Field Empowerment Fund​
Housing Counseling Services
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The Field Empowerment Fund (FEF) empowers NCRC network members to level up established service lines.
The Housing Counseling Services series within FEF supports HUD-approved housing counseling agencies in driving homeownership, such as through pre-purchase counseling. In addition, the program builds agency knowledge on heirs’ property challenges to better equip first-time and low-income homebuying households with the know-how to retain intergenerational wealth.
In doing so, FEF-HCS aims to help underserved families begin their homeownership journey, with an additional goal of ensuring foresight into the long-term future of their home purchase.
The FEF-HCS series is funded in partnership with Key Bank and HSBC, and targets communities within the Key Bank and HSBC branch footprints.
The subgrants for direct-to-client housing counseling services will be awarded in three rounds in the FEF-HCS track:
2025 Round - $1,340,000
2026 Round - $1,360,000
2027 Round - $1,300,000
Contact us for more information about NCRC’s Field Empowerment Fund.
Informational Webinar
Eligibility Criteria
1. Be an active NCRC 501(c)3 member. Join here.
2. Be a HUD-certified housing counseling agency
3. Have a physical office location or attend clients in an eligible geography.
Funding Support
Awardee agencies will receive subgrants to support their housing counseling services to clients. Final award values may vary due to factors such as application volume, number of clients served per agency, and alignment with NCRC and KeyBank’s partnership (announced in April 2024) and NCRC and HSBC’s partnership (announced in November 2024). Minimum award will be $10,000.
Knowledge Building
Awardee agencies will attend a training session on heirs’ property challenges and best practices, hosted by NCRC National Training Academy. Bolstering counselor knowledge on this topic will ensure that your agency is not only serving clients in their personal wealth-building journey now, but also helping them preserve that wealth in generations to come.
ESTIMATED TIMELINE:
Application Period:
March 23, 2026 – May 1, 2026
Announcement of Awardees:
June 2026
Performance Period:
July 2026 – June 2027