $1,300,000 | Keeping People Housed, housing counseling intermediary | 2025 | Yes |
| Wells Fargo Foundation | Community Ventures Corporation | KY | $1,200,000 | Keeping People Housed, housing counseling intermediary | 2025 | Yes |
| Rasmuson Foundation | Fairbanks Neighborhood Housing Services | AK | $1,000,000 | Vacant and blighted housing project | 2024 | No |
Read the last column before you count yourself in. Only the 2 Kentucky gifts name counseling, and they went to an intermediary that passes money to other agencies. The South Florida and Fairbanks checks paid for lending and redevelopment, which is real work but not what a counseling-only agency does. Several Neighborhood Housing Services groups show up again and again because they run counseling, lending, repairs and development under one roof.
Why banks? The Community Reinvestment Act is part of the answer. According to the OCC's Community Reinvestment Act page (opens in a new tab), the 1977 law encourages certain insured banks to help meet the credit needs of the communities where they're chartered, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, and regulators take that record into account when a bank applies for a deposit facility. That gives banks a standing reason to support homebuyer education in their markets. How a bank counts its own foundation's gifts is its business, not yours, but it's honest to say the bank's lending footprint usually decides where its foundation gives.
Gifts that clearly paid for counseling
For a counseling-only agency, these are the better models. Grantsights checked each purpose as filed:
- For example, Clarifi received $100,000 from the William Penn Foundation in both 2022 and 2023 for housing counseling, home repair and service grants in Philadelphia.
- The William Penn Foundation also gave the Urban League of Philadelphia $150,000 in 2022 and 2023 for housing counseling, outreach and education sessions, plus cash grants to distressed renters and owners.
- The Walton Family Foundation gave Credit Counseling of Arkansas $187,500 in 2023 to build its capacity for housing counseling sessions for low-income residents of Northwest Arkansas.
- One organization in Oregon, NeighborImpact in Redmond, received $99,000 from Meyer Memorial Trust in 2023 for housing counseling and foreclosure avoidance for low-income owners in Central Oregon.
- The Joseph and Vera Zilber Family Foundation gave Housing Resources Inc. in Milwaukee $108,000 in 2024 for homebuyer education and counseling.
- The TD Charitable Foundation gave Neighborhood Housing Services of Brooklyn Bedford-Stuyvesant $200,000 in 2024 for its foreclosure prevention program.
- The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation gave the Urban League of Rochester $100,000 in 2023 for its housing counseling program.
Smaller Texas checks show what a regional bank funder buys. The Wells Fargo Foundation gave the El Paso Community Action Program's Project BRAVO $30,000 in 2025 for foreclosure prevention and homebuyer counseling, Laredo-Webb Neighborhood Housing Services $30,000 in 2024 and Housing Opportunities of Fort Worth $25,000 in 2024. Note that Grantsights' records show the Wells Fargo Foundation as not taking unsolicited requests, so a local branch relationship usually comes first.
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Housing Counseling Grants by State
24 states had 3 or more foundations giving to housing counseling agencies in the November 1, 2026 pull. New England punches far above its size, with Massachusetts and Connecticut together counting 40 funders, many of them local savings bank foundations. This table counts human-services gifts by the state where the agency is based.
| State | Counseling funders | Grants | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 25 | 61 | $3,717,000 |
| Massachusetts | 22 | 39 | $968,295 |
| Connecticut | 18 | 39 | $922,000 |
| California | 15 | 37 | $5,602,000 |
| Illinois | 15 | 25 | $2,768,827 |
| Ohio | 9 | 11 | $184,500 |
| Alabama | 8 | 13 | $561,986 |
| District of Columbia | 8 | 13 | $2,330,000 |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | 41 | $1,582,500 |
| Wisconsin | 8 | 13 | $277,000 |
Massachusetts shows how small the typical New England check is: 22 funders gave $968,295, less than a single JPMorgan Chase gift in Florida. Bigger local checks do exist there: the HarborOne Foundation gave Neighborhood Housing Services of the South Shore in Quincy $208,000 in 2024 for general operating expenses. Pennsylvania has only 8 funders but 41 grants, because the William Penn Foundation and the TD Charitable Foundation renew Philadelphia agencies year after year.
The District of Columbia figure is mostly national money. The TD Charitable Foundation gave the National Community Reinvestment Coalition $250,000 in 2023 for its Housing Counseling Equity Fund, and Webster Bank Charitable Foundation gave the same coalition $150,000 in 2023 for its training academy and housing counseling network. If your agency belongs to a national network, ask whether it regrants money like this.
California's housing counseling funders
California's 15 foundations made 37 human-services grants to counseling agencies worth $5,602,000, according to the November 1, 2026 pull. Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County took most of that, including the JPMorgan Chase gift of $1,500,000 in 2025 and Wells Fargo's $1,000,000 in 2025 for an accessory dwelling unit program.
The free preview on the Grantsights human-services funder list for California leads with the Banc of California Charitable Foundation, whose filings say it takes requests and list what to send and a contact. It gave NeighborWorks of Orange County $30,000 in 2023 and Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles $20,000 in 2024, both filed as support for affordable housing programs. Other California checks name counseling outright. The Wells Fargo Foundation gave the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition in Indio $50,000 in 2025 for its housing counseling and education program, the Zions Bancorporation Foundation gave NHS of Los Angeles County $15,000 in 2023 for homeownership counseling, and the S. Mark Taper Foundation gave NHS of the Inland Empire $25,000 in 2024 to promote home ownership.
Why the Human Services List for Housing Counseling
Human services leads among the tagged counseling gifts, and education is a distant second, based on Grantsights analysis of the same November 1, 2026 search. Counseling is pitched as keeping families housed, which human-services funders already pay for. Many of those funders give in small amounts, so the statewide numbers below matter more than the national total.
| State | Human-services grants recorded | Funders | Open to requests | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 14,060 | 3,877 | 868 | $5,000 |
| Massachusetts | 9,463 | 2,116 | 621 | $5,000 |
| Connecticut | 4,176 | 1,002 | 257 | $5,000 |
| California | 19,089 | 4,681 | 994 | $6,500 |
| Illinois | 8,284 | 2,119 | 564 | $5,000 |
| Pennsylvania | 9,219 | 1,871 | 638 | $5,000 |
According to Grantsights analysis of 990-PF human-services filings pulled October 29, 2026, the median human-services gift is $5,000 in 5 of these 6 states and $6,500 in California, so the $15,000 counseling median sits well above the usual check. Bank foundations explain the gap. Grantsights sells the human-services funder list for one state at $29, a $99 plan opens every cause in every state for a year, and either purchase can be refunded within 30 days.
What HUD Doesn't Tell You About Housing Counseling Funding
HUD's housing counseling page says its network of participating agencies and certified counselors helps families get, keep and stay in their homes. It doesn't say how thin the federal money is next to the work. Read the rules beside the filings and 5 lessons come out.
- Approval takes a year of track record. According to HUD's rule at 24 CFR 214.103, an agency must be a nonprofit or a unit of government, must have run a housing counseling program for at least 1 year and must have worked for at least 1 year in the area its work plan covers. A new nonprofit can't skip that year, so it has to fund its first season with private money.
- Every counselor needs the exam. Under 24 CFR 214.103(n), each person who counsels clients must be a HUD certified housing counselor, which takes a passing score on a written exam covering financial management, property maintenance, homeownership and tenancy, fair housing, affordability and avoiding delinquency and eviction. Agencies and counselors have had to comply since August 1, 2021. Turnover means paying for new hires to study and sit the test, a cost many budgets underestimate.
- The federal grant isn't open right now. According to HUD's notice on Grants.gov (opens in a new tab), the fiscal year 2025 housing counseling and training round was posted March 26, 2026 and closed May 26, 2026, with an estimated $56,100,000 and awards up to $3,000,000, and only agencies already approved before the notice was issued could apply for the counseling award. According to HUD's fiscal year 2026 forecast, last updated July 20, 2026, the next notice was expected around September 30, 2026 with about $53,000,000 for 175 awards and a November 30, 2026 due date. As of November 1, 2026 it was still a forecast, not an open notice.
- Most small agencies get HUD money through an intermediary. Local agencies often join a national or regional intermediary or a state housing finance agency that applies for the big award and passes a share down. The 2 Wells Fargo gifts to Community Ventures in Kentucky show private funders using the same model. Ask your intermediary for its subgrant timeline before you budget on it. The HUD grants guide shows which other HUD programs go to nonprofits rather than individuals.
- NeighborWorks money comes through a public corporation. According to the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation Act (opens in a new tab), Congress set up a public corporation to carry on the neighborhood housing services model. That corporation, known as NeighborWorks America, makes grants to its member organizations. The statutory note to that section shows a 2021 appropriation of $100,000,000 for housing counseling grants through the corporation, available until September 30, 2025, so that money has run out.
What housing counseling guides rarely say plainly: federal money pays for a slice of counselor time, and an agency that relies on it alone is exposed whenever grant timing slips. The fiscal year 2025 round, for example, set a performance start of October 1, 2025 while its estimated award date was August 1, 2026, according to the notice. Foundations bridge that gap, and a $15,000 operating grant from a local bank foundation can cover months of a counselor's time while a federal award is pending.
Budgeting a Counseling Program for a Grant
Most agencies price a grant around counselor salaries and forget the rest, so a $15,000 request ends up covering less counseling than promised. HUD's rule requires a client management system that reports to HUD, certified staff and a written work plan, and each of those costs money. This table is illustrative, not data: costs vary by city, caseload and the mix of services.
| Line item | What it buys | Easy to skip? |
|---|---|---|
| Certified counselor salaries | One-on-one sessions and follow-up | No |
| Exam prep and certification for new hires | Study time, training courses | Yes |
| Client management system | HUD-compatible software license and data entry | Yes |
| Homebuyer class costs | Space, materials, interpreters, child care | Yes |
| Credit reports | Pulled for each pre-purchase client | Yes |
| Outreach to at-risk owners | Mailings, door knocking, servicer calls | Yes |
| Language access | Bilingual counselors or paid interpreters | Sometimes |
Credit coaching lines can borrow from the budgets in grants for financial literacy programs. Report the numbers funders can compare: clients counseled, households that bought a home, foreclosures avoided, evictions prevented and the average cost per client served. A cost per closed purchase is the strongest single figure for a bank funder.
Common Mistakes in Housing Counseling Grant Requests
These 6 mistakes come up when an agency writes for HUD reviewers instead of a private funder.
- Pitching the NeighborWorks total. A common mistake is quoting big NHS gifts as proof that counseling draws seven figures. Most of them paid for lending or development. Look up what a funder actually gave for counseling with how to read a 990-PF.
- Ignoring the branch map. Bank foundations give where their bank lends. Asking a bank with no branches in your county is a waste of time.
- Leaving out outcomes. Funders want closings and cures, not session counts alone. Track the 6 months after counseling.
- Treating HUD approval as a funding plan. Approval opens the door to HUD's grant, but the grant is competitive and its timing slips. Build a private base first.
- Mixing counseling with down payment help. If your agency gives buyers cash, say so separately. Individual buyers looking for that money should read first-time home buyer grants.
- Underestimating staff turnover costs. Every new counselor needs certification, so put training in the budget, not overhead.
A Housing Counseling Agency's Funding Calendar
This 12-month plan assumes HUD posts its counseling notice in the fall. Past notices on Grants.gov (opens in a new tab) went up as early as September (fiscal year 2021) and as late as March 2026 (fiscal year 2025). Adjust it to your intermediary's schedule.
| Month | Action |
|---|---|
| January | Pull last year's client, closing and foreclosure-avoided numbers from your client management system |
| February to April | Send 8 to 12 requests to local bank and family foundations for operating support |
| May | Confirm counselor certifications and plan exam prep for new staff |
| June to August | Run spring homebuyer classes; collect buyer stories with consent |
| September to November | Watch the HUD forecast on Grants.gov (opens in a new tab) for the counseling notice and confirm intermediary deadlines |
| December | Report results to funders and line up renewals for the new year |
The Grantsights grant database tracks federal and state housing notices, including state housing finance agency programs that fund counseling.
Related Guides for Housing Counseling Agencies
The 173 foundations in this pull made 483 grants, and many of them also fund the housing and money work that sits next to counseling. These guides cover it.
Agencies that also build or rehab homes should start with grants for affordable housing and the ranked list of the best grants for affordable housing nonprofits. If your counselors handle eviction cases, grants for homelessness prevention covers the funders that pay for rent help. Credit coaching programs share donors with grants for financial literacy programs, and agencies that run tax clinics in the spring can compare notes in grants for free tax preparation programs. For HUD's wider grant menu, see the HUD grants guide. Congregations often host homebuyer workshops and rental help for their neighbors, and the councils that coordinate them are covered in grants for interfaith councils.
FAQ: Common Questions
How many foundations give grants to housing counseling agencies? 173 in Grantsights' search of 990-PF human-services grants pulled November 1, 2026.
Is HUD's housing counseling grant open right now? No. As of November 1, 2026, the fiscal year 2026 notice was still a forecast.
Does my agency have to be HUD-approved to get foundation money? No, but HUD's own grant requires approval before the notice is issued.
How big is a typical housing counseling grant? The median was $15,000, and the middle half ran from $5,000 to $43,250.
When did HUD's counselor certification rule take effect? August 1, 2021.
Do gifts to NeighborWorks organizations always pay for counseling? No. Many paid for lending, repairs or development.
Sources
- HUD: Housing Counseling program page (opens in a new tab)
- HUD: Housing counseling professionals, grants and award lists (opens in a new tab)
- eCFR: 24 CFR 214.103, approval criteria and counselor certification (opens in a new tab)
- Grants.gov: HUD housing counseling and training notice, fiscal year 2025 (opens in a new tab)
- Grants.gov: HUD housing counseling and training forecast, fiscal year 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- GovInfo: 42 U.S.C. 8101, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation Act (opens in a new tab)
- OCC: Community Reinvestment Act (opens in a new tab)
- IRS: About Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab)
Last updated November 1, 2026. Published by Grantsights from public sources. See our editorial policy, how we build and check guides, corrections and how we make money.
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