The ProFathering15™ Expansion Project

Welcome!

Please consider the following project requirements before proceeding:

Eligibility: Eligible organizations include any human service entity providing programs or direct services to families, such as secular and faith-based nonprofits, government agencies, correctional facilities, or community-based groups. Priority goes to NFI partners with proven success in enrolling at least 100 fathers annually and experience in fatherhood programming. Organizations based outside the United States are not eligible.

Deadline for application submissions: Friday, January 30, 2026, at 2:00 P.M. EDT.

Timeline: In determining your organization’s ability and capacity to succeed if selected, keep in mind that organizations will have approximately nine months after selection to recruit dads to participate in the program and complete it before the deadline to serve at least 100 dads.

Click here to download a PDF copy of this RFA.

ProFathering15™ Expansion Project Introduction

National Fatherhood Initiative® (NFI) invites human service organizations to apply to participate in a 9-month project to start or expand the ProFathering15™ program with fathers. NFI seeks applications from organizations that:

• Provide services to fathers in the community or communities they serve.
• Can enroll 100 fathers in their program within a nine-month period.
• Have a designated staff member or volunteer, and a backup in place, to implement ProFathering15™.
• Ability to work collaboratively with community partners to recruit fathers.

Background

NFI’s mission is to increase father involvement by equipping communities and human service organizations with the father-engagement training, programs, and resources they need to be father-inclusive. We’ve recognized that our partners face several challenges in assisting fathers that can cause them to reduce or stop that assistance. These challenges include a lack of staff to deliver fatherhood programs, serving hard-to-reach fathers (e.g., in rural areas), and funding costly programs. We are keenly aware of these "pain points." We design resources, training, and technical assistance to address them. Our newest resource is ProFathering15™, the only online fatherhood program available nationwide in English and Spanish. It provides our partners with a cost-effective educational tool that's easy to implement and sustain with minimal staff involvement and cost.

ProFathering15™

ProFathering15™ is an interactive, engaging, and comprehensive program filled with topics that build pro-fathering attitudes, knowledge, and skills. The program is useful for any father or father figure, including biological, step, or adoptive fathers, grandfathers raising grandchildren, or male relatives or caregivers raising children.

It includes 15 topics relevant to any father or father figure. They are: Family History, Being a Man and Dad, Handling Emotions, Grief and Loss, Your Health, You and Mom, Talking with Mom, Co-Parenting, Fathering Skills, Child Development, Child Discipline, Sexuality, Intimacy, Work-Family Balance, and Managing Money. The content in each topic is evidence-informed, some unique to this program and some drawn from other NFI programs and resources (e.g., the evidence-based 24:7 Dad^® program).

As a result of the ProFathering15™ program’s growing popularity and flexibility, NFI has secured funding to expand its use.

The Opportunity for Organizations

NFI will equip 10 human service organizations nationwide to start or expand their use of the ProFathering15™ program. The organizations must meet the four criteria identified in the Eligibility section of this RFA.

NFI will provide 10 organizations with up to 100 ProFathering15™ enrollments to administer the program. NFI will provide organizations with free training and technical support to effectively run the program. To thank each organization for participating, we will provide $500 at the end of the project for organizations to acquire other NFI resources that support their fatherhood programming. NFI will not provide funds to hire staff, pay stipends to volunteers, or use to acquire or use other resources to run the program (e.g., a facility to facilitate groups).

To equip the selected organizations to run the program, NFI will:

• Conduct a ProFathering15™ Kick-Off webinar on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, from 2 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. EST.
• Provide each organization with ProFathering15™ access instructions.
• Provide each organization with up to 100 ProFathering15™ enrollments.
• Require each designated staff member to attend the mid- and final-review meetings with NFI staff.
• Require each designated staff member to collect participant demographic information.
• Provide designated staff with free, ongoing, customized technical assistance via phone and email as they implement the program.

Important Eligibility Details

Eligible organizations can be any human service entity that provides programs or direct services to families, such as secular and faith-based nonprofits, community-based organizations, and city or county government agencies. Priority goes to NFI partners with proven success in enrolling at least 100 fathers annually and experience in fatherhood programming. Organizations based outside the United States are not eligible.

Organizations must have the following capacities and abilities:

• The capacity to begin running the program (i.e., administer ProFathering15™ enrollments) no later than February 23, 2026. This deadline will be the week after attending the Kick-Off webinar.
• To develop and propose a timeline for when organizations expect to have reached the 100 fathers.
• The ability to report on process measures associated with running the program (e.g., the number of dads who complete the program, demographic information, etc.) by the end of the two reporting periods (February 19, 2026, and August 15, 2026). NFI created a simple online form to ease the submission of the first and final reports.

Application Deadline: Applications are due to NFI by 2:00 P.M. EDT on Friday, January 30, 2026.

After receipt and review of applications to determine whether organizations are eligible for selection, NFI staff will:

• Discard applications from organizations that fail to meet the criteria specified in the Introduction section of this RFA.
• Review applications from eligible organizations and select 10 to participate in the project. NFI plans to select organizations during the week of February 2, 2026, and inform the selected organizations no later than the week beginning February 9, 2026.

Selection Process and Emphasis

NFI will place an emphasis on selecting organizations that most convincingly show they have:

• An existing relationship with community fathers and families or partners who serve them to enroll fathers into the program.
• The capacity to start by February 23, 2026.
• Recruit and enroll 100 fathers or father figures (biological, step, adoptive, grandfathers, or male caregivers) by October 23, 2026.
• Designate staff to oversee participation, attend a launch webinar, and share feedback via check-ins, webinars, and evaluations.

In determining your organization’s ability and capacity to succeed if selected, keep in mind that organizations will have approximately 9 months after selection to recruit and enroll dads in the program and complete it before the deadline to serve 100 dads (October 23, 2026).

Please note that NFI will not inform organizations not selected to partner in this project of the reason they were not selected (e.g., applications deemed ineligible or not as strong as those of selected organizations).

Questions

If you have any questions about this RFA, please email the NFI Program Success Director, Antoine Johnson, at ajohnson@fatherhood. Do not email or call anyone else on NFI’s staff. To ensure the best chance of a same-day response, the ideal time to email your questions to Mr. Johnson is Monday–Friday, 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. EDT.

If you would like to participate in this exciting opportunity, we welcome your application for this project!