The Commission for Behavioral Health (CBH) is thrilled to announce the official release of the Innovation Partnership Fund (IPF) Request for Application (RFA), marking the first round of a significant multi-year investment.
Donor Name: Commission for Behavioral Health
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/08/2026
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
This initiative, established through the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA), aims to award up to $20 million in grants this year to drive bold, equity-centered innovations within California’s public behavioral health system.
This groundbreaking fund is designed to invest in solutions that will fundamentally improve how mental health and substance use disorder services are delivered, experienced, and sustained across the state, with a strong focus on supporting county behavioral health departments. This RFA was built upon extensive community and system partner feedback ensuring that the initiatives supported reflect the real-world needs of Californians. It was also developed in collaboration with the California Health & Human Services Agency, the California Department of Health Care Services, the California Department of Public Health, and the California Department of Health Care Access and Information.
The overarching goals and objectives of the IPF are to:
- Leverage innovative solutions to improve how public mental health and substance use disorder (i.e., behavioral health) services are delivered, experienced, and sustained across the state.
- Support county behavioral health departments, either directly or indirectly, to:
- reduce system burden;
- improve access and strengthen referral networks;
- improve service delivery and quality;
- increase adherence to specified Time and Distance requirements; and ultimately
- improve client behavioral health outcomes.
- Reduce disparities in client outcomes, and service access, use, and quality across demographic characteristics including, but not limited to, race and ethnicity, geography, housing status, primary language, income level, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
- Collect and report relevant data on client behavioral health services utilization and outcomes, implementation, and quality data to assess program impacts and learnings.
- Build collective knowledge on improving public mental health and substance use disorder services in California.
Categories
The funding available for this RFA is limited to $20,000,000, with a maximum award of $500,000 for small grants and $5 million for large grants.
There are two grant categories
- Category 1 – Small Grants
- Grant awards of less than $500,000.
- A minimum of 8 grants will be awarded. $4,000,000 in total is available for this category.
- Small grants are only open to community-based organizations, non-profit entities, and/or tribal organizations.
- Category 2 – Large Grants
- Grant awards $500,000 and above, with an individual grant ceiling of $5,000,000.
- A minimum of 3 grants will be awarded. $16,000,000 in total is available for this category.
- Large grants are open to all organization and entity types.
Project Period
The term of this contract will begin upon execution (no sooner than July 1, 2026) and end June 30, 2029.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications must describe how the proposed solution is innovative, by meeting one or more of the following criteria:
- Advance new culturally competent models, tools, partnerships, or technologies not yet widely implemented in California, this may include adopting or scaling efforts underway elsewhere that could be scaled in California.
- Introduce or scale practical, community-centered solutions (including community-defined evidence-based practices) that increase access to behavioral health treatment and recovery supports—particularly for historically underserved populations and inclusive of harm reduction approaches;
- Demonstrate a clear break from the status quo, not simply incremental improvements to existing programs or efforts, but a concerted deviation from those efforts; and/or
- Be actionable and ready for real-world implementation, not solely focused on concepts, research, or pilot testing.
- Applicants must address the needs of a minimum of one of the following target populations as specified in Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) section 5845.1:
- Underserved populations
- Low-income populations
- Communities impacted by other behavioral health disparities
- Applicants must apply to and support county programs, as specified under WIC Section 5892(a), through one of the following approaches:
- Direct Support: Provide a direct benefit to county programs and practices by expanding or improving services.
- Indirect Support: Offer preventive services or treatment that indirectly benefits county behavioral health programs by reducing demand on those programs.
- Indirect Support: Increase the number of clients served through private insurance, and Medi-Cal managed care plans, thus reducing strain on current county behavioral health programs.
- Indirect Support: Improving system efficiency and/or reducing administrative burden on service providers and county behavioral health staff. Other mechanisms as approved by the CBH.
For more information, visit CBH.
