Announcing Our 2026 Impact Grantees
Earlier this year, we opened applications for our 2026 Impact Grant for Deaf Organizations, an annual grant that provides unrestricted funding to deaf-centric organizations and programs across the country. The response was overwhelmingly positive.
We received a record of 148 applications. The need is clearly real, and deaf organizations are eager to grow despite challenges within the nonprofit sector. While the grant remained flexible and unrestricted, we prioritized applications that addressed one or both of the following:
- The immediate, urgent needs of their communities
- The long-term sustainability needs of their organizations
Some grantees focused on one of the above priority areas. Others addressed both. The split makes sense given what deaf organizations are going through now, as some are responding to emergent needs within their communities, and others are building the foundations needed to sustain their organizations in the years to come. We funded both because both are necessary.
Today, we are thrilled to announce our ten 2026 Impact Grantees. Each organization will receive $20,000, totaling $200,000 in unrestricted grant awards. This year's cohort represents a broad range of deaf organizations and their innovative ideas to address community issues and/or infrastructure challenges, among them a first: one grant being awarded to a collective of six organizations working together under a single project.
Meet Our 2026 Grantees
- Camp Taloali
- Deaf Community Services of San Diego
- Deaf Refugee Advocacy
- Deaf Seniors of America
- DeafBlind Service Center
- Global Deaf Research Institute
- Metro South Asian Deaf Association
- Minnesota Deaf Muslim Community
- Sego Lily
- Washington State Deaf and DeafBlind Board Development Collaborative
Please visit this page to learn more about each of their grant-funded projects.
VIDEO DESCRIPTION
Sasha, a brown woman with shoulder-length dark hair and glasses, sits on a brown leather couch in front of a blue wall with wooden shelves and a green plant. She wears a black long-sleeve shirt and jeans, and signs at the camera.Please click the video to watch it in YouTube and access video transcript and captions.
Please click the video to watch it in YouTube and access video transcript and captions.
A Milestone for DOF
Since 2021, DOF has now distributed nearly $700,000 across 42 grant projects.
While those numbers excite us, we know we are merely scratching the surface of what is yet to be accomplished in support of deaf organizations and programs.
This year’s expansion of grant awards was made possible by donors and partners in direct response to our 1% Is Not Enough campaign. Because of them, we doubled our typical grant awards this year from five to ten.
Funding is one part of what we do. We are also focused on expanding access to resources for deaf organization leaders through our new Training Institute while continuing to provide coaching and technical assistance. Because when organization leaders have what they need, their communities benefit.
We are deeply grateful to our community-led independent grant review committee and every organization that spent time on their application. To the organizations that did not receive funding this cycle: we recognize your hard work. The need you described is real. We are working to fund more organizations and programs like yours in the years ahead. Thank you for showing up. Don’t stop.
