Opportunity Overview
The NCHSAA Foundation, Inc. has opened its 2026-2027 Education-Based Grant Program for North Carolina High School Athletic Association member schools. The program supports unmet needs affecting student-athletes, coaches, and athletic administrators, including health, safety, and wellness initiatives, student-athlete programs, coach and administrator education, and qualifying equipment.
Deadline
The controlling NCHSAA Foundation program page states that the 2026-2027 application cycle opened September 1, 2026 and closes November 30, 2026. The official page does not publish a closing clock time or time zone, so Atlas does not infer one. Applicants should verify the live SmarterSelect portal cutoff before final submission.
Funding
Grant awards are limited to a maximum of $5,000 per school. The Foundation states that a maximum request does not guarantee a $5,000 award and that partial awards may be made. Grant funding varies from year to year based on endowment investment earnings.
Eligibility
Only NCHSAA member schools may apply. Each school may submit only one application per grant cycle, so school personnel must coordinate internally. A school that received an Education-Based Grant in the 2025-2026 school year is not eligible for the 2026-2027 cycle. Applicant schools should verify their prior-year award status before filing.
Eligible Focus Areas and Uses
Eligible focus areas include student-athlete program supplementation, mental wellness, sportsmanship, character development, career exploration and post-graduation preparation, coach and athletic-administrator education, and health, safety, and wellness initiatives. Health and wellness examples include physical wellness, social and emotional learning, healthy relationships, and health or lifesaving equipment such as AED units, Wet Bulb Globe Temperature devices, and cooling tubs. The program also supports certain athletic equipment such as game balls, net systems, goals, scoreboards, weights, weight machines, and cardio machines.
Funds may not be used for political activity, salaries or supplemental income, conference registration or travel expenses, personal gain, or ancillary activities unrelated to the NCHSAA Foundation’s purposes. Large capital projects such as lighting systems, vehicles, field construction, and building construction are treated as the responsibility of the school or public school unit rather than this grant program.
Match and Other Funding
The controlling program page does not state a mandatory match or fixed cost-share percentage. However, NCHSAA Foundation gives priority to projects for which the school demonstrates a concerted effort to secure multiple funding sources. Applicants must disclose pledged or collected funds from other sources, and the program is not intended to be the sole source of funding for school projects.
Submission Requirements
Applications are submitted through the SmarterSelect online application linked from the official NCHSAA Foundation program page. A projected budget is required as part of the proposal. The grant coordinator is expected to research project costs and secure multiple quotes before submitting the projected budget. The public program page does not expose a complete field-by-field copy of the live SmarterSelect form through Atlas’s read-only connection, so Atlas does not fabricate additional required fields or uploads.
Evaluation and Post-Award Requirements
Applications are evaluated for significant impact on the school’s athletic program and student-athletes, whether the project addresses a viable unmet need, and demonstrated effort to secure multiple funding sources. Awardees must later submit a detailed grant evaluation report describing fund usage, the number of student-athletes impacted, and future expansion of the funded focus area. The Foundation also publishes grant amendment and expense-evaluation templates for post-award administration.
Atlas Fit Analysis
Atlas Opportunity Score: 82/100. This is a verified, open North Carolina school funding opportunity with clear eligibility, a long application runway, explicit health and safety uses, and a straightforward maximum award. The score is moderated by the $5,000 cap, school-only eligibility, and the absence of a published closing clock time and complete public copy of the live application form.
N9+ Fit Score: 67/100. A legitimate applicant-led pathway may exist under physical wellness or health and lifesaving equipment where a school can document an unmet athletics health need and a compliant use for the Nonagon N9+ device and platform. Potential examples could involve school athletic-health assessment or clinician-supported evaluation, but the Foundation does not specifically name remote examination technology and the $5,000 award cap may require other funding. Atlas therefore does not treat N9+ as an automatic fit and does not authorize cold outreach from this publication alone.
Realistic Eligible Organizations
The eligible applicant universe is limited to current NCHSAA member schools. Before outreach to any individual school, Atlas must verify that the school did not receive this grant in 2025-2026, confirm a specific unmet health or wellness need, verify the appropriate school decision-maker, and confirm that the proposed project and budget can satisfy the program’s one-application-per-school and multiple-funding-source considerations.
Dr. Miltie / QC Healthcare Direct-Applicant Review
Dr. Miltie/QC Healthcare is not an eligible direct applicant. Any role would need to be through an eligible NCHSAA member school as part of a school-led project. This is not a direct-vendor solicitation and Atlas will not auto-submit.
Source Control
Controlling source: NCHSAA Foundation Education-Based Grant Program.
Prior recipients: NCHSAA Foundation Previous Grant Recipients.