Mississippi Opioid Settlement Fund

The Mississippi Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council administers the review and recommendation process for grants supported by Mississippi's Opioid Settlement Fund. Settlement payments secured by the Mississippi Attorney General from opioid manufacturers, distributors, pharmacy chains, and other companies are deposited into the special fund established in the State Treasury. The Council was established by the Mississippi Legislature during the 2025 legislative session and is governed by Miss. Code Ann. Section 41-153-1. Its role is to publish funding priorities, review applications, and develop a prioritized list of recommended recipients. The Council recommends projects, but the Mississippi Legislature has ultimate authority to approve or reject recommended funding and determine award amounts. An award is not final until funds are appropriated and a grant agreement is executed. Funding is principally intended for programs and projects that abate the opioid epidemic in Mississippi or remediate harm to the state caused by the epidemic. Opioid abatement includes efforts to treat, prevent, surveil, or reduce opioid use disorder or opioid misuse and otherwise remediate harmful effects of the opioid epidemic. Projects must benefit Mississippi residents. Applicants should identify the statutory strategy pillars advanced by their projects and address the Council's eleven grant priorities, including anticipated impact, sustainability, financial stability, population served, existing and proposed services, organizational experience, underserved populations, alignment with settlement-approved uses, and demonstrated gaps identified through needs assessments or empirical data. Every non-administrative budget line must be assigned an approved opioid remediation use from Exhibit E of the national opioid settlement agreements. Administrative costs may not exceed 10 percent of the award in aggregate. Eligible applicants include 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, counties and municipalities, faith-based organizations, health systems and healthcare providers, educational institutions, for-profit organizations incorporated in Mississippi, and national organizations proposing a program or project specific to Mississippi. Applicants must demonstrate that grant proceeds will benefit Mississippi residents and, where applicable, that the organization is incorporated in Mississippi or recognized by the Mississippi Secretary of State as a private or public nonprofit corporation operating within Mississippi. Applicants must hold required licenses or certifications and disclose prior revocations. Matching funds are not required to apply, although an organization's ability to provide cash or in-kind match is a published funding priority and a scored consideration. Applications are completed entirely through the online application portal. The portal opens August 31, 2026, and applications are due October 5, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Central. There is no paper, downloadable, or email application. Applicants may save work and permit multiple organizational users to work on an application, but only the designated primary application contact may make the required confirmations and submit. Required materials include applicable incorporation documentation, nonprofit documentation where applicable, licenses or certifications, organizational policies and procedures, the current organization budget and sources of income, the most recent statement of financial affairs, available audited or equivalent financial statements, a mission statement, applicable board information, one to three letters of support, project staff resumes or CVs, and applicable memoranda of understanding. Accepted attachment formats include PDF and Microsoft Word, with Excel also accepted for financial documents. The application requests organizational and contact information, eligibility responses, a detailed line-item project budget, matching-fund information, project geography and population data, service types, evidence-based practices, activity dates, and seventeen separate proposal narrative responses. The budget must identify each expenditure, cost category, calculation basis, amount, approved use, and justification. Applications first undergo eligibility and completeness review. Eligible abatement applications are then independently assessed, scored, and categorized by trained third-party reviewers using a published 100-point rubric. Scoring addresses abatement impact, proposal narrative and attachments, geographic area and population served, financial stability, matching funds, and project sustainability. After the deadline, applicants cannot add information, change budgets, or resubmit, although reviewers may request clarification concerning information already submitted. The Council tentatively plans to review scored applications and finalize recommendations at meetings on November 23 and November 30, 2026, and submit recommendations to the Legislature by December 4, 2026. The Legislature will consider recommendations during its 2027 session. Funded organizations must execute a grant agreement before funds are released. The anticipated performance period is twelve months, July 1, 2027 through June 30, 2028. Most awards operate on a reimbursement basis, meaning recipients incur costs before reimbursement after submitting complete reports and supporting documentation. Lump-sum payment is available only for projects of no more than $50,000. Recipients must comply with financial and programmatic reporting requirements, retain grant records for five years after the award period, cooperate with audits, and obtain required approvals for applicable budget or scope changes. Applicant support is available at MS-OS@steadmangroup.com for questions concerning eligibility, priorities, budgets, the portal, and the application process. The Mississippi Attorney General's Office and Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council may also be contacted at OpioidCouncil@ago.ms.gov or by mail at Mississippi Attorney General's Office, Attention: Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Council, P.O. Box 220, Jackson, Mississippi 39205. Two applicant webinars are scheduled during the application period: September 15, 2026 from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Central and September 23, 2026 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Central. The source does not state that this grant opportunity recurs annually or on another established schedule, so no future recurring cycle is recorded.

Use county- or target-population-specific opioid data rather than relying on national statistics; demonstrate how the project satisfies priorities instead of restating them; identify evidence-based practices and concrete project outputs; read and write to the published scoring rubric; map every non-administrative budget line to an Exhibit E approved use; state quantity, rate and period for budget calculations; ensure the budget equals the request and administrative costs do not exceed 10%; gather required attachments before the portal opens; create the portal account early; submit before the deadline and confirm receipt of the submission confirmation email.