Developing an Equitable Nonprofit Ecosystem: A New Funding Framework for Emerging, BIPOC-Led Grantees

In philanthropy, it is standard due diligence practice to vet potential grantees on their list of current, past, and future funders as a way to mitigate our perceived risk. However, this approach can put many emerging, grassroots, and BIPOC-led organizations out of contention for initial funding. The John Muir Community Health Fund has shifted the way we fundamentally see risk, and instead, have embraced the opportunity to fund emerging organizations that address social determinants of health by providing monetary support, capacity building, and ultimately a proof of concept that propels grantees to long-term sustainability.

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Advancing Health Equity and Fostering Collaboration through Black Maternal and Child Health Initiatives

When basic social needs go unmet, they become the principal drivers of health disparities. Recognizing this, the Health Foundation of South Florida has been advancing a collaborative approach that brings together health systems and community-based organizations and paves the way for implementing promising social interventions. Through this approach, the Health Foundation seeks to drive improved health outcomes and greater coordination to address unmet health-related social needs within clinical care settings.

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Building Strong Foundations: Addressing the Needs of Diverse Families in New Hampshire

When families have the conditions they need to thrive, children thrive. In 2020, the Endowment for Health, Child Trends, and people in communities across New Hampshire began work that would become the Early Childhood Equity Movement (ECEM). Research in this movement is paving the way for greater equity in family services, services like early care, education, and health care. All families should have access to these services. Too many do not.

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Bridging the Gap: How Philanthropy Can Help Public Agencies to Engage Equitably with Underserved Communities

Local public agencies are at a crossroads. Over the last few years, in response to racial justice protests and inequities made more visible by the Covid-19 pandemic, many local public agencies have worked to improve their engagement with low-income and underserved communities—especially communities of color. By adopting equity-centered approaches to community engagement, public agencies can better ensure their policies and programs lead to improvements for communities facing disproportionate health burdens. 

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Requests for Proposals

St. David’s Foundation: July 2024

Two new funding opportunities are available to support organizations engaging in fostering healthier communities and increasing access to health care in Central Texas. The Community Driven Change and We All Benefit open calls will provide one-time, unrestricted grants to eligible organizations, including previous, current, and new grantees. 

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Requests for Proposals

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation: July 2024

The Special Initiatives grant program provides organizations with a one-time grant of up to $50,000 to pilot or launch a new project over a one-year period. This grant is intended to fund projects that empower communities to advance health equity.

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Reports

The Commonwealth Fund: May 2024

The Commonwealth Fund recently released its 2024 State Health Disparities Report underscoring the racial and ethnic health disparities that persist across the United States. The report also outlines policy recommendations to make U.S. health care more equitable.

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Lessons from an Equity Toolkit Workshop: Facilitator Perspective on Participatory Engagement

The Blue Shield of California Foundation is a long-time multisector collaborative funder with a health equity focus. Increasingly, we find that multisector collaboratives are a powerful vehicle to change systems toward racial equity. We heard from our partners and grantees a strong need for tools and resources that provide several outcomes: to establish equity at the collaborative level, to outline an arc of learning to help place a collaborative on an equity spectrum, and to provide tools to help collaboratives move deeper into equity. To support this work, the Equity in Collaboration Toolkit was developed in partnership with Cristobal Consulting. Its goal is to help multisector collaboratives see where they are taking concrete actions to center equity—and where they are not—through an embedded equity assessment.an embedded equity assessment.

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Requests for Proposals

CareQuest Institute: August 2023

CareQuest Institute is offering 10 grants of up to $125,000 to fund projects that are working to address systemic barriers to oral health, including access to oral health, for people with disabilities.

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Requests for Proposals

Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation: August 2023

The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation is issuing a special request for concepts focused on addressing lung cancer care disparities for Indigenous communities. They are currently seeking concepts for ideas for multiyear grants that pilot/test innovative models of community-based care to increase access to services and improve lung cancer outcomes across the lung cancer care continuum.

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