Skip to content
Grantmakers In Health
  • About
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Mission and Values
    • Join Our Team
    • Annual Reports & Form 990s
  • Our Work
    • Focus Areas
      • Health Equity and Social Justice
      • Access and Quality
      • Community Engagement and Empowerment
      • Philanthropic Growth and Impact
      • Population Health
    • Policy and Advocacy
    • Learning Communities
    • Strategic Plan
    • Strategic Guidance
    • Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders
    • Awards
  • Publications
    • News and Updates
    • GIH Bulletin
      • GIH Bulletin Signup
    • Health Policy Update
    • Reports and Surveys
    • Grantmaker Profiles
    • Views from the Field
    • Issue Focus
    • Editorial Submission Guidelines
  • Events
    • GIH Annual Conference
    • Upcoming
    • Past Events
  • Resources
    • Trustee Resources
    • Philanthropy Careers
      • Submit a Position
    • Health Philanthropy Search
    • Directory of Philanthropy Consultants
  • Partner With GIH
  • Support GIH
  • Funding Partner Portal
  • Philanthropy Careers
  • Contact GIH
    • Funding Partner Portal
    • Partner Directory
  • Funding Partner Portal
  • Partner Directory
Sign In
Grantmakers In Health
  • Philanthropy Careers
  • Contact GIH
  • Bulletin Signup
  • About
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Mission and Values
    • Join Our Team
    • Annual Reports & Form 990s
  • Our Work
    • Focus Areas
      • Health Equity and Social Justice
      • Access and Quality
      • Community Engagement and Empowerment
      • Philanthropic Growth and Impact
      • Population Health
    • Policy and Advocacy
    • Learning Communities
    • Strategic Plan
    • Strategic Guidance
    • Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders
    • Awards
  • Publications
    • News and Updates
    • GIH Bulletin
      • GIH Bulletin Signup
    • Health Policy Update
    • Reports and Surveys
    • Grantmaker Profiles
    • Views from the Field
    • Issue Focus
    • Editorial Submission Guidelines
  • Events
    • GIH Annual Conference
    • Upcoming
    • Past Events
  • Resources
    • Trustee Resources
    • Philanthropy Careers
      • Submit a Position
    • Health Philanthropy Search
    • Directory of Philanthropy Consultants
  • Partner With GIH
  • Support GIH
  • Funding Partner Portal
  • Philanthropy Careers
  • Contact GIH
    • Funding Partner Portal
    • Partner Directory

Arcora Foundation

Featured Item, Grantmaker Profiles
Posted March 20, 2023
gf_abdellatif
Morgan-Hynd

Address: 400 Fairview Ave N, Suite 800 Seattle, WA 98109
Web: www.arcorafoundation.org
Email: info@arcorafoundation.org

Arcora is the foundation of Delta Dental of Washington(DDWA), which is its primary funder. Arcora and DDWA share a vision for all people to enjoy good oral and overall health with no one left behind. Arcora Foundation advances oral health across Washington state. Through oral disease prevention and access to dental care initiatives and programs, Arcora focuses its work on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) populations where disparities in oral health are significant. Prevention and access are Arcora’s two strategic priorities, which it advances through policy advocacy, direct services, grantmaking, and partnerships.

Arcora’s mission—bending the arc of oral health toward equity—is in its name, which combines arc and the first three letters of oral. Arcora partners with communities to build on their assets to cocreate solutions that address their most pressing oral health needs. Children thrive in the classroom when they do not have pain from cavities, but not everyone has the same opportunities for good oral health. In Washington state, oral health disparities are largely along racial or ethnic lines. The rate of untreated decay for Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander children in 2nd and 3rd grade is 26 percent. In the same age group, the rate is 19 percent for American Indian/Alaska Native children, 18 percent for Black children, and 10 percent for white children. That’s why Arcora has deepened its focus on BIPOC populations.

Program Information:

Arcora has cultivated deep partnerships to implement its prevention and access initiatives and programs including:

  • Community Water Fluoridation—Arcora provides education, technical expertise, and funding for equipment to help communities provide fluoridated water to their residents, which research shows is the most cost-effective and equitable way to prevent tooth decay in people of all ages and backgrounds.
  • DentistLink—Arcora and the Washington State Health Care Authority fully fund DentistLink which connects people in Washington state to dental care in their area, whether they have insurance, including Apple Health (Medicaid), or not.
  • Local Impact Networks—Arcora supports community partners who are committed to advance good oral and overall health. As a strategic venture, the Local Impact Networks center community-driven solutions to advance equity. 
  • SmileMobile—Arcora’s three-chair dental office on wheels delivers oral health services across Washington state. It serves babies, children, youth, pregnant or postpartum people, and adults at designated clinics who have challenges to access dental care.

Financial Information:

Total Assets: $2,855,077 (FY21)
Amount Dedicated to Health-Related Grants: $1,889,781 (FY21)

Special Initiatives and/or Representative Health and Human Services Grants

Capital Clinic Access—Arcora provides safety net dental programs including Federally Qualified Health Centers, Tribal, and nonprofit dental clinics with capital funding to expand their programs to serve more people, particularly BIPOC communities with oral health disparities. ($500,000)

Project Grants for Community-based Organizations—Arcora supports oral health projects that increase access to dental care, improve social determinants of health, and/or promote healthy behaviors, particularly within BIPOC populations. ($410,590)

Arcora Foundation and GIH

In 2018, Arcora Foundation and GIH hosted a site visit to the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB), an Urban Indian Federally Qualified Health Center that serves Native people in the Seattle area. Participants learned about Native health, SIHB’s approach to delivering culturally appropriate care, and other Native leaders’ and organizations’ innovative approaches to improve health and eliminate oral health disparities for American Indian/Alaska Native people in the Northwest and nationally.

Most Pressing Health Issues in the Community You Serve

“Equity is important for our work. The people we serve tell us so. That is why Arcora strives to demonstrate a greater capacity for equitable practices and policies to better engage with communities as an authentic partner. One way we worked toward this goal in 2022 was through our community learning grants. We deepened relationships with five community-based organizations across Washington state—four of them focus their work on specific ethnic populations. Through focus groups and conversations, we learned about communities’ strengths, challenges, and solutions to address oral health issues. Key insights included hearing about the communities’ value of whole person health, the importance of prevention, and the desire to integrate oral health into community building and cultural events to ‘make fun events healthy, and healthy events fun.’ What we learned will inform our work with these organizations and beyond.”

– Vanetta Abdellatif, President and CEO of Arcora Foundation

Focus Area(s): Philanthropic Growth and Impact

Related Topic(s): Governance and Operations
Share this

Newsletter Sign Up

Want to sign up for the GIH Bulletin? Click here to get on the list.

Explore Focus Areas

  • Health Equity and Social Justice
  • Community Engagement and Empowerment
  • Philanthropic Growth and Impact
  • Access and Quality
  • Population Health
  • Policy and Advocacy

Explore Topics

Access (287) Advocacy Strategies (243) Behavioral Health (201) Children and Families (212) Civic Engagement (150) Climate and Environmental Health (47) COVID-19 (146) Federal Policy (30) Governance and Operations (314) Health Equity (399) Healthy Eating and Active Living (160) Housing (20) Integrative Health (59) Journalism (5) Justice Reform (7) Messaging (9) Misinformation (12) Older Adults (137) Oral Health (54) Palliative Care (5) Policy Agenda (64) Public Health (6) Quality (189) Rural health (23) Social Determinants of Health (11) Trust-based Philanthropy (14) Trustee Resources (13) Violence Prevention (20) Workforce (17)

Join the largest national network of health funders.

GIH Funding Partners are a diverse constituency of over 200 informed, connected philanthropic organizations.

Join GIH
Navigation
  • About
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Mission and Values
    • Join Our Team
    • Annual Reports & Form 990s
  • Our Work
    • Focus Areas
      • Health Equity and Social Justice
      • Access and Quality
      • Community Engagement and Empowerment
      • Philanthropic Growth and Impact
      • Population Health
    • Policy and Advocacy
    • Learning Communities
    • Strategic Plan
    • Strategic Guidance
    • Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders
    • Awards
  • Publications
    • News and Updates
    • GIH Bulletin
      • GIH Bulletin Signup
    • Health Policy Update
    • Reports and Surveys
    • Grantmaker Profiles
    • Views from the Field
    • Issue Focus
    • Editorial Submission Guidelines
  • Events
    • GIH Annual Conference
    • Upcoming
    • Past Events
  • Resources
    • Trustee Resources
    • Philanthropy Careers
      • Submit a Position
    • Health Philanthropy Search
    • Directory of Philanthropy Consultants
  • Partner With GIH
  • Support GIH
  • Funding Partner Portal
  • Philanthropy Careers
  • Contact GIH
    • Funding Partner Portal
    • Partner Directory
Contact

1100 Connecticut Avenue NW
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20036

202.452.8331

Email GIH

Press Contact

Annual Reports and Form 990s

Connect

LinkedIn

Facebook

Instagram

Youtube

Threads

Stay Informed

Sign up for the GIH Bulletin and other announcements

Search

© 2025 Grantmakers In Health | Privacy Policy

Website hosted by Yoko Co

Scroll To Top