A practical guide to CDC grants for public health, prevention, surveillance, and emergency preparedness, who is eligible, key programs, and how to win them.

2025–2026 STATUS UPDATE: HHS announced restructuring in March 2025 that consolidates SAMHSA, HRSA, OASH, ATSDR, and NIOSH into a new “Administration for a Healthy America (AHA)” as part of a ~25% HHS workforce reduction. Programs and contact pathways may have shifted. Verify at hhs.gov.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the largest public-health funders in the world and an underused source of grants for many community-based organizations.

CDC funding supports public-health surveillance, prevention programs, emergency preparedness, chronic-disease prevention, infectious-disease control, injury prevention, and far more. Its grants reach state and local health departments, tribal entities, nonprofits, and academic institutions, often in cooperative-agreement form where the CDC works closely with grantees on the work.

This guide explains how CDC grants work, who is eligible, the major programs, and how to apply.

TL;DR: Quick Answers

What does CDC fund? Public-health work, surveillance, prevention, emergency preparedness, chronic-disease and infectious-disease programs, injury prevention, and global health.
Who can apply? State, local, and tribal health departments; nonprofits; universities; healthcare organizations; and others depending on the program.
What are the major programs? Public Health Emergency Preparedness, REACH, chronic-disease prevention programs (diabetes, heart disease, cancer screening), STD/HIV prevention, immunization programs, and surveillance cooperative agreements.
What’s the timeline? Federal pacing, often multi-year cooperative agreements with annual renewals.

How CDC Funding Works

CDC is part of HHS, alongside HRSA, SAMHSA, and other operating divisions. Like other federal grants, CDC funding is structured, competitive, and compliance-heavy. CDC uses both grants and cooperative agreements; cooperative agreements imply ongoing CDC involvement in the work.

A distinctive feature of CDC funding: a large share flows to state and local health departments, which then sub-contract to nonprofits, community-based organizations, and universities. For many community organizations, the practical path to CDC dollars is through a state or local health department partner, not directly.

Major CDC Programs

CDC’s portfolio is enormous and evolves with public-health priorities. A non-exhaustive sample of major and recurring programs:

Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP). Funds state and territorial preparedness systems.
REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health). Funds community organizations to reduce health disparities.
National Diabetes Prevention Program funding.
WISEWOMAN and National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Programs.
High Obesity Program (HOP) and other obesity prevention work.
STD/HIV prevention and surveillance funding.
Immunization grants to states and partners.
Tobacco prevention and control programs.
Overdose response cooperative agreements (often coordinated with SAMHSA).
Global health and outbreak response programs.
Injury and violence prevention programs, including youth violence and child abuse prevention.

Who Is Eligible

Eligibility varies by program, common applicants include:

State, local, and tribal health departments
Nonprofits and community-based organizations (especially REACH and community-prevention programs)
Universities and academic medical centers
Healthcare organizations and FQHCs
Tribal and urban Indian organizations
Public health institutes

Read each NOFO closely, see how to read a grant RFP. CDC eligibility is program-specific and sometimes limited to governmental entities.

How to Apply

Identify the right program. CDC has many centers and divisions; finding the right home for your work is the first step.
Register on SAM.gov and Grants.gov early.
Build the data case. CDC reviews data-driven proposals. Use BRFSS, YRBS, NHANES, surveillance data, and local health department data to ground your statement of need.
Use evidence-based interventions. CDC strongly favors interventions with a published evidence base; cite the research and approach.
Build a strong logic model and evaluation plan. CDC reviews are evaluation-heavy.
Partner with health departments. Many CDC-funded efforts are stronger with public-health partners; secure letters of support early.
Prepare a precise budget. Federal compliance is rigorous.
Plan reporting capacity. Cooperative agreements have detailed performance reporting.

Tips for a Competitive CDC Application

Lead with evidence. CDC reviewers want to see grounding in epidemiology and intervention research.
Address health equity. Programs increasingly require explicit equity strategies; make them concrete.
Show measurable outcomes. Activities are insufficient, define population-level health changes you’ll measure.
Coordinate with state/local health departments. Many CDC efforts are stronger as part of a coordinated public-health system.
Demonstrate emergency-response capacity for preparedness funding.
Plan for sustainability. CDC wants to see how the work continues after federal funding ends.

How Grantboost Helps With CDC Applications

CDC applications reward proposals that combine epidemiological rigor with community grounding, structured exactly to the NOFO. Grantboost helps you draft proposals that already reflect your organization’s voice and past wins (see training AI on your past proposals), structured around each CDC program’s specific requirements.

Its continuous discovery surfaces CDC opportunities alongside related HRSA, DHHS, SAMHSA, and foundation health funding, so CDC grants sit inside a balanced public-health funding strategy.

Try Grantboost free and build stronger CDC proposals.

CDC Grants: A Guide to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Funding