United Hospital Fund (New York, NY)
United Hospital Fund (UHF) announced a new initiative, Partnerships for Early Childhood Development, to support 11 New York City hospitals and their community partners in a yearlong effort to help pediatric primary care practices initiate, expand, or improve on efforts to screen children zero to five years old for social and environmental risks that interfere with healthy development, and connect them with the services that can address those risks.
UHF will also establish a learning collaborative to provide the participating hospitals and community organizations with resources, training, technical assistance, and forums for the members to share what they learn. A funding collaborative consisting of United Hospital Fund, the Altman Foundation, and The New York Community Trust (The Trust) will support the initiative with grants totaling $703,062.
The hospitals participating in the initiative are Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, Cohen Children’s Medical Center (part of Northwell Health), NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island, NYC Health + Hospitals/Gouverneur Health, Interfaith Medical Center, Montefiore Medical Center, Mount Sinai Health System/Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Queens, St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, and NYU Langone Health System /NYU Lutheran Family Health Centers.
Each of the hospitals and community centers in the partnership will focus on identifying and addressing a range of risks to health. By the end of the year, all participating teams are expected to have tested a screening tool with at least a pilot group of patients, identified steps to move toward universally screening all young children for at least one social determinant of health, made referrals to their community partners, and be well positioned to continue screening beyond the one-year grant period.
Contact: Catherine Arnst
Phone: 212.49.0733
Email: carnst@uhfnyc.org
Stavros Niarchos Foundation (Athens, Greece)
The NYC Department of Veterans’ Services and Department of Cultural Affairs named Bryan Doerries, Artistic Director of Theater of War Productions, as the city’s newest Public Artist in Residence (PAIR). The two-year residency, which will bring theater-based projects to all five boroughs, is made possible through a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
Contact: Melissa Goldberg
Phone: 212.576.2700, x271
Email: mgoldberg@goodmanmedia.com
Moses Taylor Foundation (Scranton, PA)
The Moses Taylor Foundation approved its 2016-2017 third quarter grants, awarding a total of $596,306 to eight organizations that advance the foundation’s strategic priority of promoting health and wellness throughout Northeast Pennsylvania. The foundation administers quarterly grant cycles. The list of 2016-2017 third quarter health related grants is noted below.
- United Way of Wyoming Valley ($255,306) to establish child maltreatment prevention strategies within the community.
- Commission on Economic Opportunity ($125,000) to provide operating support for its Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank.
- NEPA Community Health Care ($120,000) to support the organization’s Quality of Care Improvement through Workplace Transformation initiative.
- Treatment Court Advocacy Center ($40,000) to fund a part time Certified Peer Specialist and support transitional needs of its participants, including housing, clothing, toiletries, food, medication, transportation, and treatment.
- Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation NEPA Chapter ($20,000) for the “Living Well with Breast Cancer and Beyond” Symposium in collaboration with Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.
- Greater Wilkes-Barre Association for the Blind ($19,000) to support the association’s Low Vision Clinic.
Additionally, the board awarded 15 Healthy Workplace grants totaling $19,400 to local and regional organizations as part of its 2017 effort to promote the health and well-being of those working in nonprofit organizations.
Contact: LaTida Smith
Phone: 570.207.3731
Email: LSmith@MosesTaylorFoundation.org
Mid-Iowa Health Foundation (Des Moines)
Mid-Iowa Health Foundation has awarded $261,000 to eight Central Iowa organizations working to address the social determinants of children’s health. The grants were the first ever awarded through the foundation’s new HealthConnect program, which aims to improve the health of Greater Des Moines’ most vulnerable children.
Grant projects are in various stages of implementation and align with at least one of three HealthConnect priorities: fostering community, ensuring access, and reducing adversity. The potential impact of the projects ranges from improving the therapeutic environment in one school to developing widespread, systems change.
Additional grantees are listed below:
- Blank Children’s Hospital ($50,000)
- Community Housing Initiatives ($15,000)
- Des Moines Public Schools ($23,000)
- EysOpenIowa ($40,000)
- Kids First Law Center ($25,000)
- Planned Parenthood of the Heartland ($18,000)
Maine Health Access Foundation (Augusta)
The Maine Health Access Foundation (MeHAF) has selected five Maine nonprofits to participate in a nine-month, customized strategic financial consulting engagement with the Nonprofit Finance Fund, a national consulting group. All five statewide organizations advocate for the health and well-being of Maine people, and particularly for those with disabilities, survivors of sexual assault, families with low incomes, and others. Each organization will receive a grant of $75,000 to support the time spent working with the Nonprofit Finance Fund consultants.
Maine’s health advocacy community is made up of a network of small nonprofits. These organizations represent some of Maine’s most vulnerable people and ensure that their voices are heard by policy makers in Augusta, Maine and nationally. As with many nonprofits, health advocacy organizations often rely on fundraising and grants to sustain their day-to-day operations, making it challenging to plan for the future.
The financial consulting engagement is the third and final phase of a pilot program that MeHAF designed to support the capacity of nonprofit health advocacy organizations that advocate on behalf of uninsured and underserved people in Maine. The pilot will help inform MeHAF’s future work to support the capacity of health-focused nonprofits.
Contact: Morgan Hynd
Phone: 207.620.8266, x116
Email: mhynd@mehaf.org
The Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis (IN)
The Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis, a leading funder of health programs and service organizations, officially became the umbrella organization to oversee the administrative functions of two civic associations: the Indy Bag Ladies and IndyTennis. The partnership agreements between The Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis and the affiliated groups were strategically developed to be mutually beneficial for all parties. It allows the foundation to cultivate donor resources that benefit its programs and services. At the same time, Indy Bag Ladies and IndyTennis obtain nonprofit status and are given the opportunity to grow memberships, sponsorships, events, and fundraising efforts.
For IndyTennis, the innovative partnership broadens the possibilities for member and charitable growth.
The Indy Bag Ladies, one of the country’s oldest HIV/AIDS fundraising groups, recently moved their administrative functions to the foundation to firmly mobilize efforts around HIV/AIDS funding support.
Autonomy and independence were important components to the affiliate organizations, and The Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis was willing to honor that commitment.
Contact: Vanessa Stiles
Phone: 317.696.7102
Email: vstiles@wearevictorysun.com
The John A. Hartford Foundation (New York, NY)
Three new grants totaling almost $950,000 have been approved by The John A. Hartford Foundation to support partnerships that will accelerate improvements in its family caregiving program area, as well as strengthen aging-focused philanthropy more generally.
- Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging: Online Resource for Comparing Evidence-Based Dementia Caregiving Programs ($498,635 for 30 months) to improve the lives of families caring for older adults with dementia by developing a web-based resource that helps health and social service organizations compare and select evidence-based caregiver support programs for implementation.
- Grantmakers In Aging: Core Support Renewal ($265,750 for three years) to provide operational support to Grantmakers In Aging to increase the impact of aging-related philanthropy through a strong focus on communications, outreach, education, and convening that fosters collaboration between its more than 100 foundation members.
- Foundation-Administered Project Health Policy Associates, Inc. (Isaacs/Jellinek): Assessing the Impact of The John A. Hartford Foundation’s Grantmaking ($185,000 for one year) to provide the foundation with an assessment of the outcomes and impact that its last three decades of grantmaking have had on the field of aging and health. The firm of Isaacs/Jellinek, a division of Health Policy Associates, Inc., has been selected to conduct the evaluation.
For more information, read JAHF President Terry Fulmer’s Health AGEnda post.
The George Gund Foundation (Cleveland, OH)
The George Gund Foundation, which has long supported building a robust nonprofit voice in public policy deliberations at all levels of government, targeted significant funding for an array of policy-related organizations at its winter meeting. The grants support organizations and efforts to defend access to essential human needs, ranging from clean energy to health care.
Among the grants are:
- $450,000 over three years to the Metropolitan Policy Program of the Brookings Institution
- $250,000 to the Center for Community Solutions for the creation of the Rapid Response Fund
- $200,000 to the New Venture Fund for the Safety Net Defense Fund
- $200,000 over two years to the Center for Law and Social Policy
- $200,000 to the Energy Foundation
- $100,000 over two years to the Equality Ohio Education Fund
- $100,000 over two years to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of Greater Cleveland
The foundation awarded 66 grants, totaling $5,229,050.
Blue Shield of California (San Francisco)
Blue Shield of California Foundation announced support for nine organizations that are building successful domestic violence-prevention programs as well as maintaining improvements in health care achieved through the expansion of Medi-Cal. These grants, totaling $670,000, are part of the foundation’s “Act Now” fund, a rapid-response initiative to support the health and safety of the neediest Californians. The new grants bring the fund’s total to nearly $2 million.
Grant recipients are recognized leaders in advocacy, community organizing, network building, strategic communications, policy, and research. They are actively engaged in supporting diverse and underserved communities, and upholding many of the essential priorities at the heart of the foundation’s work: preventing and addressing domestic violence, access to health care and coverage for immigrant populations; innovation that strengthens the healthcare safety net; and cross-sector approaches that support survivors of domestic violence.
The recipients of this second round of “Act Now” funding include:
- California Indian Legal Services, Inc.
- California Partnership to End Domestic Violence
- Faith in Community
- Futures Without Violence
- Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, Inc.
- Los Angeles LGBT Center
- PICO National Network
- The Regents of the University of California, Berkeley
- Women’s Foundation of California
Contact: Christine Maulhardt
Phone: 415.229.6145
Email: Christine.maulhardt@blueshieldcafoundation.org
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation (New York, NY)
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and The Levine Cancer Institute, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, rolled out the latest innovation in the Bridging Cancer Care program, a mobile CT scanning unit for remote lung cancer screening. The mobile CT Unit, part of Lung B.A.S.E.S. 4 Life, a three-year, $1.6 million initiative, will begin to address the recognized need for better access to lung cancer screening in rural communities in the region.
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation supports partners who are innovators in addressing cancer disparities and quickly realized that Levine Cancer Center would be an ideal partner in the Carolinas. The Lung B.A.S.E.S. 4 Life program is innovating in the area of awareness and delivery of cancer care, and is helping to transform cancer awareness, screening, and connection to care, which can provide an example for providers in other states and countries on how to expand the hospital boundaries deep into every community. In addition to bringing the cutting-edge medical care of Levine to communities throughout the region, the foundation’s hope is that this will significantly transform cancer and specialty care, and will become the new standard for reaching rural communities.
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is also funding lung cancer initiatives in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. These initiatives address lung cancer awareness, screening, provider education, psycho-social support, and survivorship programs that can provide templates to be replicated in addressing cancer care around the world.
Contact: Claire Simmons
Phone: 704.612.3055
Email: Claire.Simmons@carolinashealthcare.org
The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation (Detroit)
The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation recently awarded four research grants to Michigan researchers. Among the grantees are:
- University of Michigan, Kyle Sheetz, MD ($10,000) to characterize resource utilization for laparoscopic cholecystectomy to evaluate the variation in episode costs, evaluate differences in utilization of tests and procedures prior to cholecystectomy, and evaluate hospital and surgeon characteristics associated with episode costs and resource utilization.
- University of Michigan, Dina Griauzde, MD ($10,000) to test a scalable, cost-effective program to help individuals with prediabetes initiate and maintain healthy behaviors and avoid progression to type 2 diabetes.
- Wayne State University, Aaron Brody, MD, MPH ($10,000)to investigate the impact of health care provided by Street Medicine Detroit on emergency department utilization among Detroit’s homeless population.
- William Beaumont Hospital Research Institute, Alexandra Halalau, MD ($9,984) to evaluate the efficacy of a secure digital intervention that combines cognitive behavioral therapy exercises with 24/7 counseling from a licensed social worker.
Contact: Nora Maloy, DrPH
Phone: 313.225.8205
Email: nmaloy@bcbsm.com