Opportunity Now Colorado Grants

Opportunity Now Colorado Grants, formerly known as the Regional Talent Development Initiative Grant Program, is an $85 million Colorado workforce grant program enacted through HB22-1350. The program is administered through the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, or OEDIT, with the Talent Innovation division identified in the program overview. Opportunity Now Colorado is intended to create transformative change for Colorado's workforce and support economic recovery from COVID-related disruption. The source states that grants under the program have been awarded and applications are now closed. The program supports both new and proven approaches that can "seed transformative change" through intentional alignment and collaboration among Colorado's secondary education, post-secondary education, and workforce ecosystems. Its stated objective is to enhance the economic mobility of Colorado's learners and earners while helping communities respond to workforce needs. The program emphasizes innovative solutions developed through industry and education collaboration. The source also provides a testimonial from Tepeyac Community Health Center describing use of an Opportunity Now grant to launch healthcare careers for underserved and under-resourced individuals while supporting workforce growth, organizational culture, and employee retention. OEDIT established a Steering Committee to provide guidance on development of the grant application and execution process. The committee represents business, K12 education, postsecondary education, workforce development, nonprofit, healthcare, and related perspectives. OEDIT also formed a Selection Committee through recommendations from Steering Committee members and broader input as outlined in statute. Selection Committee members review grant applications according to processes and criteria specified by the Steering Committee and approved by OEDIT, and they make grant award recommendations to OEDIT. The Selection Committee is divided into smaller groups to review specific grant tracks identified as Scale, Seed, and Planning. The provided source does not state individual award minimums or maximums, the number of awards, a required applicant cost share or matching contribution, a performance period, or detailed allowable and prohibited expenditures. The only overall funding amount stated is $85 million for the grant program. The source likewise does not provide comprehensive organizational eligibility rules for the general Opportunity Now Colorado Grants program. It does establish that the program is focused on Colorado's workforce and Colorado's secondary, post-secondary, workforce, industry, learner, earner, and community ecosystems. A separately referenced Pay-for-Performance Opportunity Now opportunity was expressly limited to current Opportunity Now Seed and Scale grantees. Applications are currently closed. The source does not provide an application opening date, final application deadline, letter of intent deadline, concept paper deadline, portal submission procedure, required application documents, narrative questions, or other application components for a current round. It directs interested parties to opportunitynow.co for grant information, important upcoming dates, and events and recommends signing up for the mailing list for important updates. The source does not state that the general Opportunity Now Colorado Grants opportunity recurs annually or according to another regular schedule, so no future cycle is established from the information provided. Grant review is conducted by the Selection Committee in accordance with processes and criteria specified by the Steering Committee and approved by OEDIT, but the specific scoring or evaluation criteria are not provided in the source. For the separately described Pay-for-Performance Opportunity Now Grant opportunity, applications are closed and prospective awardees were scheduled to be announced on January 20, 2026. OEDIT lists its general contact information as oedit.info@state.co.us and 303.892.3840, with an office address of 1600 Broadway, Ste. 2500, Denver, CO 80202. For meeting minutes and agendas from prior years, the source instructs interested parties to contact the Program Manager, although no individual Program Manager name or direct contact information is supplied.

Align the proposed approach with transformative workforce change and intentional collaboration among secondary education, post-secondary education, workforce, and industry partners; demonstrate how the work enhances economic mobility for Colorado learners and earners and responds to workforce needs