An Overview
Community Reinvestment Program
The Community Reinvestment Program issues grants to communities disproportionately affected by prior federal and state drug policies in order to redress a wide range of community needs—from housing to childcare to job skills training and many areas in between. The grants are not limited to activities related to cannabis.
Taxes from legal adult-use cannabis sales in New York State go into the Cannabis Revenue Fund. Per the Cannabis Law (§ 99-ii), 40% of Cannabis Tax Revenue goes back to the communities most disproportionately affected by prior drug policies in the form of grants overseen by the Cannabis Advisory Board (CAB) via the Community Grants Reinvestment Fund. Through these grants, it is the goal of OCM and the CAB to distribute impactful funding to areas of the state that have been historically under-resourced, underserved, and over-policed. The future programmatic focus of the Community Reinvestment Program can change according to the guidance provided by the Cannabis Advisory Board.
Updates
This year's grant opportunity closed on December 18th, 2024. It is anticipated that new grant opportunities funded by the Community Reinvestment Program will be made available on an annual basis.
In the first 2024 grant cycle, only 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations who provide services for young people (individuals ages 0-24 years) in designated geographies of New York State were eligible to apply. Five million dollars were made available for this round of funding. Organizations submitted proposals for $100,000 grants. Organizations did NOT have to be affiliated with any cannabis-related businesses or activities to apply and funds were not required to go towards cannabis-related programming or services.
To learn more about the application process and become oriented to anticipated required steps to apply for the next grant opportunity, please explore the links below.
For Applicants
The Community Reinvestment Program will issue annual funding opportunities through competitive procurements focused on various allowable activities.
By law, the Community Reinvestment Program may be designed to fund such initiatives as job placement, job skills services, adult education, mental health treatment, substance use disorder treatment, housing, financial literacy, community banking, nutrition services, services to address adverse childhood experiences, afterschool and child care services, system navigation services, legal services to address barriers to reentry, including, but not limited to, providing representation and related assistance with expungement, vacatur, substitution and resentencing of marihuana-related convictions, and linkages to medical care, women's health services and other community-based supportive services.
According to the guidance of the Cannabis Advisory Board, the program may choose to focus on different areas in the future. The grants from this program may also be used to further support the social and economic equity program created by article four of the cannabis law and as established by the Cannabis Control Board.