Building Healthier Communities

Our Building Healthier Communities program supports local and regional partnerships that are focused on addressing critical community health needs.* We provide funding in the following three areas.

The deadline to submit letters of inquiry for Building Healthier Communities is September 30, 2011. This program area will close at the end of 2011. Please watch for new funding initiatives to be announced in December 2011.

1. Access to Health Care

Target grant size: $20,000-$90,000

Grants in this category support collaborative projects with one or more of the following goals.

• Supporting and expanding the health care safety net
• Decreasing inefficiencies and gaps in local health care systems
• Engaging people in their own health care
• Improving health outcomes
• Addressing health care disparities
• Matching eligible individuals with existing insurance options

We give priority to innovative projects with multiple supporting and participating stakeholders. To apply, visit our Grant Application Center.

2. Transforming Health Care

Target grant size: $20,000-$75,000

Through this funding track, the Foundation seeks to create a transparent health care system that gives people the information and tools they need to be at their healthiest; address the origins of rising health care costs; and improve health outcomes via better communication between patients and providers. To achieve these objectives, we support groups that are addressing one or more of the following categories:

• Exploring the barriers to—and public attitudes about—health care transparency and factors that affect long-term behavioral changes
• Increasing the public’s access and usage of information about health care’s quality and cost (e.g., comparisons of the risks, outcomes and costs associated with common medical procedures)
• Developing and implementing tools that allow people to make healthy decisions
• Encouraging people to be their own advocates with their physicians and health care team
• Engaging providers in quality assessment and improvement

To apply, visit our Grant Application Center.

3. Health Care Connections

Target grant size: $20,000-$35,000

These grants are given to support new or emerging partnerships between organizations that are striving to improve health care access and a community’s health care system as a whole. Funding may be used for planning activities such as:

• Community needs assessments
• Data analysis
• Community meetings
• Training and technical assistance
• Organizational infrastructure and capacity building

Applicants must demonstrate the need for collaboration and identify one or more issues the partnership will address. Confirmed or potential partners—and the role each will play—must also be specified. To apply, visit our Grant Application Center.

DISCLAIMER:

* This program is not intended to replicate or replace state and federal health IT investments or mandates. The Foundation does not fund medical equipment and technology deemed necessary for routine clinic operations or to meet accepted standards of care.